II
Gc M. U
979.401
L88h
1204146
C5ENEAL.OGY COL.L_i_CTlON
iiiliii
3 1833 01717 2310
History of
POMONA VALLEY
California
with
Biographical Sketches
of
The Leading Men and Women of the Valley
Who Have Been Identified With Its
Growth and Development from
the Early Days to the
Present
ILLUSTRATED
COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME
HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CAL.
1920
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE . ^^ ^
1204146
^ MEXICAN PIONEERS 33
^ First Visit of Palomares and Vejar to the: San Jose Valley — The Grant
•Cj from Governor Alvarado — San Jose Day — Survey and Boundaries of
'^ ^ THE Rancho San Jose.
CHAPTER TWO
LIFE ON THE RANCHOS IN THE FORTIES .... 41
Occupation of the Rancho by Paeomares and Vejar Families — Home Life
IN the Haciendas — The Mission of San Gabriel — Branch Mission at
San Bernardino — Indians of the Valley — Story of Buried Treasure —
Grants Adjoining the Rancho San Jose — Henry Dalton and Azusa —
Don Antonio Lugo and the Chino — La Puente Rancho — The Row-
lands and Workmans — Description and Partition of the Rancho San
Jose — Connections with the World Outside — The War of 1846 —
Battle of the Chino Ranch House — The Gold Fever.
CHAPTER THREE
THE QUARTER CENTURY FOLLOWING THE
CESSION OF CALIFORNIA TO THE UNITED
STATES 69
Willow Grove, Lexington and Monte — Early Settlers and Life at El
Monte — Beginnings of Spadra — Schlesinger and Tischler Foreclosure
— -Louis Phillips and His Ranch — The Rubottoms at Spadra — The
Fryers and Other Settlers — The Overland Stage — Butterfield and
Holliday^The Stage at Spadra — Death of Hilliard P. Dorsey — Other
Tragedies — Kewen Dorsey.
CONTENTS-Continued
CHAPTER FOUR
THE SPANISH SETTLEMENT AT SAN. JOSE' HILLS 89
Cyrus Burdick^ the Pioneer of Pomona — Revolutionary Forbears — Over-
land Journey — Residence at San Gabriel — Earthquakes — Removal to
San Jose Valley — First Orange Grove — Mexican Life at the Spanish
Settlement — Passing of the Early Generation — Children of Ygnacio
Palomares — The Vejar Families — The Ygnacio Alvarado House and
Its Activities — The Indians — The First School and Its Teacher, P. C.
Tonner — First Schoolhouse — Tonner the Teacher — Tonner the Stu-
dent and Poet — Sweet San Jose — The Loop and jNIesErve and Other
Early Tracts of the San Jose De Ariba.
CHAPTER FIVE
BEGINNINGS OF POMONA 113
Coming of the Railroad — Tonner-Burdick-Palomares Contracts — Los An-
geles Immigration and Land Cooperative Association — The New Town
OF Pomona — Public School — Collapse of the L. A. I. and L. C. A. —
Pomona Land and Water Company — The Boom — Pomona in 1882 and
1885 — Constable Slanker and Other Old-Timers.
CHAPTER SIX
WATER, LIGHT AND POWER 135
Three Sources of Water — Old Settlement Water — Canyon Water —
Artesian Wells — ^^■ATER Companies — Tunnels — Conservation — Elec-
tric Light and Power.
CHAPTER SEVEN
INDUSTRIES OF THE VALLEY 145
Spadra, Puente and the Grain Country — Spadra After the Railway —
James M. Fryer, F. M. Slaughter and Senator Currier — Vineyard and
Orchard — \'iticulture — Deciduous Fruits — Olive Culture — Oranges
and Lemons — Cooperative Marketing — Business and Manufacture —
Pomona Manufacturing Company — Business — Banks.
CONTENTS-Continued
CHAPTER EIGHT
SOCIAL, INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL LIFE
OF POMONA 159
Education — Pomona Schools from 1875 — Higher Education — Churches and
Religious Liee — Early Conditions— Catholic, Baptist, Episcopal Meth-
odist, Christian, Presbyterian and Congregational Churches — Fra-
ternities— Newspapers — Pomona Times — Pomona Progress — The Re-
view and Other Papers — Public Library — Social Life in Pomona.
CHAPTER NINE
POMONA'S MUNICIPAL LIFE 171
Incorporation and Liquor Fight — Before Incorporation — The Great Issue
— Drunkenness — The Conflict — Chinese Problem — Other Problems
and Contests — The Murchison Letter — Municipal Solidarity.
CHAPTER TEN
THE FOOTHILL CITIES ALONG THE SANTA FE . 177
Coming of the Santa Fe— Railroad Activities — Boom of New Townsites —
Effect of Santa Fe on Southern Pacific and Pomona — La Verne,
Lordsburg and La Verne College — San Dimas — Mud Springs — Canyon
Settlers — The Teagues — Mound City Land and Water Association —
San Jose Ranch Company — Water Companies and Litigation — Citrus
Industry — Growth of San Dimas— Charter Oak — Claremont and
Pomona College — The Boom and Its Collapse — Indians and Wilds of
the Desert — Toots Martin — Peter Fleming — Beginnings of Pomona
College — Claremont Business and Citrus Fruits — School and Church.
IN CONCLUSION 203
INDEX
Page
A
Aborn, Mrs. Ida E 720
Adams, Frank E 293
Adams, John S 510
Adamson, John E 320
Afflerbaugh, Clinton Bertram.... 612
Allard, Joseph A., Jr 748
Alter, Charles H., D.D.S 812
Anderson, Daniel Walter 732
Arbuthnot, Daniel G 493
Armour, Elmer Eugene 314
Arnold, William Henry 404
Augustine, Victor Curtis 730
Avis, Americus Benezette 519
Avis, Walter Moore 391
B
Bailey, Ira D 704
Baker, Abram 371
Baker, Charles D 489
Baker, Vincent W., D.D.S 626
Baldwin, Frank H 541
Balfour, Frank W 504
Bangle, Ethan G 604
Bartlett, William Henry 298
Baumgardner, Welcome A 534
Bayer, Charles Phillip 742
Baynham, Joseph J 335
Beale, Henry W 567
Beck, Albert Allen 506
Beck, Samuel Sanders 324
Belcher, Harry T 751
Bennett, James Stark 813
Bichowsky, Emmo C 701
Billheimer, John S 528
Blaisdell, James Arnold, D.D 366
Blatz, Frederick A 814
BlickenstafE, Lynn A 707
Booth, Charles J 705
Booth, Elmer E 564
Bowden, Jere C 816
Bowen, Frederick W 632
Bowen, John Carson 599
Page
Bowen, John F 477
Bowler, William W 393
Bowman, Jonathan V 331
Boyd, Sydney R 746
Brackett, Frank Parkhurst, M.A.. . 254
Bradley, Edward D 695
Bright, H. Verner 739
Brooks, Ernest 499
Brooks, John Tinley 458
Brown, Harry P 559
Brubaker, Henry J. and John B.. . 685
Bryant, DeWitt Clinton, A.M.,
M.D 414
Buckner, Rev. Walter C 691
Bulla, Quincy A 615
Burr, Rollin T., M.D 234
c
Calkins, Benjamin E 757
Camers, Jacob 749
Camp, Tohn Bradford 520
Campbell, J. E 708
Carson, Walter Scott 227
Carter, Roy H 817
Catelli, Frank 818
Chain, Charles H 342
Clapp, Stacy W., D.D.S 712
Clark, Charles 311
Clark, C. Ralph 816
Clark, Llovd R 709
Clark, Ralph S 793
Clark, Rev. Stephen Cutter. Jr... 759
Clarke, Joseph C 798
Clifton, Samuel B 282
Coates, Thomas, M.D 288
Cogswell, Capt. Franklin 328
Cole, Cyrus H 698
Collins, David H 275
Colvin, Joseph L 397
Condit, Albert P 726
Coon, William R 521
Corbeil, Theophile 337
Crank, F. DeWitt, M.D 248
INDEX-
Page
Crawford, Henrv M 745
Cree, Ira J 711
Crookshank, David C 383
Cumberland, Julian F 480
Curran, Charles P 522
Currier, Hon. Alvan Tyler 211
Curry, David W 471
D
David and Margaret Home for
Children 794
Davis, Ferdinand 631
Davis, Henrv B 639
Davis, Walter T 723
Day, Edm' M 398
Deere, J. Harvey, B.A., D.D 721
Dehnel, Joseph Severns 796
Dewey, Harold C 640
Dillman, George 297
Dole, James Albert 269
Doughty, William Clyde 680
Doull, Albert P 763
Doutt, Mace B 725
Doyle, Patrick W 283
Dovolos, John 760
Duffy, Maj. Homer Leo 768
Durward, Arthur, A.M 625
Duvall, Oliver Harvey 766
E
Eakin Brothers 727
Eakin, Charles M 727
Eakin, Freeman M 727
Earle, Ethan H 388
Eells, Francis Clark 622
Elliott, Joseph 526
Elliott, Leslie L 698
Ellsworth, Fred E. and Frank E.. 515
Ercanbrack, William S 622
Evans, Frank C 527
Evans, John P 642
F
Fender, John A 341
Ferree, Ernest D 700
Ferrell, James G 672
Ferrell, Louis 771
Ferry, William 653
Fich, Bertram 659
Fitch, Joseph A 606
Continued
Page
Fleming, Edward J 253
Fleming, Miss Minerva C 552
Fleming, Peter 302
Fleming, William T 432
Foote, William Burr 741
Forbes, John J 551
Ford, Selden 1 434
Forester, George Wilmont, M.D. 589
Foster, Herbert Clare 512
Fowkes, Alfred M 769
Fox, Capt. Charles J 532
Fox, William A 501
Fredendall, Earl 770
Frevermuth, Harrv W 571
Fritz, William 0 703
Frver, James M 218
Fulton, James W 281
Fulton, Samuel M 801
Funkhouser, William E 621
G
Gammon, Edward H 694
Gapp, John C 655
Garcelon, Frank, M.D 279
Garrett, Judge W. A 425
Garrison, Christopher H 805
Garthside, Joseph Relton 250
Gates, Clyde A 773
Gates, W. B 651
Geer, Francis Heman, M.D 610
Gerrard, Albert Campbell 747
Gibson, Bertram W 803
GiUen, Edward E 525
Gillette, Charles V 516
Gilman, Herbert S 791
Goettsche, John 468
Gore, Thomas E 802
Gray, Ralph E 675
Greaser, Charles E 716
Griswold, George C. B.L., Ph.D.. 574
H
Hall, Orin T 656
Hamilton, William Wright 804
Hanawalt, Harvey M 800
Hansen, Hans B 338
Hansen, Jacob P 710
Hanson, Harry 669
Hanson, Mrs. Marie A 669
Hardon, Charles H 426
INDEX-
Page
Hardy, Ormal G 795
Harrison, Thomas 755
Hart, Elmer W., LL.M 385
Hartman, Fred W 744
Harvvood, Frank H 808
Hathawa\-, Jefferson M 301
Haugh, Prof. Benjamin S 600
Heath, Col. George 257
Henzie, Edward A 743
Hickman, Frank A 629
Hill, Alton B 419
Hinman, Elliott 372
Hinman, Harry H 625
Hitchcock, George Gale 569
Hoover, William I. T., Ph.D 620
Hough, Jesse W 784
Howard, Horace E 789
Hudson, Rev. Charles R 706
Huff, Charles C 445
Hume, James 464
Hunter, John H 676
Huston, Roy 719
I
Inwood, Rev. Alfred 731
Izer, Elmer E 588
J
Jacobs, Fred C 531
Jerde, Edward B 554
Johnson, Cassius C 408
Johnson, James Dixon 756
Johnson, William Ellis 786
Johnstone, William Arthur 502
Jones, Cyrus W 750
Jones, George E 731
K
Kaltenbeck, Fred 590
Keiser, Edwin T 407
Keiser, John Wilford 533
Keiser, Oscar G 538
Kelly, Elmer Ellsworth, M.D 733
Kennedy, William A 737
Kepner, Shellburn M 781
Kettelle, Herbert C, D.D.S 736
Kiler, William H 448
Klein, Philip G 435
Klinzman, Louis Carl 537
Knight, Frank W 724
Continued
Page
Knox, Reginald L 728
Krehbiel, Henry A 595
Kuns, Henry LeBosquette 430
Kuntz, Charles 266
L
Lamont, James W 542
Lamb, Mrs. Elizabeth 381
Laughlin, Joseph T 307
Lavars, Harry J 737
Lawrence, Edgar A 264
Lee, Alonzo W 272
Lee, Ira A 592
Lee, John Henry 327
Levengood, E. J 544
Lewis, Fred R 439
Lewis, Jerry N 549
Lewison, Lewis 378
Lichtv, Arthur Millard 570
Lorbeer, Carl H 575
Lorbeer, Charles Augustus 236
Loucks, Richard N 630
Ludden, Jerome A 572
Lussier, Joseph 0 616
Lyter, Albert William 573
M
McCain, Nelson Grant 734
McCannel, Mrs. Flora 547
McComas, J. E., Hon 238
McComas, Mrs. Emma 238
McGannon, Alfred 1 797
Mclntire, Samuel W 702
McLeod, John A 547
McMuUin, Wm. W 433
Mackenzie, Daniel 635
Manley, Mrs. Sylvia Lucile Powers 323
Manning, Herman L 687
Mapel, Marion 686
Martin, William M 688
Martin, William T 355
Mason, John W 557
Matthews, Lee R 454
May, Clement Robert 786
May, Hal 807
Meredith, Lewis C 362
Meserve, Alvin Rand 441
Metz, Mitchell K 790
Middleton, Carl W 792
Midgley, Charles 350
INDEX-
Page
Miller, George W 799
Mills, Lindsay M 779
Minnich, Lerov 451
Mishler, Harrv 440
Mitchell, Allen G 694
Mitchell, James M 361
Moore, George R 553
Morris, Chester J 753
Morton, Robert Lee 649
Mosher, Frank D 674
Mullen, Joseph 689
M\ers, Mrs. Myra 461
N
Neibel, Ira L 436
NeiUy, P. J 782
Newcomer, Paul W., IVLD 693
Nichols, Allen P 271
Norcross, Hobert F 558
Norton, Willis A 313
Nunneley, Ferris J 778
o
Oglivie, William M 713
Osgoodby, Andrew 258
Osgoodbv, George 258
Otto, Charles E. 785
P
Paige, Joseph Morgan 511
Palmer, Edwin T 289
Palmer, Frank Fletcher 624
Palmer, Frank L 318
Pallett, Mrs. Mary Jane 446
Palomares, Jose Dolores 217
Palomares, Porfirio 222
Park, Schuyler Howard 609
Parsons, Cyrus Mason 690
Patten, Mrs. Frances Ada 223
Patterson, Tillman W 644
Pease, Edmund Morris, Rev 452
Penn, Warren 754
Persons, Dennis L 455
Petty, Moses 403
Phillips, Louis 215
Pierce, Himon N 294
Pierson, Joseph Christmas 410
Pirdy, Adelbert J 679
Piatt, George Cyril 788
Plush, William 259
Continued
Page
Poling, Ira W 636
Pomona Fi.xture & Wiring Co.. . . 750
Porter, David C. W 665
Porter, Frank B 670
Potter, Mark H 614
Pratt, Harry S 548
Presnell, William H 717
R
Rambo, J. Frank 750
Reed, Henry M 276
Reid, William 442
Reimers, Justus 500
Reynolds, Henry Presley, B.S 457
Ricciardi, Philip L 752
Rice, Miss Flora A 787
Richards, Addison W 456
Riley, Patrick 233
Ring, Miss Alice B 666
Ritter, Frederick W 696
Robbins, Homer E., Ph.D 776
Robertson, John G 663
Robinson, Frank C 652
Romick, John W 290
Ruth, Theodore 237
Rutty, Luman 650
s
Sanborn, Carlton H 634
Scofield, Ira 568
Scofield, Miss Male E 568
Seaver, Carlton 312
Sederholm, E. Theodor 587
Seymour, Miss Alice M 585
Shafer, Walter 308
Shaw, Edward D 353
Sheehv, Rev. John J 560
Sheets, L. E 809
Shepherd, B. Chaffev 758
Shettel, Walter A 811
Shewman, John 0 662
Shirk, Frank M., M.D 671
Shoemaker, J. Ralph 681
Silva, Morgan P 810
Slanker, Frank Oscar 349
Smart, Thaddeus 605
Smead, Franklin 568
Smith, B. Lillian, M.D., D.0 674
Smith, Frederick J 295
Smith, Lewis N 613
INDEX-
Page
Smith, Ralph, M.D 699
Smith, T. Hardv, M.D 284
Smith, William Henry 714
Somerville, William D 777
Spalding, Miss Phebe Estelle,
Ph.D 611
Sparks, Marcus L 287
Spence, Mrs. Cornelia A 332
Spencer, Charles G 597
Stahlman, Edward G 755
Steinruck, Bernard G 661
Steves, Thurman J 578
Stine, Rollie A 772
Stone, Charles M 226
Storment, John C 806
Stoughton, Arthur V., M.D 652
Stout, B. P., Prof 775
Stover, WilHam WiUard 596
Straley, Elmer 368
Strong, Nathan E 249
Studer, Robert 594
Sumner, Charles Edward 462
Swank, Amzi S 673
T
Tate, Albert Edward 472
Taylor, Albert L 232
Teague, David Clinton 375
Teague, Jasper N 401
Teague, Robert M 359
Teitsworth, Hugh S 735
Thatcher, Hugh A 543
Thomas, Anson C 745
Thomas, Edward Walter 598
Thompson, Kirk W 619
Thurman, Monroe 467
Todd & Patterson 644
Todd, Walter B 644
Tolton, D. Mat 774
Travis, G. Luther 593
Trimmer, Scott 473
Trotter, Thomas Ross 416
True, William S 305
Tuller, Louis B 495
Tyler, George R 641
Tyler, John L., M.D., V.S 591
u
Ulery, Howard E 633
-Continued
Page
Vandegrift, William A., Hon 474
Vejar, Abraham H 550
Vejar, Ignacio 0 577
Vejar, Jose H 490
Vejar, Ramon 213
w
Walcott, Herbert E 478
Walker, James W 563
Waters, Arthur E 660
Waters, George H 486
Weaver, Fred D 729
Weber, John 317
Weigle, George J 479
Weineke, Morris Randolph 496
Welch, Everett Haskell 344
Wells, Jasper T 762
Westerman, Mrs. Ellen D 319
Westgate, Harry B 761
Whaley, Guy V 581
Wheelan, Richard Barrett 367
Wheeler, Edward Myron 664
Wheeler, Frank 738
White, Caleb 231
White, Francis Harding, Ph.D... 715
White, Harrv Randolph 344
White, IraF 387
White, John J 265
White, Mabel E., D.0 688
White, Robert 646
White, Ulysses E 429
Whitehead, J. Moses 420
Whiting, Asa G 346
Whyte, Fred E 654
Williams, Henry H 263
Williams, Thomas A 394
Wiltberger, Miss L 682
Witman, George B 764
Wittenmyer, George H 643
Wood, William Stanley 765
Woodford, B. A 330
Wyman, Francis G 767
Yorba, Porfirio J 423
Yundt, Emery Roscoe 740
Zander, Milton W 718
A Brief Early History
of the
SAN JOSE RANCHO
and its Subsequent Cities
Pomona, San Dimas, Claremont,
La Verne and Spadra
Prepared by
F. P. BRACKETT
Copyright Applied for
by F. P. Brackett
1920
/^ /fr!2,_-c<_-<„^«ia-^5X
HISTORIAN'S INTRODUCTION
Two facts should be noted concerning this history.
First: The story of the Valley is entirely independent of the biographical
section of the book, the author having nothing to do with the writing or selection
of the biographical sketches, nor with the publishing or financing of the book.
Second. The story deals only with the early history of the Valley. It does
not include the later history at all, save as certain elements of the past naturally
continue into the present. This course is required by the limitations of the con-
tract and of the author's time, and is justified by the greater interest of readers
in the story of the early days, and by the infelicity of attempting the impossible
task of depicting in proper perspective the story of recent years.
Persuaded by many that the writing of this history was in some sense a duty
to the region, the writer accepted the responsibility with much misgiving. He
could only have assented to it with the assurance of assistance from older resi-
dents and organizations, and especially with the earnest co-operation of his wife,
Lucretia Brackett, daughter of Cyrus Burdick, the pioneer, and her mother. The
author is grateful to many others, too numerous to mention here, who have cor-
dially.rendered assistance in answering inquiries and furnishing material.
It has seemed wise to omit the long list of more than a hundred historical
and biographical works and documents consulted. Many of these have been
found in the Los Angeles Public Library, in the Pomona Valley Historical Col-
lection at the Pomona Public Library, and in the Mason Collection of the Pomona
College Library. Harris Newmark's "Sixty Years in Southern California" has
of course been referred to frequently. In the supplying of material, special men-
tion must be made of Sefior Ramon Vejar, and his son and daughter, Frank and
Estella; of Kewen Dorsey, old-time resident of Spadra ; of F. P. Firey and U. E.
White of the Pomona Valley Historical Society; of A. P. and H. J. Nichols and
F. J. Smith of Pomona ; and of Miss S. M. Jacobus of the Pomona Public Library.
The writer is under obligations, for many valuable suggestions, to Professor P. E.
Spalding of Pomona College, who has kindly borne the burden of reading the
story in the manuscript.
The purpose throughout the narrative has been to present a true and vivid
picture of the early life in the Valley, necessarily incomplete, yet above all correct
in the details presented.
Notwithstanding the most generous extension of time by the publishers, the
work has been done under such stress of pressure from other duties that it cannot
be expected to be free from error. In order that it may serve as a foundation for
later history, the author would welcome any corrections or additions to the story,
that may be addressed to him.
F. P. Brackett,
Pomona College,
Claremont, California.
HISTORICAL
HISTORY OF SAN JOSE RANCHO
By F. P. Brackett, M.A.
CHAPTER ONE
MEXICAN PIONEERS
First Visit op Palomares and Vejar to the San Jose Valley — The Grant
From Governor Alvarado — San Jose Day — Survey and Boundaries oe
THE Rancho San Jose.
A small party of horsemen stopped beneath the willows which grew beside
the little stream skirting the eastern point of the hills, in what is now Ganesha
Park. Leaving the San Gabriel Mission at daybreak, they had ridden up the
broad valley following the road or trail which led from the old Mission to its
branch Mission at San Bernardino. They had crossed the San Gabriel River
among the tules near the camp that later came to be known as the Monte, and
had followed the trail beside the low-lying hills which we now call the Puente
and San Jose hills, making excursions now and then from the trail to climb the
hills, until now they had come, toward sunset, to this place at the eastern end
of the hills where a generous stream flowed around the point. Weary from the
day's riding, they dismounted. By their fine mounts, richly caparisoned in silver
and figured leather, and by their own uniforms, as well as by their commanding
presence, two of the men were evidently I\Ie.xican officers. Besides the half
dozen soldiers accompanying them there were a number of Indian followers, who
unsaddled the horses and watered them, gathering fuel and water for the camp
and obeying the orders of their leaders.
Knowing who these caballeros were and the time of the story, one may easily
guess the subject of their conversation as they sat smoking by the camp fire in
the evening. Both men were in the prime of early manhood. One at least traced
his descent from a noble family in Spain. This one, the leader of the two, was
Ygnacio Palomares. His father, Don Jose Cristobal, had come to Monterey
during the Spanish era and had been loyal to the Crown of Spain in the days of
Governor Arrillaga and the later years when Pablo Vicente de Sola, last of the
line of Spanish governors in California, fought his losing fight to hold the new
province for his own country, Spain, to which he was so loyal. The other
caballero was Ricardo Vejar, who, though born in San Diego, had become an
intimate friend of Ygnacio Palomares during the years in which they had lived
on the rancho "Rodeo de las Aguas" (near the present city of Hollywood), espe-
cially the years of this decade of the eighteen thirties.
Tonight they would have talked about the cattle they had seen grazing over
the plains, those remnants of the larger herds of the San Gabriel Mission that
34 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
used to roam the lower slopes of the valley all the way from the San Gabriel
to San Bernardino. They would perhaps have referred to the Indian tribes
(Sabobas, San Antonio, and San Gabriel Indians)- that came down from the
mountains at times to work for the Mission fathers in the valley and then returned
to their native villages, unwilling to accept for long the life of civilization which
the Mission offered them. Or, mindful of the more troublesome San Gorgonio
tribe which would sometimes swoop down into the valley and run off cattle for
their own use, they may have ordered their own Indians to guard their mounts
with special care. And they must also have talked of their relations to the
government at Monterey, for these were troublous times. Revolts and insurrec-
tions had followed in quick succession during the dozen years or more since the
revolution in Mexico under Iturbide had made California a province of Mexico.
Arguello, Echeandia, Victoria, Pio Pico, Figueroa, and now Jose Castro in turn
had been governor of the province. Mexico was far away and the new govern-
ment had changed hands almost as rapidly as that of the Province of California.
Ygnacio Palomares and Ricardo Vejar, sons of loyal Spanish subjects, were
not eager to yield allegiance to every victorious leader who might for the moment
be in control of the provincial government. It was different in the old days of
the Spanish regime. Arrillaga and Sola held their high positions directly for the
Crown, and as such commanded the full devotion and service of their subjects,
whether in Madrid or Mexico, whether in the outermost trading posts, in the
Philippines, or in the even more inaccessible Province of California. But why
should one pay tribute of property and time, and life perhaps, to a Carrillo or
to other crafty and ambitious men? Victoria had been a brave captain — ^how
fiercely he had fought at Los Angeles when, with a handful of men, he turned
back the band of insurrectionists who gathered from the southern parts of the
Province as far as San Diego! And now Jose Castro was in command and
doubtless he was lawfully entitled to their support. There must be a strong
defense, a uniting of the people against adventurers like Bouchard and his party
from Buenos Aires whom Arguello and his thirty men from the San Diego
presidio, with the help of a band of Indians from San Luis Obispo under Father
Martinez, bravely put to flight when they attempted to raid the Mission of San
Juan Capistrano.
Certainly these caballeros, Palomares and Vejar, would have talked much of
the large grants of land which the governors of California were making to the
leading Mexicans of the Province. Not such princely domains as Pedro Fages
and other Spanish governors had made to Verdugo, Dominguez, Nieto, Yorba
and Arguello, imperial counties in extent and resource, but yet thousands of
square leagues, where large estates might be established. There was Don Antonio
Maria Lugo, so well known and popular, whose services both to Spanish and
Mexican governors had been rewarded by grants of large tracts of land. To be
sure, he was a man of power and influence, a brave soldier and a prominent
Spanish gentleman ; yet these caballeros, Palomares and Vejar, were also men
of worth and had fought well for the government. Moreover, they believed
that a request of the Commissioner Juan B. Alvarado would be favorably received.
And the rich grazing land over which they had come during the afternoon was
yet outside of the grants already made. Don Antonio Lugo, it was said, had
petitioned for more land farther east, but this was still open and it seemed to
be good grazing land. Here by the hills the stream from the cienegas promised
an abundance of water for stock.
DON RICARDO VEJAR
DON YGNACIO PALOMARES
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 35
Mounting their liorses in the morning, the two crosstd the stream and rode
to the top of the hill, avoiding the thick growth of cactus on the south and east
and picking their way through the chaparral of the canyon and slopes on the
north side of the hill. Arriving at the summit, a scene of wondrous beauty met
their eyes. League upon league of virgin count'^y lay below them. East, north
and south it stretched away, gently sloping toward the south, where rolling hills,
carpeted with green, rose to the nearer horizon. Far to the east the snowy
masses of San Bernardino, San Gorgonio and San Jacinto glistened in the rising
sun. Northward, hardly more than a half hour's gallop away it seemed in the
clear mountain air, the great mountains towered into the blue sky, range upon
range, from the nearer foothills to the snow-capped peaks which mark the lofty
horizon. Yet between them and the northern foothills lay a great carpet thou-
sands of acres in extent, whose variegated colors Nature had woven v.'ith lavish
hand, its warp of sage brush and chaparral, its woof of wild flowers of every
hue in unbroken profusion. And this carpet stretched out to the hills all along
the north, and northeasterly to the high gray fan of boulder land opening out
from the great canyon whose mountain walls led back to San Antonio (vulgarly
"Old Baldy"), with its snow-capped head rising above all the rest. • Mountain,
canyon and wash tell of boundless reservoirs of water to supplement the flow
of cienegas.
Sitting long upon their horses and drinking in the beauty of this picture,
the hearts of these Spaniards must have thrilled as they thought, "All this fair
land belonged to Spain — to new Spain now ; and this Province of California, their
native land — was there ever a fairer land than this?" Yet for nearly three
hundred years, since that Sunday in August, 1542, when Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo
sailed into San Diego Bay and took possession of this whole land in the name of
Spain, no one had ever claimed this valley as his very own. The Indian tribes
had hunted and fought upon it, had built their jacales by its streams, had used
it all as they needed, even as they drank the water and breathed the air, with
never a thought of ozvnership. For over sixty years the flocks and herds of
the San Gabriel Mission had grazed over the valley, yet neither church nor padre
held any grant or title to its acres. So the resolve of these caballeros was
strengthened, their choice determined. They would petition their friend the
Commissioner Alvarado for a grant of land here in this valley and over these
hills. This desert land to the northeast covered with chaparral they did not
want, but all the rest — east, south and west — no better pasture land, they thought,
could be found in all the world. And so it was, and their own herds and flocks
were soon to multiply here on these plains ; but little did they realize how fields
of grain and alfalfa would replace the pasture lands; and still less did they
dream that the waste of desert under the purple haze toward the mountains would
some day be all clothed with green groves of orange and lemon, and that the
raising of stock for hides and tallow and the growing of barley and wheat for
grain would soon be supplanted by an industry far surpassing these and entirely
transforming the valley, even as the new race should bring a new civilization to
displace the old.
In due time the petition of Palomares and A'ejar was granted. They were
given two square leagues of land which they might lay off in the valley east
of El Monte and lying to the west of the arroyo which runs south from the San
Antonio Canyon. Their dream was to come true, their ambitions to be realized.
They would build their homes beside the stream in the beautiful valley south
36 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
of the great mountains, and their sheep and cattle would range the broad plains
below. They would go out with their families and take possession; they would
mark off the boundaries and select their homesites. And it should be no ordinary
occasion, for it was the beginning of a new life for them and all their families ;
the priest would go with them and bless their undertakings. So a day was
selected and the little party rode out, first to the Mission San Gabriel, where
Padre Zalvideo joined them, and then on to the valley of promise.
In the establishment of the Missions and during the earlier decades of their
work, neither the Franciscans, under whose order they were planted, nor the
Spanish government, had encouraged the building of towns nor the planting of
large private estates which would be removed from the immediate control of
Church or State. The plans of Jose Galvez had contemplated two objectives:
the christianizing of the Indians and the gathering of revenue for the Crown.
Colonization in its broader sense was no part of the scheme. The Missions with
their thousands of native neophytes, the communities clustered about them, and
the great estates tributary to them, embodied the activity and service of the Church
and were the fulfilment of its ambitions.
The presidios of San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego were the head-
quarters of the military forces of the government. From these stations as
centers fared forth the little guards set to defend the Missions from the attacks
of savage tribes or to repel the invasions of private adventurers or of forces
from other nations hostile to Spain. But a new order was at hand. Already the
life of the pueblo and the rancho had begun.
On the great ranchos of California granted by the Crown considerable com-
munities were growing up around their powerful Spanish owners. As these
grants became more numerous the Church desired to include them also within the
reach of its ministrations. Under the new government of California as a depart-
ment of Mexico the power of the Missions was greatly curtailed and larger
tributes were exacted by the civil authorities. Hence the padres of San Gabriel
were glad now to encourage the settlement of good Catholics in their territory,
and it was in accord with this general policy of the order that they were quite
willing to foster this new enterprise of Palomares and Vejar.
Besides these caballeros and their wives, Padre Zalvideo doubtless brought a
small band of neophytes to take part in the simple but formal service of dedica-
tion which he was to conduct, as well as to assist in the work that would be
necessary at the first.
Arrived again at the spot where the men had camped before, when they
chose this part of the valley for their claims, the party gathered under a large
oak* for the service, and Padre Zalvideo offered a mass of thanksgiving and
pronounced his benediction upon the families and their new possessions. The
day which they had chosen for the occasion was March 19, the festival of San
Jose, for which reason the new grant was dedicated by Padre Zalvideo as the
Rancho de San Jose.
It was agreed between the men that the rancho should be held by them both,
as an undivided property, but that Ygnacio Palomares should have for his use
the northern part, called San Jose de Ariba, while Ricardo Vejar should take
the southern half, called San Jose de Abajo. So Seiior Palomares and his wife
chose for the site of their home the place east of the San Jose Hills whereon
their adobe was later built. The location is between the two adobes on "Cactus
* This oak still stands, a fine old tree, in the Ganesha Park tract, Pomona.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY . 17
Lodge," now owned by the Nichols families, but the building is entirely removed,
as will be mentioned later. Sefior Vejar selected his homesite by the southern
hills farther down the valley, east of the home place of Louis Phillips, another
beautiful spot by the Arroyo Pedregoso.
Then to determine the boundaries of the rancho so that they might send to
the Commissioner the description to be used in the official grant, landmarks were
selected as corners of the ranch so as to include, as nearly as they could judge,
the two square leagues allowed them, and the distances were measured off. No
accurate survey was then possible or required. This is the way it was done as
described by Don Ramon, son of this early Sefior Ricardo Vejar : Starting at
one of the corner landmarks, two men on horseback rode toward one of the
other corners, each carrying a long staff or pole to which was fastened one end
of a reata of perhaps a hundred varas'* length. One held his staff to the ground
while the other galloped to the end of the reata and drove his staff into the
ground. Then the first, coiling up the reata as he rode, overtook the other and,
paying out the rope, galloped on another length, drove his staff in turn into the
ground and waited till the other end was carried forward and set. So they rode,
passing and repassing each other at a gallop, till the course was run.
And this, translated, was the description of the boundaries of the rancho :
"Commencing at the foot of a Black Willow tree which was taken for a
corner, and between the limbs of which a dry stick was placed in the form of a
cross, thence from the east toward the west 9,700 varas to the foot of the hills
called 'Las Lomas de la Puente' (the Puente Hills), taking for a landmark a
large walnut tree on the slope of a small hill on the side of the road which passes
from the San Jose to La Puente, making a cut (caladura) on one of its limbs with
a hatchet, thence in a direction about from south to north 10,400 varas to the
arroyo (creek) of San Jose opposite a high hill where a large oak was taken
as a boundary in which was fixed the head of a beef, and some of its limbs
chopped, thence in a direction about from west to east 10,600 varas to the arroyo
of San Antonio, taking for a corner stone cottonwood trees which are near each
other, making crosses on the back, thence about from north to south 9,700 varas
to the foot of the Black Willow, the place of beginning."
The first corner, marked by the "Black Willow," which, by the way, is no
longer standing, is near the point known later as "Station S. J. No. L" at the
southeast corner of the San Jose Ranch, in Section 8, Township 2 S., R. 8 W.,
S. B. M., close to the corner between Sections 4, 5, 8 and 9, T. 2 S. The second
corner, whose landmark was the "Black Walnut," was known later as "Station
S. J. No. 9," and is in the town of Spadra. near the southwest corner of the
Rubottom lot. The "large oak in which was fixed the head of a beef" was perhaps
the "Encina de la Tinaja," orTinaja Oak, at the Station S. J. No. 10, in Charter
Oak. The corner of the cottonwood trees cannot be exactly located, but is
probably well to the north of the present northeast corner of the rancho, in
Section 10, Township 1 S., R. 8 W., S. B. M.
As other grants were made adjoining the Rancho San Jose, it became neces-
sary, of course, to fix the corners and determine the boundaries with greater
care. Fifteen years later, after California had become a state in the L^nion, and
Congress had passed an act under which the title in private claims based upon the
old Mexican grants mi^ht be settled, in the petition of Ygnacio Palomares to
settle his claim of title to a share in the Rancho San Jose, we find quite a dift'erent
* The vara is a Spanish unit of measure equal to ahout thirty-three inches.
38 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
description. The first course, westward from the southeast corner, is broken into
two, and a fifth corner set at "S. J. No. 5," so as to include the springs in
the S. E. quarter of section 1, T. 2 S., R. 9 W., S. B. M. The distances and
directions are more definitely specified and the course along the Arroyo San
Antonio is lengthened from 9,700 varas to 11,700 varas, northward. This
description reads as follows: "Beginning at a point where the Arroyo de San
Antonio passes out of the mountain where is fixed a landmark at the point C
on said map,* thence running south 19° West 11,700 varas to a landmark L
in said map, thence West 13° North 5,730 varas to a landmark marked Y on
said map; thence ^^"est 34° 15' South' 4,115 varas to a landmark marked H on
said map; thence North 32° 15' East 6,525 varas to a place on the mountain
where is a landmark at the point marked X on said map, thence along the
mountain, so as to take in the Canadas, to the place of beginning at the point
marked C, containing about two square leagues of land more or less."
This first grant ceding to Ygnacio Palomares and Ricardo Vejar "the place
called 'San Jose' " was dated "the 15th day of April A. D. 1837" and was issued
by Juan B. Alvarado, then Governor ad interim of California. By the time the
official document reached the grantees, their vaqueros had driven their herds of
cattle and flocks of sheep to the new pastures, corrals had been built for them
by the streams, and the adobe blocks for their houses were baking in the sun.
Other houses followed — houses for the vaqueros and helpers, storehouses for
hides, for wool, and dried meats.
Soon the two partners, Palomares and ^ ejar, were joined by a third. Luis
Arenas, a native of Sonora, IMexico, who had married Josefa Palomares, a sister
of Ygnacio, was taken into the company and a petition was sent to the governor
for a third square league of land adjoining the rancho on the west. Acceding
to this petition, Juan B. Alvarado, then "Constitutional Governor of the Depart-
ment of California," issued a second grant dated JMarch 14, 1840, "in favor of
Ygnacio Palomares, Ricardo Bejar and Luis Arenas for the lands called San
Jose ceded by decree of the 15th of April, 1837, and one additional league of
grazing land." Thus the original grant of two square leagues was confirmed and
another league added, the three partners having each an undivided third share
in the three square leagues.
Turning again to the early documents we find this description of this third
square league of the second grant :
"The second tract of land, or addition of one league, being bounded or
described in the testimonial of juridical possession in this case, as follows, to wit:
Commencing on the ancient western boundary of San Jose at the foot of an oak,
which is an old landmark from which the line was run from east to west 5,000
varas to a point of a small hill which was taken for a corner, this angle adjoining
the Puente, thence from south to north 5,000 varas to the foot of a small red
hill called 'La Loma de San Felipe' where a mark was made, thence from west
to east 5,000 varas to the old boundary of San Jose ; provided that the additional
tract is confirmed to the extent of one league only within the boundaries described
in juridical possession."
* The reference is to "a map or diagram annexed to the testimonial showing a partition of the
place called San Jose between Ricardo Vejar, Henry Dalton and the said Ygnacio Palomares, which map
and testimonial are filed by the said Ricardo Vejar in Case No. 388 before the Commissioner." [Extract
from the document by the Board of Land Commissioners, dated January 31, 1854, confirming the claim
of Ygnacio Palomares to an undivided third part of the Rancho San Jose.] The point of beginning is now
the northeast corner of the Rancho, instead of the southeast corner as before.
tThis is evidently an error, the bearing probably being West 34° 15' North instead of West 34°
15' South.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 39
The description of this "addition to the Rancho San Jose" is very vague, and
may be disregarded, since it is all included in later surveys as a part of the
"Rancho San Jose"; it should not be confused with the "San Jose Addition"
(called for a time the "Addition to the Addition"), which tract was secured in
the following manner :
Apparently Arenas was not satisfied with his third interest in the Rancho
San Jose and its enlargement, but petitioned for still another league for himself
alone. In this petition he was seconded by Antonio Lugo ; for Arenas at first had
camped on the moist bottom lands of the Chino, and had watered his cattle here.
Here also came some of Lugo's herds to drink. So Don Antonio had persuaded
Arenas to petition for more land west of the San Jose and leave him free in his
petition for the Chino. The petition of Arenas was allowed in a third grant, dated
November 8, 1841, by Manuel Jimeno, then "First Proprietary member of the
most excellent Departmental Assembly in exercise of the Government of the same"
(i.e., the Department of the Californias).
CHAPTER TWO
LIFE ON THE RANCHOS IN THE FORTIES
Occupation of the Rancho by Palomares and Vejar Families — Home LiFE
IN THE Haciendas — The Mission of San Gabriel — Branch Mission at
San Bernardino — Indians of the Valley — Story of Buried Treasure —
Grants Adjoining the Rancho San Jose — Henry Dalton and Azusa —
Don Antonio Lugo and the Chino — La PuEnte Rancho, the Rowlands
-AND Workmans — Description and Partition of the Rancho San Jose —
Connections With the World Outside — The War of 1846— Battle of
the Chino Ranch House — The Gold Fever.
After the adobe houses of Palomares and V^ejar had been completed, and
those of their overseers and vaqueros, after the stock had been driven to the
rancho and pastured there, after the corn and potatoes, the beans and peppers
and other necessaries of life had been planted and brought to harvest — when all
was in readiness, the men transferred their families to the new homes. There
had been various journeys to Los Angeles before, for stock and seed, for building
materials, lumber, doors and windows, tools and other hardware. Everything
that was needed for the simple construction of their adobe houses had been brought
from Los Angeles, then a pueblo of two or three hundred Mexican population.
Now came the household goods, some on pack animals and some in carretas drawn
by oxen. Li this fashion too came Dona Maria Soto de \'ejar, wife of
Ricardo Vejar, and Doha Concepcion Lopez de Palomares, wife of Ygnacio
Palomares, with their children. Primitive as it was, the carreta was the most
luxurious vehicle of the time.
This carreta was a two-wheeled cart, whose wheels were made either of a
single block of wood or of soHd planks placed edge to edge to make a piece broad
enough to saw out a circular disk three or four feet in diameter. These turned
upon a heavy wooden axle, six or eight inches thick, to which was fastened and
braced the long log, or trunk of a small tree, which reached forward to serve as
the tongue. LIpon these two logs, the tongue and the axle, with no intervening
springs, rested the floor of the cart, four or five feet wide and seven or eight feet
long, made of heavy boards or logs hewn flat and framed together by end pieces
which, like the edges, were extra thick. Driven into this frame were upright
sticks framed together at the top to make sides and ends resembling a hay wagon,
rising two or three feet above the bottom. The oxen were fastened to the tongue
by reatas or hair ropes bound to their horns, and mounted riders guided them with
garrochas, or goads, and shouts. \\'omen and children rode in these carretas, seated
on a blanket or hide, or squatting on the floor. The appearance of a carreta on
the Camino Real was as much of a novelty then as an airplane in the sky today,
and a ride in one almost as rare. Moreover the loud shouting of the drivers
and the screams of laughter (and pain?) from the passengers, as they jounced and
bounced along over the rough road, together with the piercing squeak of the
42 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
wheels, despite frequent oiling with soap, would proclaim quite as effectively
their approach. Nor were the elements of excitement and danger wanting; for
an ox would sometimes pull to one side and overturn the load, or an axle would
break, or the wheels would bog to the axle in the adobe mud.
At first the life of the rancho centered about these two homes of Palomares
and Vejar, and these soon became extensive estates. By and by other homes
vi'^re established by friends and relatives of the grandees, who had come out
from San Gabriel or I,os Angeles from time to time to enjoy the liberal hos-
pitality of the rancho. Without the formality at first of deed or lease these
were given locations at various places on the ranch, where springs and trees
afforded water and shade. So came the Arenas, the Alvarado and the Lopez
families, the Garcias and the Yorbas.
Here on the San Jose Rancho, the life on these large estates was much the
same as it was on other ranchos of that day in California. Other writers have
found in this life the theme and the setting for adventure and romance, which,
while bringing fame to the authors themselves, have enriched our literature and
stored our minds with vivid and lasting pictures of the Mexican life in those
halcyon days.
Helen Hunt Jackson in "Ramona," Helen Elliot Bandini, in her "History of
California," Marah Ryan in "The Soul of Rafael," and also Bancroft in his "Cali-
fornia Pastoral," are among those whose graphic descriptions of these scenes are
most familiar and correct. McGroarty in his "California, its History and Ro-
mance" says : "The life that the people lived in California in the days when
Monterey was at the height of its greatness, was a life that probably can not
return to California nor to any other part of the globe where a similar state of
affairs has existed. * * * Jri the good old days when California was young —
'in the good old days of the King,' as it used to be said — those who sat down to
the feast departed not from the house of their host the next day, nor the next week
for that matter, unless they were so inclined. There was nothing concerning
themselves to call them away, and the longer they remained under the roof where
they gathered, the better pleased was the man who owned the roof. There will
never again be seen upon this earth, perhaps, a life so ideal as that which was
lived in Monterey and throughout all California in its halcyon days before the
'Gringo' came. There was room to breathe, and a man could sit on a hill top
and look upon the sea anywhere. * * * The land was fat with plenty, and
every door was flung wide with welcome to whomsoever might come. There was
no hurry, no envy, no grief. Though you had no house of your own, it were no
cause for distress. You had but to speak at the first threshold you met, ask for
food and shelter for yourself and beast, and they to whom you came would answer
you saying: 'Pase usted, es su casa, Sehor.' (Enter, it is your house.)"
THE MISSION OF SAN GABRIEL
The Mexican rancheros were good Catholics. Notwithstanding their occu-
pation with the affair J of their new life, the caring for their herds, the rodeos,
and slaughters, the taking of hides and tallow to market, notwithstanding their
easy, not to say lazy, manner of life, they maintained their relations with the
church at the Mission, and "The Mission" meant of course the Mission at San
Gabriel. On Sunday they would often drive over for the mass. When they
went to the Mission store, as they sometimes did for things that might be found
SENORA CONCEPCION LOPEZ DE PALOMARES
.I.OMARES AND
:.K\A VEJAR
>MARF.S
DON FRANCISCO PALOMARES AND
D0r5A LUGARDA AL\'ARADO
DE PALOMARES
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 43
here instead of making the journey all the way to Los Angeles, the more devout
would slip into the chapel and kneel there for prayer and meditation. On the
great Church days everyone went who could ride. There were the impressive
services at the chapel, formal ceremonies in which the Franciscan padres, some-
times two or three of them, officiated, assisted by companies of neophytes, and
accompanied by the singing of the choir of white-surpliced children. After the
services there were games, cock fights and races, and there were always many
old acquaintances from other ranches as well as from those of San Gabriel and
from the pueblo of Los Angeles, with whom one must visit and exchange the
latest news from Monterey, from Mexico and "the States."
But many could not make the journey to the Mission. The sick ones, the
aged or infirm, mothers with their little children, must stay at home on the rancho.
And so at times a padre from the Mission, following the old trail from San Gabriel
to San Bernardino, would tarry at their homes and minister to their needs. These
occasions were rare and precious ; children were baptized, a little shrine set up
in some private room would be blessed, confessions were received, masses read
for the sick and even for the dead. Many indeed were comforted by these long
remembered visits. Among the padres who made these flying trips, says Mrs.
M. C. Kennedy, "were Jose Sanchez, Tomasso Estenaga, and Francisco Sanchez,
the last named being affectionately referred to as the brown-robed Franciscan who
looked like the pictures of St. Anthony. It was Padre Jose Sanchez who baptized
Don Ramon A^'ejar in the old font of hammered copper in San Gabriel Mission,
although at this time the family lived in what is now Hollywood." Whether they
saw the Mission often, or rarely, or as in some cases not at all, yet for all the
Mission was the center of their religious life, the church itself, with its heavy
buttressed walls of adobe, its red-tiled roof and its melodious bells, uniquely hung
in their arched wall, was very dear to them, as it was to many others living upon
other ranchos of the region ; and their thoughts would turn to it more reverently
indeed than would those of the more fortunate living within the sound of its bells.
This devotion to the Mission was encouraged by the Franciscan fathers.
The whole valley was the field of the San Gabriel Mission, from the Sierra Madre
mountain range on the north to the Temescal and serranias, or hills on the south,
from the great mountains of San Bernardino and San Jacinto on the east to the
shores of the Western sea. Indeed the Mission of Sail Gabriel, in the extent of
its territory, the numbers of its converts and the value of its resources, was, in its
prime, the strongest and richest of them all. "La Reina de los Missiones," Queen
of the Missions, was the name by which it had come to be known.
Other Missions were more happily located and more luxuriously housed.
Some of them looked out upon the Pacific like the IMission of San Carlos at
Carmelo, San Francisco de Solano, San Buenaventura, San Diego, and especially
Santa Barbara on its inimitable commanding site on the mountain side above the
harbor. The church of Santa Barbara also far surpassed that of San Gabriel,
as did of course that of San Juan Capistrano, which, as McGroarty says, was in
its time the finest and handsomest church edifice in all California. The site of
San Gabriel Mission, on the other hand, on the level plain beside the shallow,
tule-covered river-bed, has no special beauty, nor was the change of location from
the original site made with this in view. Art, literature and history have found in
other Missions more of beauty and romance and the setting of more important
events. Especially was this true of San Diego. Founded by Junipero Serra in
1769, it was the pioneer church and the scene of some of the great priest's most
44 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
vital experiences. Here, where the first explorer Cabrillo had landed in 1542, was
born the life of California Missions and with it that of the State itself. Here
were united, after journeys of months, the four expeditions (two by land and
two by water) which the Visitador General of Mexico, Don Jose Galvez, had
sent out in January, 1769, with great plans for the occupation of California and
for christianizing the Indians. Here the leaders of the expedition, Junipero
Serra, the Father of the Missions, and Don Gaspar de Portola, civil and military
governor of the new territory, on arriving with the second land party, planned
together for the work they were to do. Hence Portola and his party set out
upon his long but fruitless search for Monterey, to be rewarded nevertheless by
the discovery of the Bay of San Francisco. Here for a day the future of all
California hung in the balance, when Portola upon the return of his expedition,
discouraged by the apparent failure of all their plans, and with starvation facing
them, had ordered the party on board the San Carlos to return to Mexico, and
Father Serra, having begged for a little delay — even a day — prayed with all his
soul for the coming of the relief ship that Galvez had promised, — and watched
for it from sunrise until with the setting sun his anguished vision discovered the
tiny sail of the long sought ship. "And what does that day mean" asks McGroarty
"to California and the world? It means that, had it never been, the wonderful
Franciscan Missions of California had never risen. Came never that day on
Presidio Hill with Junipero Serra on his knees, there would have been no Mission
San Diego de Alcala in the Mission Valley, no Pala in the mountain valley, no
San Luis Rey, no San Gabriel or Santa Barbara's towers watching above the sea,
no San Luis Obispo or Dolores or any of the twenty-one marvelous structures
that dot El Camino Real — The King's Highway — between the Harbor of the Sun
and the Valley of the Seven Moons, and which to see, untold thousands of trav-
ellers make the pilgrimage to California every year."
The Mission of San Carlos at Carmel will always be associated most inti-
mately with Father Serra ; it was his favorite, — beautiful above all in his eyes and
most beloved, and here in 1784, when his great and blessed work was done, tl^e
founder of the Missions rested from his labors.
But every Mission had its own peculiar charm, each had its own strong indi-
viduality, and each accomplished its own important work. Certainly this was true
of the Mission of San Gabriel. The story of its founding in September, 1771,
though well known to all its followers, may not be so familiar now. Father Palou,
associate and friend of Junipero Serra and his successor in charge of the Mis-
sions, whose story of the Missions is the most direct and authentic, gives the
following account: "On the aforesaid sixth of August there set out from San
Diego the fathers, Fr. Pedro Cambon, and Fr. Angel Somera, with a guard of ten
soldiers, and muleteers with the supply of provisions. They journeyed toward
the north by the road which the Expedition traveled ; and having made some
forty leagues, they arrived at the River of Earthquakes, Rio de los Temblores,
(so called since the first Expedition) and being in the act of selecting a place,
there appeared a great crowd of natives (una numerosa mnltitud de Gentiles),
which, armed and commanded by two captains, attempted with frightful shouting
to prevent the work of foundation. The fathers believing that a battle was
imminent, and that they should suffer misfortune, one of them brought forth a
banner bearing the picture of Our Lady of Sorrows, and held it in view of the
savages ; but no sooner had he done this than, overcome with the sight of an
image so beautiful, they all flung upon the ground their bows and arrows, the
12C1148
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 45
two captains running swiftly to place at the feet of the Sovereign Queen what-
ever of value they wore about their necks, as pledges of highest esteem ; manifest-
ing by this act the peace which they desired with our people. They summoned
all the neighboring rancherias, and great numbers of men, women and children
came to see the Holy Virgin, laden with various kinds of seeds, which they left
at the feet of the most sacred Lady, believing that she would eat them like the irest.
"The native women of the port of San Diego made similar demonstrations
after some of the inhabitants were pacified. When shown another picture of
Our Lady the Virgin Mary, with the Child Jesus in her arms, as soon as they
learned of it in the near by rancherias, they ran to see it, and as they could not
enter because prevented by the stockade, they called to the Padres and pressed
between the pickets their full breasts, expressing vividly by signs, that they came
to offer to nurse the Child, so tender and beautiful, which the Padres had. Having
seen the likeness of our Lady, the natives of the Mission of San Gabriel were
so changed that they were allowed frequent visits to the missionaries, and as they
did not know how to manifest their pleasure in having the latter come to live in
their land, they sought to make returns to them in caresses and gifts. They
proceeded to lay out a large tract, and 'gave a beginning to the Mission' in the
place which they judged suitable, with the same ceremonies which are related in
the former account. The first mass was celebrated under a shelter of boughs
(enraiiiada), the day of the Nativity of our Lady, the 8th of September, and the
following day they began to build a chapel which should serve temporarily for a
church and likewise a house for the padres, and another for the troops, all with
a palisade and with stakes encircling for defense in any event. The greater part
of the timber for the buildings, these same natives cut and uprooted, helping to
construct the smaller houses; for which reason the padres remained with the
expectation of a happy outcome, and that soon there would be no reluctance to
accept the easy yoke of our evangelical law. When these natives were become
quite contented, in spite of this good feeling, one of the soldiers did a wrong to
one of the chiefs of the rancherias, and what is worse, to God our Lord. The
native chief seeking vengeance for the offense done to him and to his wife, gath-
ered together all the neighbors of the rancherias near by, and inviting those who
were able to bear arms, he appeared with them before the two soldiers who, at a
distance from the Mission, were guarding and pasturing a band of grazing horses,
and one of whom was the wrongdoer. When these saw so many coming armed
they put on their leather shields to protect themselves from the arrows and armed
themselves, there being no way to give warning to the guard, which did not know
of the act of the soldier. Just as soon as the natives arrived within shooting dis-
tance, they began to fling their arrows, all making for the insolent soldier; the
latter aimed his gun at the foremost, supposing him to be the chief, and firing a
ball, killed him. As soon as the others saw the effect and force of our weapons,
which they had never experienced before, and that their arrows did no harm, they
fled in haste, leaving the unfortunate chief, who though wronged was the one
who had to die. From this event it came about that the Indians were intimidated.
There arrived, a few days following this, the commandant with the padres, and
made preparations for the Mission of San Buenaventura, and fearing that the
natives might make some attempt to avenge the death of their chief, he resolved
to increase the guard of the San Gabriel Mission to the number of sixteen soldiers.
For this reason and because of their small confidence in the rest, in view of
repeated desertions, they had to postpone the founding of the ]\Iission of San
46 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Buenaventura, until the outcome of that at San Gabriel could be seen, wherefore
its two ministers remained, with all their belongings, until further notice. The
commandant left with the other soldiers for Monterey, carrying away the one
who had killed the native, so as to remove him from sight of the others, notwith-
standing the scandal which he had committed was hidden both from the com-
mandant and from the padres. There remained in this way four missionaries in
the curacy of San Gabriel, but the two ministers of this curacy having fallen ill,
they had to retire shortly to Lower California, and the two destined for San
Buenaventura remained to administer this, and sought with all the gentleness
possible to attract the natives, who little by little were forgetting the deed of the
soldier and the death of their chief, and began to give some of their children to
be baptized, the child of the unfortunate one who was killed being one of the first,
whom the widow gave with much joy ; and by her example others were giving
theirs, and the number of Christians was increased, so that, two years after the
founding of the Mission when I was there, they had baptized seventy-three, and
when our Venerable Padre died, there were reckoned a thousand and nineteen
neophytes."*
The miraculous saving of the founders and the sudden conversion of the
Indians augured well for the Mission, and these good auguries were abundantly
fulfilled. If the real purpose of the work was the civilizing and christianizing of
the Indians, turning them from savagery, ignorance and vice to ways of peace and
happiness, training them in the arts and trades of civilization, while at the same
time maintaining the material life of the whole community, and contributing also
largely to the Spanish government, both provincial and crown ; then surely the
work of the San Gabriel Mission was fully justified by its results. Only the Mis-
sion San Luis Rey surpassed it at any time in material prosperity. East, north and
south its cattle by the thousands and its sheep by the tens of thousands ranged the
plains as far as the mountains and west to the sea. Thousands of Indians came
to live by the Mission, and many more came under its influence. Hundreds at
a time were domiciled at the Mission, some of them as neophytes, each with his
duties to perform and lessons to learn. In 1817 the population of the Mission
itself was 1,701. Far removed from the manufacturing and industrial centers of
the modern world, they were so far as possible sufficient to themselves in the
production of materials to meet their needs. Under the direction of the fathers
the fertile fields yielded all they required and more in food and clothing. Under
their direction also, and that of a few skilled artisans who came from Mexico
or Spain, the needed trades were taught and plied. Wool was carded, spun and
woven into cloth for garments. Leather was made from the hides, and from it
shoes and saddles ; a saw mill and carpenter shop worked up the logs hauled down
from the mountains. There was a soap factory and a gristmill, "El Molino,"
whose ruins may still be seen.
Nor was the prosperity of the Mission a material prosperity alone. During
the sixty years from its founding in 1771 to 1831 the records of the church show
7,709 baptisms, 5,494 burials and 1,877 marriages. Simple, plain figures these, but
what a world of throbbing life the imagination conjures up from these figures;
and the spiritual life to which these padres ministered, who can measure?
* Translated from an original copy of a work in the Mason collection of the Pomona College library,
entitled "Relacion Historica de la Vida y Apostolicas Tareas del Venerable Padre Fray Junipero Serra—
escrita por el R. P. I.. Fr. Francisco Palou * • * La Isla Mallorca. (17S7)
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 47
As the years passed, certain of the old Indian trails through the valley, fol-
lowed later by the padres and their workers, became well traveled roads. Two
of these roads leading from the Mission eastward, one north of the Puente and
San Jose Hills, the other south, joined in one east of the San Jose Hills and not far
from the Ygnacjo Palomares place. Eastward the road ran by way of Cucamonga
and the Indian camp there to the Cajou Pass and San Bernardino. Over this road
at times teams of oxen and mules hauled loads of logs, for the dearth of timber
in the valley suitable for lumber made it necessary to look to the mountains for
their supply; and thus a hundred years ago began the cutting of pines on the
slopes of the mountains north of San Bernardino and shooting them down the
mountain side to the valley below. Over this road too, on their way to and from
the Mission, passed the Indians of the San Bernardino and San Gorgonio tribes.
Less often, and less often in the forties than earlier, rode or tramped, like Father
Serra before them, the brown-clad monks journeying between the Mission and the
settlement at San Bernardino.
This settlement had its beginning, according to Caballeria,* in a little station
called Politana opened by Captain Juan Batista de Anza of the Presidio of Tubac,
in 1774, when he came f from the Colorado River by way of Yuma to San Diego,
passing through the San Gorgonio Pass and resting to feed his company and cattle
in the meadows of this valley. A large company, two hundred and forty persons
and over a thousand animals, were in this expedition which arrived in the valley
that March, but of the beginnings of the settlement and its early history little is
known. More than thirty years later, when the activity of the Mission was
greatest, the difficulty of caring for the people in this valley remote from the
church became so great that it was decided to establish an asistencia, or branch, of
the San Gabriel Mission here. It was the 20th of May, 1810, when the band of
missionaries from San Gabriel laid the foundations of the chapel. As the day
was the festival of San Bernardino, the name of San Bernardino was given to the
asistencia. Yet now, after three or four decades, its brief life was over and little
was left to show for it. All the buildings were destroyed and only a handful of
the native tribe of Indians remained. In 1810 there had been a large village of
these natives, which was called Guachama, the "place of abundant food and
water." Among them the life of the Mission had begun to thrive as in fertile
soil. But the Indian tribes of the mountains and desert, the Coahuillas and
Serranos, always hostile to the valley tribes, soon became more fierce than ever.
After the great earthquake of 1812, when fresh springs of hot water charged with
sulphurous gas boiled up from the bowels of the earth, these hostile tribes, be-
lieving that the Great Spirit was displeased with the invasion of the newcomers,
combined in an attack upon the rancheria and asistencia, burning and tearing down
the buildings and massacring the Indians of the Mission. But the Guachamas
rallied and the Missionaries renewed their work among them, rebuilding the
church in 1820. Then for another decade the work prospered irt spite of repeated
raids by the desert Indians, when they plundered the Mission stores and drove off
the best of their stock. Yet in 1830, says Caballeria, 5,000 head of cattle belonging
to the herds of this branch were killed and their hides taken to the Mother Mission.
Its prosperity, however, was short-lived. In the following year, 1831, the desert
Indians came again and completely destroyed the buildings, carrying off all the
cattle. From this blow the Guachamas never recovered ; and while the Mission at
* Caballeria— History of San Bernardino. . , „ ., ^
t This was nrnhahlv the first exDedition of white men to cross the mountains to the Pacific Coast.
48 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
San Gabriel still ministered for a time to the little group which remained, the
church was never rebuilt, and the asisfciicia as a branch of the IMission was
abandoned.
Moreover, the best days of the Missions were over. The days of power and
expanding growth were passed. During his life Junipero Serra had been the
energizing force of the whole Franciscan order. Following his plans, guided by
his counsel, thrilled by his masterly sermons, inspired by his enormous sacrifices
and courage, the fathers had accomplished their marvelous achievements. And
long after his death they had continued the beneficent service, with this inspiration
living in their hearts and urging them to carry on the work for which he had
given his life. Throughout the Spanish era, whatever the rivalry or conflict between
the authority of the Franciscans and that of the military, in the Mission field
there had always been the sympathetic backing of the Crown with its ultimate
authority. With the separation of Mexico from Spain in 1822, this royal support
was cut off, and the new government regarded the chain of Missions primarily
as an important source of income, little valuing its importance in the industrial
and educational development of the province, or even as a factor in maintaining
order. But for a time the Franciscans continued their work under the ]\Iexican
regime, without active support from the government, yet without interference
beyond the exaction of heavy revenues.
August 17, 1833, is called by one historian the darkest day in the history of
California, — "the beginning of the end of the Mission era in California." On
this day the Decree of Secularization was issued by the Congress of the Mexican
Republic. By this decree the government took possession of the great holdings
of the Missions, — buildings, stock and stores, — selling them at auction to who-
ever would buy, and at their own ridiculous prices. The explanation of this
most unrighteous confiscation is given by McGroarty as follows:
"The Spanish Crown, and later the Mexican Government, which succeeded
the Spanish Crown, had successively on their hands military establishments in
California which subsisted on the industry of the IMissions. The soldiers did not
work, but had to be fed just the same. Both Spain and Mexico, in the course of
time, came to owe the Missions a great deal of money for the food and supplies
which were furnished to the various presidios and garrisons. Looking the matter
over coolly and calculatingly, after the manner of thrones and nations in the pain
of poverty resulting from criminal waste and extravagance, they decided that it
would be easier to boldly confiscate the ^lission establishments, with all their
fruinul nelds, orchards, flocks and herds, than to pay the debts they owed them."
One after another the Missions were abandoned, the Franciscan friars scat-
tered and the neglected buildings began to crumble in decay. What might have
been the fate and future of the Missions if California had become a State of the
Union before the Secularization can only be conjectured. The earlier treatment
of Indians by our government does not furnish a hopeful analogy. Very com-
mendable are the movements recently inaugurated for the restoration of the Mis-
sion buildings, but these are entirely of a private nature, and aim only to preserve
in artistic beauty the monuments of a life whose heart and soul have passed away.
By the time when California was admitted to the Union, the chain of Jilissions
which had stretched along the "King's Highway" from San Diego to San Fran-
cisco, was a scattered train of deserted ruins. Yet not all were abandoned.
In several of the Missions the padres stayed on, ministering to the faithful
who remained. In the beautiful old buildings of the Santa Barbara Mission, the
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 49
Franciscans still live their monastic life, sleeping on the bare cots of the cloistered
cells, their sandaled feet still treading the paths of the beloved garden. At San
Gabriel especially the Mission was not deserted, though its entire life was revolu-
tionized. There were no longer hundreds of Indians going out to their work
after early mass, some to till the fidds, some to work in the orchards or mills and
others to herd the cattle. The organization of a great institution with its throbbing
complex life complete in itself was broken up, its members as well as its machinery
and material all scattered.
But surrounding the Mission buildings, outside the walls of its immediate
authority, had grown up a considerable village dependent upon the Mission, con-
tributing something to its life and directly or indirectly tributary to it. Not only
the immediate environs but the whole great valley, over which the Mission herds
had roamed, was no less Mission territory. Indians and Me.xicans alike still looked
to the Mission at San Gabriel as the heart of the region, pulsating with its life
streams.
With this entire change in its organization, there were three different courses
open to the padres ; they might abandon the Mission and return to Mexico or
other Spanish provinces ; they might remain and live a secluded hermit life within
the old walls; or they might turn, though sorrowfully, from the direction of the
inner life of a great institution now dead, and give themselves as priests to serve
the people in the new field around them. The very magnitude of its former work
and the extent of its field made the opportunity and need of this new service
peculiarly pressing for the Mission of San Gabriel. To this labor the padres now
directed their attention with heart and soul.
Thus, briefly enough from the standpoint of one who is interested in their
story for its own sake, but at some length, it may seem, for a local history, we
have endeavored to sketch the rise and fall of the Missions, especially that of
San Gabriel ; for only with this as its background can one see in anything like its
proper perspective the figures of the early days in the San Jose \^alley. The San
Jose ranch was in fact a part of this Mission field, not only during the forties
but for a generation later.
INDIANS OF THE VALLEY
Long before the Spaniards came to the Valley there were the Indians, here,
as everywhere else in America, the aboriginal natives. What were their tribes?
Were they peaceable or warlike? Where did they live and how? And what
became of them?
One historian says that when the explorers discovered this coast, and during
the century following, "The hills and valleys of California were more thickly
peopled than was any other part of the continent."* That this Valley held its
share is evident from the quantities of relics, arrowheads, wampum, and pottery-
turned up by the plow. But the JNIexicans who first built their adobe homes on
the Rancho San Jose found no large villages nor populous tribes. What they did
find were little bands of Indians, families and groups of families, making their
camps by the cienegas and streams, and moving from place to place as their whim
or need prompted them.
Very dift'erent are the pictures which difterent writers have given us of these
Indians. One writes : "They had no names for themselves, no traditions and
* Norton—Story of California. Others estimate the number of Indians in California before the
50 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
no religion. They were lazy and indolent to a degree and made no attempt what-
ever to till the soil. In their dealings with the white men they were much given
to petty thieving and treachery. On occasion they committed murder. The lives
they led subjected them to many diseases. Such a thing as a marriage relation
appears to have been almost wholly unknown among them and there was no such
thing as morals." Helen Hunt Jackson, on the other hand, in her charming story
of Raiiwna, has so idealized the Indian in Alessandro that one finds little likeness
to the real native of California at any time or place. While some idealization
may be permitted in a romance of this sort, with its evident and worthy purpose,
still the same author in her "Glimpses of California and the Missions" writes,
"The San Gabriel Indians seem to have been a superior race. They spoke a soft
musical language, now nearly lost. Their name for God signified 'Giver of Life.'
Robbery was unknown among them, murder was punished by death, and marriage
between those near of kin was not allowed."
Somewhere between these extremes lies the real truth about the Indians
found on the Rancho San Jose in the forties, and it is probably much nearer to
the impression given by the first of our historians quoted than that of the latter,
if we may judge from our conversation with the older Mexicans, from our early
knowledge of the Indians still remaining and from the pictures of their life which
one may sketch considering anthropologically the relics in the way of implements
and apparel which have been collected. Certainly the natives of Southern Cali-
fornia, like those of Arizona and New Mexico, were an inferior race as compared
with those of the North, East and Middle West. Physically they were not strong,
lithe and active like the Cheyenne or Sioux, but squat, fat and unattractive.
Treacherous and untrustworthy they were, and ready to kill on provocation or
for gain, but not brave or fierce. While groups living not far apart could not
understand each other, so different were their dialects, yet they were not separated
into sharply distinct tribes with well-defined tribal characteristics. There is little
doubt that these natives were less advanced than those of the Channel Islands,
whose very habitat had compelled them to learn many things and to be able to do
many things unknown and unnecessary to the natives of the mainland. They
were also less vigorous and active than the mountain Indians in whom the breath
of the pines, the cold water and snows of the summits and the climbing over range
and canyon, as they hunted mountain sheep, wildcat and bear, had developed a
more rugged physique. Here in the Valley, amid milder surroundings, the natives
were lazy and dirty, living on a low plane both physically and mentally.
On the way from the rancho to San Bernardino were a number of the camps,
or rancherias, of these Indians. There was one on what is now Orange Grove
Avenue, north of Pomona and west of Towne Avenue, at a spot called the Huaje
(oo-ah-hay) ; another was located by the southeast corner of the mesa, known as
Indian Hill, north of Claremont; and still another by the Cucamonga hills. In-
stead of picturesque groups or rows of wig\vams, of special form or construction,
they had the crudest shelters of nondescript shape made of branches and boughs
of willows, using small trees or poles for uprights and thatching them with tule
and mud.
Before the coming of white people their dress was meager enough. A breech-
clout for the men and an apron of grasses for the women was all that climate or
fashion required. Children were innocent of even these claims of fashion. Lazi-
ness was perhaps the fundamental, all controlling, and prevalent racial character-
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 51
istic of these natives of the Valley. All the attendant and consequent traits and
vices also persisted. Unwashed and unkempt, they sat or slept on the ground all
day long, save as the need of food required a minimum of exertion. Ordinarily
all their activities centered in this ultimate necessity. Squirrels, rabbits, skunks
and birds provided their meats, and the skins served for warmer wraps for the
infirm or sick in the cooler months. They ground acorns in metates far meal,
using for this purpose any flat rock, hollowed out by use, and a small round stone
that would fit the hand. Roots and small fruits were sought in their season —
cactus pear, elderberries, gooseberries — and they went to the mountains for
pinones, of which they were fond. Rarely an antelope or coyote was caught and
roasted in barbecue style, buried in the ground with stones that had first been
heated through. But for the most part they did very little cooking, and that over
an open fire. They understood something of pottery, and made crude vessels of
various sorts, but basketry, and rug weaving, those arts which other tribes have
practiced and by which the tribes are often known, seem to have been neglected
or unknown by these non-tribal natives. The anthropologist, studying the effect?
of climate and natural surroundings upon the human animal, finds here the logical
result of conditions in which favoring Nature gives much and requires little (yet
giving lavishly in return for more). Those people who live in the semi-tropical
zones, they say, have become adapted in habit and physical state to the heat of a
more vertical sun. Dark of skin and slow in movement, easy-going and indolent
they all are ; and if, as along the Mediterranean shores, civilization has developed
nations of refinement and power, it is always in conflict with the degenerating
influence of the climate. Teutonic and Slavic peoples and individuals, with their
inherent energy and ambition, only survive for a little — two or three generations
at most — when removed to these climes.
Mariana (tomorrow) was the spirit of the people who occupied the South-
west, till the restless Saxon came, excepting of course an occasional leader like
Junipero Serra. But for the Indians of this region, unmoved by any stimulus of
civilization, even mahana was a philosophy unconceived.
People so degenerate were of course an easy prey to disease and to the attacks
of other more aggressive tribes. With no tribal chiefs they were led by heads
of families, and the medicine men had much power. At several spots in the valley,
as at Cucamonga and at Temescal, were sweat houses, closed huts made of brush
and adobe mud, in which those who were sick were confined, until the disease
turned one way or the other. It is said that at Cucamonga this process of sweating
was also administered to Indian maidens before they were married. Concerning
this, as of other marriage rites, we may not be sure. Certain historians testify
that the Indians of the Southwest were more religious and as a rule more chaste
than those of other parts of the State; that they were usually monogamous, only
the chiefs having more than one wife ; while other writers have described them
as without regard for any such obligations. Probably there was great difference
in the practice of different communities and different families, a higher tone of
morality prevailing generally among the mountain tribes than among the Indians
of the Valley.
Although not naturally a warlike people they were obliged at times to defend
themselves against the attacks of the mountain and desert tribes. In these battles
they were usually worsted by their more hardy enemies. Under these conditions
it is not strange that when the Mexicans came to the Valley comparatively few of
the natives remained. By this time, too, the Indians of the Valley showed in
52 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
various ways the effect of their contact, more or less direct, during a half century
or more, with the white race. The efifect of this contact, so far as it was the
direct influence of the Missions, was universally good. Almost universally bad
was the influence of the presidio and pueblo. From the one they had adopted some
of the better clothing and habits of civilized people, had learned to cook and to
make many things unknown before. From the others they had acquired the habits
of smoking and drinking and had been encouraged in their natural inclination to
theft.
Such were the Indians whom the Palomares and Vejar families found in the
Valley when they came, and for many years after; and whatever else we may say
about them, at any rate they solved the labor problem for the settlers. However
inefficient and lazy they may have been, they could learn or had already learned to
ride, to help in herding, corralling and branding cattle, and in killing and skinning
them ; and the Indian women and children could wash and cook and do the simple
work of servants in the house. Still at times the tribes of the mountains and those
of the desert, the San Bernardino, San Gorgonio, Coahuilla Indians, would swoop
down from their fastnesses and attack both the Indians and the settlers of the
Valley. ]\Iore fearful now of the gvms of the settlers, they usually avoided direct
battle, but the prizes were richer in captured booty, in horses and in cattle. \\'e
have already referred to the troubles of the branch ^Mission at San Bernardino,
and of course they were more subject to attack because of their proximity to the
mountains. But even here they were not exempt. Senor Ramon Vejar tells of
one time when, dashing into the rancheria unexpectedly, the mountain Indians,
led by an old chief known as El Toro, captured the priest. Padre Sanchez, who
had come out from the Mission to viansar* the natives, and tied him to a tree.
Stirred to savage anger by this capture of their padre, the Valley Indians, led by
Juan Antonio, gathered in force and fiercely drove off his captors, rescuing him
from a cruel fate. The occasional attacks and thieving depredations of the Indians
persisted throughout the forties. Even as late as 1849 the Vejar family moved on
this account, to the place in what is now Walnut, where they built a large adobe
house, surrounding the place with a high wall, or trascorral. This hacienda re-
mained the family home until after the death of both Ricardo Vejar and his wife.
There is a story of hidden treasure which comes from this period — one story
probably in its origin though told now in many versions. One of these versions
is of a Mexican known as Old Prieto, who was traveling between San Gabriel
and San Bernardino and who stopped at the Rancho to eat a watermelon. Con-
tinuing on his way he soon became violently ill. Wliether the melon was poisoned,
or from some other cause, he died and the Indian who had journeyed with him
reported that he had buried a box for Prieto under a sycamore tree with an elbow-
shaped limb. Later it was reported that the box contained much treasure, and so,
as the story has passed down from generation to generation, many have sought
for this treasure, and all over the Valley you may find under the sycamores and
oaks, especially if gnarled and unshapely, old holes and mounds of earth where
those who have heard the story, perhaps from some old settler or Indian, have
dug and dug, often secretly and at night, but always in vain — so far as the world
knows. But Ramon Vejar says that "Old Prieto" was merely a poor old fellow
who did eat a watermelon and died from eating it, but he had no money or
anything else to hide. And the true story of the buried treasure as told by Don
RamcMi is this :
* To gentle, that is to civilize them.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 53
There was a man by the name of Tiburcio Tapia, who was cuUivating some
land at Cucamonga, having also land on the Malibu ranch, and a store in Los
Angeles. Thus he was obliged to make the journey sometimes between the pueblo
and his ranches, traveling usually en una carreta de biicyes — -in an ox-cart. It
was at a time when Micheltorena, Governor of California from 1842 to 1845, was
raising money to pay his soldiers, who were fighting "contra los Calif ornios."
Being a man who was known to have some means, Tapia feared that he would be
requisitioned to help Micheltorena carry on his campaign, so he made one of these
journeys from Los Angeles to San Bernardino, taking with him a lot of gold
doubloons, jewels and other treasure. As usual on these trips an Indian, only one,
went with him. On reaching the line of the San Jose Rancho, (probably the
eastern line) he sent the Indian on to San Bernardino with a special message to
the mayor of the town, asking him to come and meet him. The Indian noticed
upon his return that the boxes they had brought with them were gone. Being
attacked suddenly by fever, Tapia upon his death bed narrated how he had buried
the treasure under a sycamore tree, just under a great limb, bending sharply
upward like an elbow. But his story must have been cut short, for no one could
find the treasure, and years afterward when the building was torn down in which
he had had his store, they found quantities of silks all spoiled, which he had hidden
between the rafters.
GRANTS ADJOINING THE RANCHO SAN JOSE
When Palomares and Vejar received their grant to the Rancho San Jose,
all the land adjoining it belonged to the Mexican government. The rancho and all
about it was land which had been used for grazing by the San Gabriel [Mission.
But the fields of the Valley on either side were soon occupied. First came Luis
Arenas who, as we have said, not only shared with Palomares and Vejar in the
new grant of the rancho and its addition, but also secured for himself a grant to
the west, known first as "The Addition to the Addition to the San Jose Rancho,"'
but later simply as the San Jose Addition.
All these holdings of Arenas were bought in the early forties by Henry
Dalton, an English sea captain, the Arenas family, after this, living on the old
Arenas place called the Huaje, deeded to them later.
The first deed of sale from Arenas to Dalton seems not to have been recorded,
but the sale was confirmed judicially December 24, 1844, and includes besides
"the rancho known by name of Azusa with horses, corrals, improvements, stock
(and so on) according to inventory," but also Arenas' third interest in the San
Jose Rancho granted by decree of April 15, 1837, and "one league of Ganado
Mayor in addition."
Henry Dalton, who secured the .\renas interests, was a short, energetic man,
ambitious to gain large possessions in the new land, and well known in Southern
California for many years. He had been for a time a merchant in Peru. His
roving, restless disposition was satisfied at last to find scope for his activities in
California. ^Marrying a ^tlexican wife he made himself a home, and his brother
George followed him to California from England. With headquarters in Los
Angeles, where he secured some property and built a number of buildings, he
made payments on large tracts of land in the country. In addition to the San Jose
interests he secured a grant for the Azusa Ranch of about 4,000 acres, and another
for the San Francisquito Ranch of 8,000 acres, lying south of Santa .\nita and
54 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
southeast of Azusa. Thus a considerable part of the "Lucky Baldwin" ranch and
some of the lands of El Monte were a part of his holdings. It was this Henry
Dalton who, according to Newmark, put up "the first fireproof buildings in Los
Angeles, a couple of corrugated iron buildings at the corner of Spring and Court
Street, and later a two-story brick building on Main Street near Second." Of
the sequel to his earlier deals in real estate we shall read later.
To the east of the Rancho San Jose, beyond the arroyo of the San Antonio
and stretching from the slopes of Cucamonga far to the south, lay a broad, un-
broken plain whose fields, especially in the lower reaches, offered fine pasturage
for cattle. For these lands to the east and south of the San Jose, Don Antonio
IMaria Lugo petitioned the Mexican government, about the time of the first grant
to Palomares and Vejar, and received in 1841 a grant to the great Santa Ana del
Chino Rancho of some 22,000 acres. One of the most conspicuous figures among
the early rancheros, he already possessed valuable property in Los Angeles and
thousands of cattle and flocks on other ranches. The San Antonio Rancho south
of Los Angeles had been granted to him and given his name, and here he had
lived until he built his adobe home in Los Angeles in 1879.
Characterizing Don Antonio Maria Lugo as "a. type of the great overlords of
the Mexican era," McGroarty * gives the following description of his personality,
which because of its vividness and interest we venture to quote in full :
"A fine figure of a man was Don Antonio, six feet tall in his stockings, spare
and sinewy, lithe and strong as a mountain lion, his hair black as the raven's wing,
his jaw square cut and firm, his eyes dark as night, piercing yet gentle and easily
moved to tenderness. He was a pure type of the noblest Spaniard.
"In all the Californias, Lugo was the best and most noted horseman, and
that was saying a great deal in a land of horsemen. It is related that in 1846,
when he had become an old man, he rode from Los Angeles to Monterey to pay
a visit to his sister, the Dofia Maria Antonio Lugo de Vallejo. They had been
long absent the one from the other. As he rode into Monterey with his two
companions. Dona Maria was seated on the porch of her house, a considerable
distance away on an eminence which overlooked the city and the beautiful bay.
As the horsemen came into view at a turn in the road, Dofia Maria shaded her
eyes, gazed long, and exclaimed, 'There comes my brother!' A young girl who
sat beside the old lady answered her, saying, 'O grandmother, yonder come three
horsemen, it is true, but no one can tell who they are at that distance.' Dona
Maria replied quickly, 'But, girl, my old eyes are sharper than yours. That tall
man in the middle is my brother whom I have not seen ?or twenty years. I know
him by his seat in the saddle. No man in California rides like him. Hurry off,
girl, call your mother and aunts, your brothers, sisters and cousins, and let us go
fortli to welcome him.'
"Notwithstanding that it was a part of Don Antonio's duties to assist in keep-
ing the coast free of pirates, and that his sword and carbine were frequently called
in play, he lived a long life. He had relations with all the Spanish governors of
California, except the first three, and he saw California pass under the rule of
three flags. His descendants were and are still numerous, and wherever they
are found today in either a high or a low estate, it is their proudest boast that
his blood flows through their veins."
It is not unlikely that Lugo would have been content with his many leagues
of land near Los Angeles were it not for his family, for whom he wished to make
* McGroarty— California, pp. 156, 160.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 55
provision. For at the time of the Chino grant he was about sixty years of age.
It was chiefly on account of his daughter, who became the wife of Colonel Wil-
liams, that this grant of the Rancho del Chino was secured. Both the manage-
ment and the title to the great rancho soon passed into the hands of Colonel
Williams, although Don Antonio still lived for twenty-five years, dying at a ripe
old age in his Los Angeles home. And during this time he rode much over the
ranch, as indeed over the whole Valley in his capacity as Judge of the Plains,
presiding at rodeos and meting out justice among the people, much as do the
Kaids in Mohammedan territories today, and with something of their influence
and power. Doubtless he was much at home with his daughter in the old Chino
ranch house.
In his time Colonel Julian Isaac Williams was probably the best known of
all the rancheros in the Valley. A native of Pennsylvania, he had come West as
a young man and lived the life of a cowboy on the plains of New Mexico and
Arizona. Coming to California as early as 1832, he had been in Los Angeles
and vicinity for ten years, keeping a store for a time on the spot made famous
later by the Bella Union Hotel. In 1842 he moved to the Chino Ranch, and in
1843 was given a grant to the 10,000 or 12,000 acres north and east of the Chino
comprising the Cucamonga Ranch, and making with the Rancho del Chino, under
which designation it was often included, a total of some 35,000 acres.
The "hacienda del Chino," or Chino Ranch House, built by Colonel Williams,
was destined to become a historic place, and one of the most celebrated in the
Southwest. The trail from Los Angeles to Yuma and Old Mexico led by this
place, and much of the travel to San Bernardino also went this way. Everywhere
the Chino Ranch House was known for its hospitality and good cheer. Travelers
in need found not only an open door, but they found also in Colonel Williams a
host always ready to assist them with food or clothing or horses, given or loaned
till such time as they could repay. Later in this chapter we shall see how soon
this hacienda became the scene of events of more than local importance.
Southwest of the Rancho San Jose, and adjoining it along the border, from
the Tina j a Oak on the west to the corner of the Black Walnut at the southwest,
there remained for a time unoccupied by private claimants, thousands of acres
of the finest grazing lands, hills and valleys green with verdure in spring and
covered with much feed the year around, the upper waters of the San Gabriel
flowing through the western edge. On July 22, 1845, a large tract of this land
called La Puente Rancho and containing nearly fifty thousand acres, was granted
to William Workman and John Rowland. The story of the early days of La
Puente Rancho is largely the story of these two men during the latter part of
their lives. They had been partners, real "pards," as young men in New ]\Iexico
in various enterprises and at various places. John Rowland was born in Mary-
land, William Workman in England, coming as a boy to St. Louis. Both were
endowed with the spirit of the pioneer, impelling them westward to the frontier.
At Taos, N. M., they acquired vast tracts of land, and built a large milling estab-
lishment, and in connection with it, a distillery. Then, in 1841, they came together
to the California coast and to Los Angeles. Together they rode out into the
country and over the fields and hills of La Puente, where they realized the rich
possibilities in cattle and grain and other native products. Here, too, they came,
not as adventurers, but as substantial builders, ready to cast in their lot with
others and become a vital part of the life into which they came. Both had mar-
ried young women of Spanish blood, from fine families of ?^Iexico or Spain,
56 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
the wife of John Rowland being Doiia Incarnacion Martinez, and Workman's
wife Dona Nicolarsa Uriarte, whose family had come to Old Mexico from Spain.
In 1842, the following year, Rowland and Workman brought their families
from New Mexico to Los Angeles, and with them a number of friends, some of
whom were to be, like Rowland and Workman, prominent figures in the early
history of the country. Notable among these were John Reed, who had married
Rowland's older daughter, Nieves, and Benjamin D., or Benito, Wilson. Although
they established themselves in Los Angeles and built homes there which they
retained, Rowland and Reed and Workman built ranch houses at La Puente,
and spent much of their time with their families on the ranch. The Puente
homestead of William Workman was the first brick house in the region and was a
landmark widely known for its beauty, its commanding site and its appointments.
Here also John Reed built up the place which later became the homestead of
William R. Rowland, familiarly known throughout the valley as Billy Rowland.
a son and heir of John Rowland, the pioneer.
Securing seed from the east and cuttings from the Mission, they sowed some
acres to grain and planted a vineyard, but for the most part they bought sheep
and cattle and were soon engaged in stock raising on a large scale.
The ten years from 1836 to 1846 had thus wrought a marked change in
this Valley. If Richard H. Dana, when he landed at San Pedro and visited Los
Angeles, on his celebrated voyage, of which every one has read in his "Two
Years Before the Mast," had ridden eastward through the valley following the
old trail, "El Camino Real de San Bernardino," he would have found in 1835
no settlers between San Gabriel and San Bernardino, only scattered Indian camps,
and a few corralcs built for the ^lission cattle that roamed over the plains. But
in 1846, the year of California's great travail, when for a short time Colonel
Fremont was stationed at Los Angeles, if the great "Pathfinder" rode over the
same trail, as he may have done in the course of his expeditions, he found his
journey broken into various stages as he rode from rancho to rancho, each stage
marked by the hacienda of a grandee, with his following of Mexicans and Indians.
Leaving San Gabriel, he would come first to the little camp of El I\Ionte, and then
to the rancho La Puente, where Workman and Rowland and Reed had built
their ranch houses. Riding to the northeast he would pass over the Arenas fields
now owned by the English Captain Henry Dalton, and so come to the hacienda
of Palomares by the San Jose Hills. From this point his path led either by the
Cucamonga Addition to the north, or by the more frequented trail to the Chino
Ranch House, where Colonel Williams and his retinue held the great Lugo estate — •
The Rancho Santa Ana del Chino. Beyond the Chino, on the way to Yuma and
Sonora, JMexico, one came to \\'arner's Ranch, another historic spot, where Gen-
eral Kearney camped on his arrival in California and before his junction with
Stockton.
During the troublous year of 1846 the interminable problem of the division
of the San Jose Rancho among its owners first took definite shape. Between the
original owners there had been no trouble, no thought of separation, no question
of boundaries. The San Jose de Ariba was Palomares' ; the San Jose de Abajo
was Vejar's, the "Addition" was Arenas' ; there were no fences and the cattle
were separated from time to time, as they must also be from those of other herds,
at the rodeos, by their brands. But after Arenas had sold out his interest to
Henry Dalton, the question of division arose. Dalton, with numerous other
. interests, and with various schemes for subdivision and sale of land, persuaded
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 57
Ricardo \'ejar to join with him in a petition for the partition of the entire Rancho
among the three owners, Ygnacio Palomares, Ricardo Vejar and Henry Dalton.
Palomares objected to the partition and protested against the division proposed.
Nevertheless the petition was presented to Juan Gallardo, alcalde of the pueblo
of Los Angeles, who by virtue of his office was judge of the first instance in the
district and empowered to make such decisions ; and he ordered the partition as
requested, on the twelfth of February, 1846. It is interesting to observe here that
while the original grants were recognized later by the United States Land Com-
mission, and confirmed by the United States District Court in 1875, and while
the United States Government issued a patent to Dalton, Palomares and Vejar
for the Rancho, yet as late as 1884, the Supreme Court of California, in a case
brought by the Mound City Land and Water Company against Phillips and others,
to quiet title, set aside the decree of partition made by Juan Gallardo, and ordered
a new partition. This new partition, however, has never been made, and the old
partition has been valid to all intents and purposes to the present time. It may
also be stated in this connection that this negation of the partition of Gallardo,
which may seem at first to the layman to jeopardize all titles to the lands involved
during fifty years of growth of valley and town, with the thousands of transac-
tions involved, does not aflfect at all the validity of title to any lots in the townsite
or tract of Pomona, this having been specifically stipulated by the parties to the
suit. In fact the title to all these lands is said to be "the best of all the present
townsites in Los Angeles County."
Anticipating the course of subsequent events in order to segregate at once so
far as practicable the subject of titles and boundaries, five important events may
be noted.
By act of Congress, 2\Iarch 3, 1851, the United States Land Commission was
created to ascertain and settle the private land claims in the state of California.
On September 29, 1852, Henry Dalton and Ygnacio Palomares both filed
new petitions asking for a partition of the Rancho.
On January 31, 1854, the Board of Land Commissioners confirmed the claims
of each to an undivided third interest in the Rancho San Jose, also the claim of
Dalton to the San Jose Addition, but nothing was done as to the partition. -♦
In December, 1855, the United States District Court of Southern California,
on appeal, confirmed the title of Ygnacio Palomares to an undivided third of the
whole Rancho (including the first addition).
Finally, on January 20, 1875, the United States Government, by President
Grant, issued a patent to Dalton, Palomares and A'ejar for the Rancho as a whole,
.specifying the total area as 22,340 acres.
Description of thb Lcc.vnoN of the R.\.\cho S-\n Jose
The United States patent issued to Ygnacio Palomares and his associates,
Dalton and Vejar, confirming their title to the Rancho San Jose, contains three
descriptions of the Rancho. One is that adopted by the Board of Land Commis-
sioners January 31, 1854, when, acting upon the petition of Palomares and Dalton
filed in September, 1852, it confirmed the titles of the three grantees to undivided
thirds in the Rancho. This refers to a map and testimonial filed with the Com-
mission in Case 388. The second description is that adopted by the District Court
for the Southern District of California in December, 1855, further confirming
Palomares' title, and refers to a map "accompanying the cxpcdicntc" and to the
58 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
description "in the testimonial of juridical possession in this case." With this is
also the first description of the "addition." These two descriptions we have
already given because of their quaint and historic interest. The third description
is that of the survey by Deputy Surveyor G. H. Thompson, made under the direc-
tion of the United States Surveyor General in 1866, and verified by W. P. Rey-
nolds, Deputy Surveyor, in 1874, and is the one upon which the final patent,
signed by President U. S. Grant in January, 1875, is based. The third description,
in the usual technical form, is too long for insertion in full, but the location of the
corners and the general direction of the boundaries may be outlined in a popular
way. The description begins at the southeast corner of the Rancho, as in the
second description, at station S. J. No. 1, where the "black willow" of the old
survey stood in the hills southwest of Chino.
The next station, S. J. No. 2, is about 600 yards southwest from this on the
east bank of a deep arroyo. From here a course of nearly two miles extends
over rolling hills to the station S. J. No. 5, in a ravine near several springs, and
west of where the line between San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties turns
northward. Thence the third course runs northwesterly over the "Puente Hills"
toward the town of Spadra, dropping over the hills to the station S. J. No. 4, on the
east bank of the Arroyo Pedregoso (commonly called Pedegosa). From this
point the fourth course crossing the Arroyo bends a little more toward the west
and, following the sofith line of the Rubottom property, which is also the north
line of the Rancho Nogales, it crosses the old Puente road, now the Valley Boule-
vard, and comes after crossing the San Jose wash to the corner S. J. No. 9. This
is also the northwest corner of the Nogales Ranch and the east corner. Station
No. 13, of La Puente. It is the point where the "black walnut of the juridical
possession" once stood, and is beside the road which leads into the canyon at the
southwest corner of the Arnett place. The next or fifth side, more than three
miles long, runs twenty-three degrees west of north, over the San Jose Hills to
the corner S. J. No. 10, marked in the old surveys by the Tinaja Oak. This corner
is in the district of Charter Oak, near the old stage road from Los Angeles to San
Bernardino. It is north of Covina Avenue, between Sunflower and Valley Center,
northeast of the center of what was B. F. Allen's forty acres — the N.W. J4 of
S.E. Ya of Section 8.
From the Tinaja Oak the sixth course runs in a direction thirty degrees north
of east, some three and a half miles to the corner S. J. No. 11, marked by the
Eotello Oak in the old surveys. This corner is close to the Foothill Boulevard,
north of San Dimas and near the foot of the incline as the road descends from
the mesa into the Cafiada de San Dimas where the Teague nursery and pumping
plants are.
From the Botello Oak, the seventh course is a long one of over five miles,
running about east-south-east, north of La A'erne and North Pomona, and through
Claremont, to the northeast corner of the Rancho, at S. J. No. 12, which is situ-
ated south of the Santa Fe Railway and east of Mills Avenue in the orchard of
Alexander Kirkpatrick. Two short pieces of road mark this old line in Clare-
mont, one on Hamilton Avenue from Indian Hill Boulevard to Alexander Avenue,
and the other on Second Street from Columbia to Sycamore. From this northeast
corner, the next three courses, differing little in direction, follow the county line
west of south for more than five miles in the general direction of the San Antonio
wash, to the point of beginning, S. J. No. 1, at the southeast corner of the Rancho.
Mills Avenue follows this line from a little south of Cucamonga Avenue in Clare-
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 59
mont to Holt Avenue in Pomona, and the two slight bends are at Kingsley Avenue
iind at Lexington Street in the Phillips Addition.
The line of partition between the San Jose de Ariba and the San Jose de
Abajo ran from a point north of the Tinaja Oak southeasterly along what is now
the northeast line of the Packard Orange Grove Tract, crossing Orange Grove
Avenue at Lewis Street and following the south sides of the Ybarra lot in the
Alvarado Tract. From the southwest corner of this tract the line runs in a direc-
tion slightly south of east straight to its intersection with the east line near Holt
Avenue, crossing the city itself near Pearl Street.
Less than a mile from the Botello Oak in the seventh course, the "Dalton line
of partition" runs west of south to the above partition line dividing the San Jose
from west to east. This parole partition separated the Dalton section in the San
Jose from that of the Palomares.
The "San Jose Addition" is a five-sided piece, of irregular shape, one side
of which coincides with the sixth side of the "Rancho San Jose" between the
corners of the Tinaja and Botello Oaks. Another side runs north of west from
the corner of the Botello Oak to the much disputed north corner, southeast of
Glendora. This corner was marked by an oak which parties living to the north
attempted again and again to burn or destroy, so as to push their south line
farther south. There was much dispute over the corner, but finally it was located
by formal agreement, and the road which follows the new line from the Botello
Oak corner to this one, has since been known as "Compromise Road." Thence a
line runs over the hills southwesterly to the west corner of the Addition southwest
of Glendora and near the intersection of the quarter-sections in the center of
Section One, T. 1 S., R. 10 W. It is just south of Gladstone Avenue, near Ben
Lomond. The Azusa ditch now ends just above this corner. Thence the fourth
side runs southeasterly across the San Dimas wash to intersect the north line of
the Puente Rancho east of the Covina Canal and south and east of the bend in
the railway. This corner is about a quarter of a mile south of Covina Avenue,
between Glendora and Grant Avenue, a quarter of a mile east of where the San
Bernardino Road turns north. The fifth side follows the north line of the Puente
Rancho, a little north of westerly, to the corner of the Tinaja Oak. To the south
of this line lies the Hollenbeck Tract in the Puente Rancho.
CONNECTIONS WITH THE WORLD OUTSIDE
In these early days before the railroads or telegraph, before the overland
stage or pony express, the connections with the world outside were few indeed.
News of the most important events in "The States" arrived by some traveler long
after their occurrence. Messages of greatest consequence were sent across the
continent by special couriers. This isolation from the affairs of the world dis-
turbed very little the leisurely people of the Valley in the early forties. So long
as there was pasture for their stock and market for their produce, so long as their
fields yielded sustenance for their families and the people about them, so long as
the pueblo and the Mission ministered at times to their social and spiritual needs,
why should they be concerned with the aft'airs of people beyond the mountains
and over seas?
But there came a time when the doings of men in the north and of men in
the far east were of the utmost consequence to every man who owned property
in the Valley, and to all its inhabitants as well. Among the rancheros who met
60 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
from time to time at tlie Bella Union or at the stores in Los Angeles late in 1845
and early in 1846, there developed an increasing restlessness ; there were rumors
from the north of trouble between the Californians and the settlers or adventurers
of other nationalities, and these rumors were reflected in growing uneasiness at
home. English, French and Americans were acquiring more and more property
and land, and with it more power. \\'ere the real Californians, Mexicans in their
own Province, to be crowded out? Should there not be, as there had been in the
past, rigid laws expelling and excluding all others from the Province? More-
over, the government of the Department of California since the beginning of the
Mexican regime had never been administered firmly and effectively, as in tlie "good
old days of the King." There had been bitter struggles and conflict between
aspirants to the position of governor. One administration had followed another,
with two exceptions, in quick succession. After Arguello and Echeandia there
had been Manuel Victoria, 1831-32; Pio Pico, 1832-33; Jose Figueroa, 1833-35;
Jose Castro, 1835-36; Nicholas Gutierrez and Mariano Chico, both also in 1836.
Juan Bautista Alvarado, to be sure, had served well from 1836 to 1842 ; then had
come ^licheltorena, 1842-45, and now Pio Pico was governor again. It seemed
that the home government was losing its grip on its distant provinces. Neither
the civil government nor the military could secure necessary assistance from the
national exchequer, and the fatal move secularizing and ruining the Missions had
cut them both off from the chief source of revenue at home, as if they had killed
the goose that laid the golden egg, so that they were compelled for support to
draw often upon their own and other private resources. Santa Anna, the ^Mexican
president, was having troubles far more important, as it appeared, nearer home.
Even then, although the news had not reached California, Mexico was practically
at war with the United States, Congress having annexed Texas in March ( 1845 ),
and General Zachary Taylor, under President Polk, having marched to the Rio
Grande and blockaded its entrance at Brownsville and Matamoras in May. At
home the bitter feeling between the governor, Pio Pico, and General Castro, chief
of the military forces of the province, had grown to open enmity. The general,
Don Jose Castro, himself governor of the province ten years before, conservative,
proud of his family and race, and at heart intensely loyal to California, saw clearly
the trend of events and the danger to California both from the decay within and
from the aggression of adventurers from without. And he was annoyed and
angered at the indifference and inefficiency of the governor, his greed and selfish-
ness, and his willingness to sacrifice the best interests of the Province in politic
moves for his own self-interest. In this triangular array of hostile forces the
rancheros and caballeros, with their following in the south, rallied generally about
Don Pio Pico. Here perhaps was the beginning of the age-long rivalry which has
burned between the northern and southern parts of the state, blazing out fiercely
at times and then smoldering unnoticed, but never quite dying out. At any rate,
Pio Pico was an Angelefian ; his ranches and his friends were in Southern Cali-
fornia; even as governor he had chosen to live at his home in Los Angeles, far
from the seat of government at Monterey. Numbers even of those early settlers
from the states, who had married California senoritas and so cast in their lot with
the Mexican people, associated themselves with Pio Pico in the impending conflict.
At length to the eager groups of men gathered in the Plaza and at the Mission
came the news of open rebellion and a coup d' etat. Castro had taken matters into
his own hands. Having tried in vain to persuade Pio Pico to join him in vigorous
measures against the foreigners, he had assumed supreme authority and com-
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 61
menced an active campaign against them, especially the Americans. Issuing orders
of expulsion from the Province, he had begun to eject them by force. At ^lonterey
he was rallying about him all the forces he could command. General ^^allejo, in
command of the little garrison at Sonoma, had reluctantly contributed some horses
and equipment. The Americans around the Bay had combined to resist and had
actually captured the fort at Sonoma, arresting General Vallejo and his officers
and making them prisoners at Sutter's Fort. More than that, they had hauled
down the J^Iexican flag and raised a new one called the Bear Flag.
The news flew quickly, as men rode from the Plaza and the Mission, to rancho
after rancho of the \^alley, and other news soon followed. The Americans had
captured a band of horses which Alviso was leading to General Castro. The
General had taken a number of Americans and was strengthening his position at
San Rafael. On June 14, when the Americans captured Vallejo and his garrison
at Sonoma, they had announced a new government, calling it the Rcl'ublic of
California. They had proclaimed their intention of overthrowing the existing
government because of its seizure of property, "individual aggrandizement,"
enormous exactions on imported goods, its failure to provide a republican govern-
ment or to permit purchase or rental of lands.
There was much discussion over this proclamation. To be sure, it promised
that those who were not found under arms should not be disturbed in any way,
and there were assurances of republican government, and of civil and religious
liberty; but almost universally among the loyal Mexicans, south as well as north,
there was only anger or contempt. The proclamation said they had been "invited
to this country by a promise of lands on which to settle themselves and families."
Who had invited them, and by what authority? What right had these gringos
to their California lands, or to a part in their government? But the whole affair
would seem absurd, — a little handful of a score or more foreigners venturing to
overturn the Mexican regime, a government inheriting its authority from the
Spanish Crown, and that over an empire which had been owned and ruled by men
of Spanish blood for over three hundred years ! Castro would soon exterminate
the usurpers.
But wiser heads saw in the "Bear Flag Republic" the forerunner of American
occupation, and while it was stoutly (and truly ) asserted that the movement was
without authority from the United States Government, yet they were not surprised,
a few days later, to learn that a company of American cavalry under Captain
Fremont had marched down from his camp on American River to support the
party at Sonoma. Already the fame of Fremont, "The Pathfinder," had spread
up and down the Coast. Strong and sinewy as an Indian, the peer of any hunter
as a rider and rifleman, hardy and without fear, he was also a trained engineer
and officer in the United States Army. When, therefore, it was reported that
Fremont had been placed at the head of the new republic and had driven General
Castro and de la Torre, with all their men, from San Rafael, from San Pablo and
from Port Yerba Buena, as San Francisco was then called, there was great dismay
among all the Californians of the south. But among the few Americans, by the
same token, there was great rejoicing. They had come to realize that ^lexico
could not retain this country. They knew also that England and France, especially
the former, had never forgotten the dreams of Drake and their other explorers,
and were only awaiting the opportune moment to intervene. Moreover, Pio Pico
and most of the Californians were known to be far more favorable to intervention
by France or England, if worse should come to worst, than by the United States.
62 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Now the die was cast and the United States must come to the rescue. They may
or may not have known here at the time — it matters not — of Fremont's hesitation
at first to join the revolutionary movement; how he repeatedly refused to act
without authority from the government at Washington, and only consented when
the little force at Sonoma were threatened with annihilation as Castro's three
divisions were advancing against them. Fremont had saved the Americans and
advanced their cause, anticipating at the critical moment the action of other powers.
And even if he had far exceeded his rights, acting without orders from his superi-
ors, it was impossible to communicate with them ; the case was desperately urgent,
and history would justify his course.
During those exciting days in the latter part of June, 1846, the Americans
were often in consultation, gathering in Los Angeles from all the surrounding
region. Fourth of July had a new significance for them this year, although they
could not celebrate the day openly. Neither did they know that, at the very
moment. Commodore John Drake Sloat (of the United States Navy), on the
battleship Savannah, was anchored in the harbor of Monterey, with official orders
to take possession of the ports of California in the name of the United States. Not
until the seventh of July were the Stars and Stripes raised over the Capital at
Monterey, such was the deliberation and indecision of Commodore Sloat, just
arrived from Mazatlan and waiting to confer with the American Consul, Larkin,
and to become acquainted with conditions on the Coast.
Messengers, more than one, riding hard upon fleet horses, brought the news
from Monterey to Los Angeles and San Diego. Strange tidings they brought
along the King's Highway, and spreading thence to every corner of the Province !
War between the United States and Mexico! It had been declared in May, two
months ago! Two hundred and fifty sailors and marines had landed at Monterey
under Captain Mervine, and the port was in their possession. Commodore Sloat
had issued a proclamation declaring that henceforward California would be a
portion of the United States, urging inhabitants to accept peaceably the privileges
of citizenship, and inviting judges, alcaldes and other civil officers to retain their
offices. He had also sent messages to General Castro at San Juan Bautista and
to Governor Pico at Los Angeles, urging them to surrender and inviting them to
Monterey for conference.
To the Californians came also the news that Castro was marching south,
calling upon all to arm themselves and join his force in defense of the Province,
also that the governor had called a meeting of the provincial assembly.
To the Americans came further accounts of the raising of the Stars and Stripes
in place of the Bear Flag by Fremont and his men at Sutter's Fort, with a salute
of twenty-one guns from a brass four-pounder ; of a similar demonstration by the
garrison under Ide and ]\Ierritt and Semple at Sonoma, and again at San Francisco.
Here in the south there was intense ex;citement and feeling. Men like Varela
were eager to fight. Pio Pico and his friends were enraged but unwilling to
join forces with Castro. Others counseled moderation. They could not hope
finally to win against "The States," and the home government apparently could
not save them. Better to yield to the inevitable and accept the privileges offered
without discrimination. It might not be so bad. The proclamation of Commodore
Sloat promised that peaceable inhabitants should enjoy "the same rights and privi-
leges as the citizens of any other portion of that territory, with all the rights and
privileges they now enjoy, together with the privilege of choosing their own
magistrates and other officers for the administration of justice among themselves" ;
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 63
it promised religious freedom greater than tliey had enjoyed under Mexico, and
lighter taxes ; it assured them continued possession of all their property and land.
In the San Jose Valley divisions arose between one rancho and another.
Palomares and Vejar were friends of Pio Pico; the former as a "juez delCampo,"
Judge of the Plains, was probably present at the provincial assembly. The
Rowlands and Workmans and their friends at La Puente were out-and-out
Americans. Colonel Williams, like many other Americans who were married in
the early days to daughters of prominent Californians, found his position a difficult
one. A few of these men cast in their lot with Pio Pico, but more were found
with those who went to meet Fremont and pledge allegiance to their native land.
Doubtless their counsel and influence had weight among the Californians who
urged moderation.
However futile it may be, so far as the past is concerned, the consideration of
those incidents which have shaped the course of later events, and the possibilities
which might have resulted had these incidents been different, must always have
their place in the mind of a student of history. If only Commodore Sloat had
remained in command of the forces of occupation ; if the cordial spirit of his
proclamation had been maintained, or if Captain Fremont had been allowed to
conduct the negotiations with the Californians at San Pedro ; if there had been
wisdom and tact, a proper recognition of the native pride and natural rights of the
Californians, it is quite probable that the State would have joined the Union with-
out bloodshed and that no part of the Mexican War need have been fought on Cali-
fornia soil.
But Commodore Sloat, on account of illness, it is said, was very soon replaced
by Commodore R. F. Stockton, who arrived at the Port of Monterey July 15.
Thus only a week after the raising of the flag, came a new executive, and with him
a new policy. A new proclamation appeared, as unlike the first as darkness and
light, — harsh and false, and irritating in the extreme. Sending Fremont to San
Diego, Stockton himself came with the consul, Mr. Larkin, to San Pedro and
prepared to march in force against Los Angeles. By this time Castro had reached
Los Angeles and was in conference with Pio Pico. Finding that neither the
assembly nor the governor had authorized a general mobilization of the Province
for resistance, Castro agreed with Pico to the sending of a delegation under Jose
Maria Flores to negotiate with Stockton, but the haughty commodore refused to
treat with them, saying that they and all others under arms must be dealt with
as rebels.
Failing, then, to agree upon a plan of vigorous resistance, or perhaps realizing
its folly, both Pio Pico and Castro fled to Mexico, and Stockton, landing a force
of marines, marched to Los Angeles. Thus, on a certain day in August of this
eventful year of 1846, four of the notable characters in this romance of California
were traveling with their companions not far from the pueblo of the South. The
imperious commodore, Stockton, and his armed marines, were beginning their
triumphal march over the lowlands from San Pedro. On the Camino Real to the
south Fremont and his men were riding from San Diego to join the commodore.
As these two parties approached the pueblo, the other two were leaving it by
different routes, one by boat from another port, and the other over the Camino
Real de San Bernardino, through the San Jose Valley and the San Gorgonio Pass,
on their way to Sonoma and Mexico. And these four parties were typical, perhaps,
of as many streams in the tide of human affairs. In two of them there were
departing from these western shores the easy hospitality and the proud nobility
64 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
of an older civilization ; in the other two there were entering in its place both the
domineering aggression and the brave sincerity of another race. And these streams
were setting this way and that, in waters which should long mingle freely and
never be quite clear of each other, but finally should leave the Anglo-Saxon in the
places where the Latin had been, even as they had before displaced the Indian.
Stockton and Fremont entered Los Angeles without opposition. A new
government was soon organized and proclaimed, with Stockton as Governor and
Fremont as military commander of the territory. Those who had enlisted in the
■ opposition were declared free on parole. Then occurred another mistake. Believ-
ing there would be no further resistance, Stockton selected a young man of his
own type, a Lieutenant Gillespie, left him in command with a small coinpany of
men at Los Angeles, and sailed away to Monterey, at the same time sending
Fremont and his army back to Yerba Buena (San Francisco). The rancheros
also returned to their ranches. But the end was not yet. In fact, the conditions
were now just right for a great conflagration — on the one hand a young officer
exercising his new authority over a sensitive people, issuing harsh regulations and
punishing trivial offenses, and on the other, a company of hot-blooded young
Mexicans, rebellious against the new regime. On the twenty-third of September
a score or so of these young men, led by Serbulo Varela, attacked the American
garrison under Gillespie. This is not the place for an extended account of the
Mexican war or revolution in California ; all this is told at length in other histories.
Yet, for the people in this Valley in 1846 the conflict was of transcendent impor-
tance, and it is necessary to review the essential features of the story in order to
understand what part they had in these stirring events, and why they were of such
supreme consequence.
Here, as everywhere in the Southwest, men prepared in earnest for the war
which was now seen to be inevitable. Those who had served with Castro or with
the Picos, hurried to Los Angeles to join A'arela. Here also were Andres Pico
and Jose Antonio Carrillo, leaders in insurrections of other days against Victoria
and Alvarado and Jose Maria Flores, whose advances had been spurned by Stock-
ton at San Pedro. Some of these had fought against each other in the past, but
all were united now against a common foe. Flores was chosen as "Commandante
General." At the ranches, little bands were organized to defend the haciendas
against attack, and vaqueros were set to guard against stampeding the cattle, — an
effective means of attack sometimes, when arms and ammunition failed.
While the Calif ornians were gathering in Los Angeles or strengthening their
garrisons on their ranches, the handful of Americans in the \^alley had chosen
the Chino Ranch House for their rendezvous, and others joined them from Los
Angeles. Here, though ill-supplied with guns and ammunition, they fortified
themselves as well as they could. There was danger of attack not only from the
Mexicans of California, but also from those of Old Mexico, whence Castro might
return with reinforcements. From the neighboring hills they watched the road
toward Warner's Ranch and Mexico, and the trails from the A'alley, north and
west. It was a hardy band of pioneers, thirty-six in all, that were gathered in the
well-known adobe ranch house. First of all, there was Colonel Williams himself ;
then there was George Walters from San Bernardino, a New Orlean by birth, who
had hunted over the Rocky Mountain trails and driven mule teams in New
Mexico before he came, a couple of years before, to Los Angeles. There was
Louis Robidoux,* a loyal American of French descent, who had ridden over from
* This spelling, says Newmark, is in accord with the usage of Robidoux himself.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 65
his great estate on the Jurupa Rancho, whereon the city of Riverside has since
arisen by the mountain which bears his name. And there was the captain, Benja-
min Davis Wilson, generally known as Benito, a pioneer from Tennessee, who had
come from New Mexico in 1841 with William Workman and John Rowland of
La Puente. Already he was a man of considerable means and influence. Married
to Ramona, daughter of Bernardo Yorba, he and his party from New Mexico
had fought with the Picos hitherto, first against Micheltorena, and in June of this
year against Castro, and now, like Colonel Williams, he stood with the Americans.
Possessing, later, thousands of acres in what is now Pasadena, his name also is
perpetuated in Mount Wilson, formerly Wilson's Peak. With these Americans
were a number of Indians who had not forgotten their sufferings at the hands of
Vallejo and of Pio Pico, when he became governor again in 1845. And there
were also with them two or three Mexicans, bound to the Americans by ties of
friendship or of marriage, which proved stronger than those of race. Among the
latter was Juan (called Chicon) Alvarado, of the San Jose Rancho.
Captain Wilson and Colonel Williams, with their men, had not very long to
wait. On the 27th Serbulo Varela, with sixty or seventy caballeros, from Los
Angeles and from the ranchos on the way, appeared before the adobe ranch house.
Riding up to the house, they fired a volley into the windows and doors at close
range, and the Americans returned the fire. For a little time the fighting was fast
and furious. Though protected somewhat by the adobe walls, the Americans were
outnumbered three to one by the Californians, and their ammunition soon gave
out. Then a number of caballeros, dashing up close to the building with torches,
managed to set fire to the roof. As the building began to burn, the rooms were
filled with smoke and the Americans were compelled to come out and surrender.
Among the Mexicans who had joined the attacking party were a number from
the Rancho San Jose, some of them relatives and one a brother of Juan Alvarado,
who had gone over to the Americans. Against him they were especially furious.
"Be sure to get Chicon," they cried.*
Not all the Mexicans who rode to the scene of the battle were in the attacking
party. Some were not ready to shoot down their old friends. And there were
boys who looked on as at a realistic circus, not realizing fully its significance.
Ramon Vejar, then a boy of sixteen, watched the battle with keen interest, wit-
nessing the death of the one Californian who was killed. Others on both sides
were wounded, but this one, shot through the temples, died very shortly. During
the fighting Ramon discovered his horse, which had been seized among others by
one of the soldiers, and recaptured it; riding it home in spite of his father's advice
not to take it lest he provoke the soldiers' anger. "The horse is mine," he said,
"and I am going to have it."
Another incident of the battle is narrated by Don Ramon Vejar concerning
Captain Benito Wilson and the Mexican leader Varela. When the Americans
were driven out by the flames, their ammunition practically exhausted, and Benito
Wilson, who commanded much respect and confidence from the Californians,
marched out before the others and surrendered to Varela, there were many who
wished to put the Americans to death at once. But Varela, facing his men with a
gun in each hand, said : "These men have surrendered to me and I am bound to
the people left
66 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
protect them. I will kill any man who shoots one of them." And though there
was much bitter and vengeful feeling, there was no more shooting. They were all
taken as prisoners to Flores, the commander at Los Angeles, and treated with
much consideration.
With this battle at the Chino Ranch House began the Mexican War in Cali-
fornia. Flushed with victory and determined to avenge the death of the one who
fell at Chino, the Californians returned to Los Angeles, where the war now cen-
tered. Others hearing of the fight at Chino hurried to the Pueblo and swelled the
armed force under Captain Flores. Far outnumbered by the Mexicans, Gillespie
and his men gathered at the Fort on Fort Hill* A bloody battle with many
fatalities was imminent. Only a miracle could save Gillespie and his pioneers from
extermination, but in the struggle many old-time friends must die at each other's
hands. Among the Californians were the chief men of the Pueblo, the Dons with
large estates, whose hospitable homes surrounded the Plaza, and the leading
rancheros from every part of the Valley. \Mthin the adobe fort were their neigh-
bors and intimate friends, and not a few who were sons-in-law, members of their
own families. Captain Flores, leading the Californians to the fort, urged Gillespie
to surrender, and promised his free release "with all the honors of war." These
generous terms were happily accepted. Prisoners were exchanged and the soldiers
under Gillespie, with some of the American settlers, left for San Pedro, where
they were taken on board an American ship lying in the harbor. The subsequent
events of the war need not here be narrated. The reader who is not familiar with
the story will find it elsewhere, especially in McGroarty's graphic narrative. But the
full details do not belong to a local history. After the surrender of the Americans
and the departure of the soldiers from the town, many of the ranchers and business
men returned to their homes, and a number also of the American pioneers. Some
of the latter were held as prisoners, others were released on parole. But they
followed with keenest interest, and doubtless also with much chafing at their fate
which held them at home, the movements of the following months, — the attempt
of the Americans to regain Los Angeles after the arrival of some of Stockton's
men under Mervine, when the combined forces of Gillespie and Mervine, num-
bering over three hundred, were defeated and driven to the ships ; the arrival of
Stockton at San Pedro and his departure with all his men to San Diego ; occasional
skirmishes like that of Natividad near Salinas, between Captain Burroughs and
Manuel Castro, a brother of the General Jose.
Early in December, Mexican riders from Warner's Ranch told of the arrival
there on the second, of Stephen W. Kearney, now a General in the United States
Army, with Kit Carson and a hundred men. For several days all watched for
news from Warner's Ranch, wondering whether he would march south to join
Stockton and Gillespie at San Diego, or north and west to join Fremont, who was
said to be on his way south from Monterey and Santa Barbara. In the latter case
he would come down the road through the Chino and San Jose Ranchos and La
Puente.
Warner's Ranch had more than once before this been the scene of action since
the beginning of the war. Far removed from presidio or pueblo or mission, on
the very frontier of the Province, it had been, more often than other ranches, the
object of attack from bands of desperadoes, both Indian and Mexican, who took
advantage of the war to pillage and plunder. It was on account of his courage and
' It was this fort which gave the name to Fort Street, later changed to Broadway.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 67
command during many such encounters that the owner, Jonathan Trumbull
Warner, was known as Colonel, though commonly called Juan Jose or Juan Largo
(Long John), on account of his great height. Once he barely escaped with his
life from an attack by Antonio Garra and his bandits. On another occasion he
was wounded while fighting off a company sent out under Espinosa to search the
hacienda. "A man's house was his castle" in those days. In 1837, while living
in Los Angeles, he had married an adopted daughter of Pio Pico, and knew and
practiced the free hospitality of those days. But the report soon came from
Warner's Ranch that Kearney had moved south ; and then came the news of the
battle of San Pasqual on December 6th, "the bloodiest battle," it is said, "that ever'
took place on California soil," when Kearney and his men, weary and footsore
from their long march from New ]\Iexico, attacked a band of riflemen under
Andres Pico, fresh and well mounted and looking for a battle with Gillespie.
Although Kearney and Kit Carson and Gillespie had all escaped without serious
wounds, and although Pico's forces had at last withdrawn, yet the great general
and his noted leaders had been worsted. Three of their officers had been wounded
in the fierce hand-to-hand conflict, while the Californians had suffered little, and
were greatly elated by their victory.
This, however, was their last occasion of rejoicing. With the opening of the
new year, 1847, came stories of the stiffening of the American forces at San Diego,
of their march northward toward Los Angeles, of Fremont's southward march
toward the same goal, and then of the battle on the banks of the San Gabriel
River, when with a united force of some five hundred men Flores and Pico for
two days held back the troops of Kearney and Stockton, but at last surrendered
and allowed the Americans to enter the town without further resistance. The
end came soon. Two days later Fremont arrived at San Fernando, and the Cali-
fornians realizing that continued opposition was useless, and preferring to treat
with him rather than with Stockton or Kearney, sent a delegation to arrange for
terms of peace. Here at the San Fernando Mission he promised them favorable
terms, and the next day, January 13, 1847, after Colonel Fremont had marched
south through the Cahuenga pass, a treaty of peace written in the two languages,
Spanish and English, was drawn up and signed. This document, so important in
the history of California, was signed not by the principals in the struggle, those
who had been the chief officers in the war, but by Andres Pico as Commandante of
the California forces and by Colonel John C. Fremont, commander of the American
forces on the ground. And so ended, practically, the insurrection and Calif ornia'^s
part in the Mexican War, although the war itself was not formally concluded
until a year later, when, by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848,
Mexico ceded New Mexico and California to the United States.
After the capitulation of January had brought to a close the strenuous months
of 1846, life on the ranches of the \'alley resumed its normal course, and for
several years there was no great change in their condition or surroundings. The
laws and the taxes remained practically the same, — that is, the lack of laws and
the excess of taxes, — for Congress had failed month after month to take any
action providing for suitable government for the new country, which so far was
neither province, state nor territory. But the closing months of 1849 brought each
its important event in the history of the State, and so in the history of every
section of it. Doubtless men from this Valley, Palomares, Workman and Colonel
Williams perhaps, were present at the historic convention held at -Monterey on the
third of September, when the State Constitution was framed and the boun-
68 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
daries of the State determined. October 13th witnessed its signature. On
November 13th a general election was held and Mexicans and Americans
ahke from this Valley shared with others throughout the State in the vote which
ratified the Constitution, elected a Governor (Peter H. Burnett), a lieutenant
Governor (John McDougall), two members of Congress, and a legislative body.
Finally, in December there was held in San Jose the first session of the new State
legislature, and John C. Fremont and William Gwinn, senators-elect from the
young, self-constituted State, set out for Washington. Not until the following
year, however, on September 9, 1850, as everyone should know, was California
' finally admitted to the Union.
THE GOLD FEVER
More exciting even than the days of 1846 and the events attending the seizure
of California for the Union, were "the days of '49," in the northern part of the
State, when the cry of "Gold" turned the eyes of the world toward the Hesperides,
and set the feet of many thousands on the road that led over the Rockies or through
the Golden Gate to the wildest, strangest scenes the world has ever known. One
writer says that by February, 1849, ninety vessels had sailed from Eastern ports
with eight thousand men bound for the new "El Dorado." It was a far call in
those days from the Valley of San Jose to Sutter's Mill on the American River,
yet even as a great earthquake, rocking the earth at San Francisco and crumbling
its finest monuments in dust, is felt to the remotest bounds of the State, tumbling
over chimneys here and at San Jacinto and emptying house-dwellers into the
streets, so the tremendous upheaval which was created when James W. ^larshall
picked up those flakes of gold in the tail-race of his mill at Coloma, was quickly
felt, though with lesser force, in the mountains and valleys of the South. At times
there was much excitement. Young men and old, by boat, or riding, or on foot,
set out for the mines with a shovel and pan and a kettle on their backs. Some even
searched the canyons and mountains of the Sierra Madre in prospect of gold
nearer home. But the South was far less moved by the fever of those days than
the country around the Bay, and the native Mexican was slower to rush from
home than the more recent adventurers of American and foreign blood. Indirectly,
however, the throbbing, adventuresome life of the North was to be reflected in
the South during the coming decades, in a new life of greater activity, as the rest-
less, motley human stream flowing toward the gold fields of California was later
diverted or turned back, some of it to the south, leaving in every valley its deposit,
both good and bad.
CHAPTER THREE
THE QUARTER CENTURY FOLLOWING THE CESSION
OF CALIFORNIA TO THE UNITED STATES
Willow Grove, Lexington and Monte— Early Settlers and Life at El
Monte — Beginnings oe Spadra — SchlEsinger and TischlEr Foreclosure
—Louis Phillips and His Ranch— The Rubottoms at Spadra— The
Fryers and Other Settlers — The Overland Stage — ButterfiEld and
HoLLiDAY — The Stage at Spadra — Death of Hilliard P. Dorsey — Other
Tragedies — Kewen Dorsey.
Neither the victory of the Americans in 1846, the cession of California to the
United States by Mexico in 1848, nor its admission as a State in the Union in
1850, brought any radical change, at once, to the people who lived on the ranches
of Southern California. Momentous as were the changes which these events
ushered in, yet these changes began slowly, almost imperceptibly. In the Pomona
region itself there were at first none whatever. Life upon the ranches continued
as before; the cattle and herds increased, and the families of the native IMexicans
became more and more firmly established on their estates. The whole country
was still essentially ^Mexican, and throughout Southern California most of those
who had come from the East and established themselves here were real settlers,
and in spite of their part in the war were bona fide Californians. Perhaps the first
indication of the activities of the promoter appeared in the Azusa region, where
Henry Dalton, in 1851, formulated a plan for the subdivision of his land into
smaller tracts to be sold to less ambitious ranchers. With headquarters in Los
Angeles and with various other interests elsewhere, Dalton regarded his holdings
in this region as material for speculation and was not in any true sense a rancher
or homesteader. But it was not for a good many years that purchasers came in
any considerable numbers to encourage these speculations. Among the first to
buy of Dalton was Fielding W. Gibson, who purchased 250 acres in the southern
part of the rancho and near to what became El Monte. Hither he drove the
remnant of a large herd of cattle which he had undertaken to bring from Sonora,
Mexico, but of which he had lost much the greater part by the depredations of
Indian herders. Here later he raised large quantities of broom corn.
WILLOW GROVE, LEXINGTON AND MONTE
About this time, that is, during the year 1851, two events occurred marking
the beginnings of two movements which were to influence more or less directly
the future of the San Jose Valley, although considerably removed from each
other and from the center of the valley.
In this year a party of Latter Day Saints from Salt Lake City came to San
Bernardino and established themselves there. Others followed, and so a small
stream of pioneers began to flow into the San Bernardino Valley from Salt Lake
70 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
and from the Eastern States by way of Salt Lake. But not all of the immigrants
from Salt Lake City were Latter Day Saints. Some even came by the southern
trail to San Bernardino, and so to San Gabriel and Los Angeles, to escape the
persecutions of the Mormons in Utah. The Mormon Church under Brigham
Young had only come to Salt Lake in 1847, but its hierarchy was already firmly
entrenched and they had assumed absolute authority over all the lands of the
state, which they called the State of Deseret. Travelers to California in caravans
by way of Salt Lake were compelled to pay heavy tribute to the church authorities.
To the terrible sufferings of the long journey across the plains in "prairie schoon-
ers" were added here the theft of horses and cows and sometimes the murder of
men by Indians incited by the Mormons. The green fields and mild climate of
the San Bernardino Valley must have been very welcome after the long weeks
of painful trekking over the cold, dry uplands of the Rockies, and a good many were
content to make their homes and open up farms here at San Bernardino. Land
was purchased from Diego Sepulveda and from the Lugos — Jose del Carmen,
Jose Maria and Vicente.
In 1853 the great county of San Bernardino was cut off from Los Angeles
County. In the division of the state into counties, which was effected by the first
legislature in 1850, the whole of Southern California was comprised in the two
counties of San Diego and Los Angeles, the latter containing all of what became
later San Bernardino, Orange and Riverside counties, as well as a part of Kern
County. The line of division between Los Angeles County and the new San
Bernardino County, according to an Act of Legislature of April 26, 1833, ran as
follows :
"Beginning at a point where a due south line drawn from the highest peak of
the Sierra de Santiago intersects the northern boundary of San Diego County;
thence running along the summit of said Sierra to the Santa Ana River, between
the ranch of Sierra and the residence of Bernardo Yorba : thence across the Santa
Ana River along the summit of the range of hills that lie between the Coyotes and
Chino (leaving the ranches of Ontiveras and Ybarra to the west of this line) to
the southeast corner of the ranch of San Jose; thence along the eastern boundaries
of said ranch and of San Antonio, and the western and northern boundaries of
Cucamonga ranch to the ravine of Cucamonga; thence up said ravine to its source
in the Coast Range; thence due north to the northern boundary of Los Angeles
County," etc. The consequences of this act on the future of the \^alley were far
reaching. By it the waters flowing from San Antonio Canyon and its great water
basin were divided. By it also the streams of development and progress were
divided. The natural relations and interests which had held the ranchos of San
Jose and Chino and San Antonio together were now artificially broken, and the
rather vague, unfenced line between the neighborly estates of Chino, San Antonio
and Cucamonga on the one hand and San Jose on the other, became a very real
partition. As the waters of San Antonio, which, draining a large watershed of
mountain forest far east of this line, flowed naturally all westward toward the
ocean, were now divided between the ranches of two counties, so henceforth the
people and lands of the Valley on one side of this line were to be tributary to the
county seat at San Bernardino on the east, and those on the other to the county
seat at Los Angeles on the west. Thus gradually the communities of North
Ontario (now L'pland), Ontario and Chino, normally friendly to those of Pomona
and Claremont. and maintaining many cordial relations in spite of divisive condi-
tions, have inevitably become, to some extent, strangers to each other.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 71
Returning to the San Bernardino settlement, we find an increasing number of
immigrants from "the States" streaming into the Valley throughout the fifties.
Many of these were an overflow from the Mormon city at Salt Lake, and for
many years San Bernardino was chiefly a Mormon village. Others who came in
by the same route were hostile to the Mormons, and these usually moved on to
San Gabriel and El Monte and Los Angeles. This hostility naturally became more
intense during the open conflict between the Mormon power and the Federal
Government, from 1857 to 1859. Some of these immigrants had just escaped the
Mountain Meadow massacre of September, 1857, which is now known to have
been instigated by leaders among the Latter Day Saints.
Among those who came across the plains in 1854 and entered San Gabriel by
way of San Bernardino was the party of Cyrus Burdick, a pioneer of Pomona, to
whom fuller reference is made later.
Attention has been called to two rather distinct movements which took place
in the early fifties, one to San Bernardino and the other to El Monte. From these
two currents of migration, unrelated and apart, the San Jose Valley was to receive
its quota of early settlers, as we shall notice later. A considerable number of these
settlers were to come from El Monte to Spadra, and we may now turn to this old
town of Monte. One of the notable events of the year 1851 was the arrival at
"Willow Grove," not far from the San Gabriel River, of a company of settlers
from "the States." Attracted here by the opportunities which the fertile soil and
the rare climate presented for farming, they purchased land or took up claims and
established homes, thus planting what was called by Newmark "the oldest Ameri-
can settlement in the county" ; for it was the first village settled entirely or chiefly
by Eastern colonists. These people came from various states. There were the
Macys, Obed and his son Oscar, from Indiana, the father a physician, who later
owned for a time the Bella Union in Los Angeles. There were Samuel Heath and
David Lewis of New York, also a number of families from Texas. Notable among
this first group was Ira W. Thompson, a Vermont Yankee, who soon became a
leader in the settlement.
In the following year the small colony was increased by a good many more
families, especially from Texas and Arkansas. Among these are a number of well-
known names, such as A. J. King and his father, Samuel ; William and Ezekiel
Rubottom, Jonathan Tibbets, and Thomas A. Garey, the horticulturist. On account
of the dense growth of willows which extended for some miles east of the river,
the place was commonly called "Willow Grove" by the Americans. By the Mexi-
cans it was known as "El Monte," the word meaning thicket, and not mountain, as
many erroneously suppose. Almost from the first the settlement was grouped
about two centers, one called "Willow Grove" and the other "Lexington." But
when finally a post office was secured the whole place was called officially Monte.
Thus, although the town was unique in its large proportion of American settlers,
yet in its name it has helped to perpetuate the Spanish traditions of the country,
and its later population has been sufficiently Spanish to justify its designation.
The first postmaster of Monte was Ira W. Thompson, already mentioned, a fine
type of pioneer, who had moved westward with the advancing frontier of the
country from Massachusetts to Indiana, from Indiana to Wisconsin and Iowa, and
finally to California. Born in Vermont in 1800, he was now, in the 1850's, in the
prime of life. As postmaster and keeper of the first tavern he became well known
throughout the Valley. At Willow Grove, the eastern nucleus of the town, the
72 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
post office and Thompson's "Willow Grove Hotel" were naturally the center of
gravity. For a time this tavern was the only stopping place between San
Gabriel and San Bernardino, and when later the overland stage followed the course
of the old Camino Real through El ]\Ionte, the Willow Grove Hotel became an
important station of the route. Not only as a public official and servant, but also
as a farmer and as the head of a good family, Ira W. Thompson was a valuable
man in the region. His oldest daughter, Susan, who was a woman of unusual
culture and ability, married David Lewis, one of the party of first settlers at
Willow Grove, and their home, in turn, was a center of good influence in the
progress of the place, their children being well known in the town and state.
Among them are Ira D. Lewis, and Abbie, who is Mrs. Albert Rowland of Puente.
In the strenuous days of the pioneer in California, life was full of action ;
humor and pathos were strangely blended, and romance and tragedy followed each
other in quick succession. In the first group of settlers who came to Willow Grove
in the summer of 1851 was an attractive young woman, who had lost her husband
early on the journey across the plains. The long weeks dragged by as the slow
ox carts rolled their weary way overland. .\ new day dawned as the new world
of Southern California opened to the tired travelers. Few women had come to
California with the '49ers, or since. Before night of the first day Charlotte Gray
had refused four proposals of marriage. The next day she rode over to the
Rowland ranch at Puente, where she was told she could buy fresh fruit and vege-
tables. There she met John Rowland, one of the original grantees of the Puente
Rancho, who since the death of his first wife had been living alone with his chil-
dren on the old adobe homestead. He, too, was captivated by the charming young
widow, and before night had ridden over to Willow Grove and secured her consent
to wed. Two weeks later they were married, and the fine two-story brick house
was begun which was to be their home, and in which were born the two children
of this second marriage, Albert and Victoria.
About a mile west of Willow Grove, and nearer the river, a new townsite was
laid out in 1852 by Samuel King and others who came with him in 1851, or who
followed in 1852. This new town was called by its promoters "Lexington," and
became the second center in the Monte, as above mentioned. Here many of the
families who had journeyed together from Texas and Arkansas purchased lots and
made their homes, and it soon became the larger of the two villages. Besides the
general farming in which most of its people were engaged, vineyards were also
planted, and large hop fields, and a few raised quantities of broom corn. The
development of oil, which is of such importance today, did not begin until much
later. At Lexington, in 1853, there were two small stores and three saloons. Gam-
bling was rife, night and day. One who lived here in the fifties says he has often
seen the little tables in these saloons, about six feet in diameter, loaded with
stacks of gold slugs a foot deep, each slug an eight-sided fifty-dollar piece. So
notorious was the sport that Lexington was more familiarly known as Hell's
Halfacre, or Pokerville. Nor was gambling the only sport of the west-enders, if
we may judge from such accounts as this by Newmark:
"Another important function that engaged these worthy people was their part
in the lynchings which were necessary in Los Angeles. As soon as they received
the cue, the Monte boys galloped into town ; and being by temperament and train-
ing, through frontier life, used to dealing with the rougher side of human nature,
they were recognized disciplinarians. The fact is that such was the peculiar public
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 73
spirit animating these early settlers that no one conid live and prosper at the
Monte who was not extremely virile and ready for any daredevil emergency."
When the band of desperadoes nnder Pancho Daniel and Juan Flores terror-
ized the country in 1857 and killed Sheriff Barton and his deputies in Santiago
Canyon, the El Monte boys took an active part on the Vigilance Committee which
rounded up the villains, lynching some and bringing others to more formal trial.
Fortunately, however, there were older heads in El Monte, who were not so
impetuous. Among these was Richard C. Fryer, who came across the plains with
the party from Arkansas in 1852, and who engaged not only in farming but in
preaching. Ordained in 1854, the first Baptist minister in Southern California, he
served as a missionary in that church, preaching for fifteen years in the commun-
ities of Southern California, until he moved with his family to Spadra in 1867.
He also served as a member of the county board of supervisors, and in 1870 was
elected to the State Assembly.
Another of the old-timers of the region of El ]\Ionte who crossed the plains
from Arkansas in 1852, probably in the same party with the Fryers, was John
Thurman, coming first to San Gabriel and then, in 1853, to El Monte. Here he
bought land, at first near the Temple ranch to the south, later between Savannah
and El Monte, west of the ravine, and finally at Willow Grove, where he lived till
his death in 1876. Through his children, especially the three sons, R. Monroe,
Stephen and Alexander, the name of Thurman is well known in the Valley. As
in so many other cases among those who crossed the plains in those days, the
family suiYered great hardship on the way, and the mother was buried in Arizona.
With the fortitude and courage developed by such trials, the sons contributed much
to the upbuilding of the communities in which they lived. Alexander remained
upon the old Willow Grove property owned by his father ; Stephen D. retained an
alfalfa ranch and house on the land south of El Monte ; and R. Monroe, after 1887,
moved to Pomona, where he has been an influential citizen. In 1868 R. Monroe
married Dora Belle Fuqua, daughter of another old family who came to El Monte
in 1854 from A'irginia. Conspicuous among the early settlers of El Monte was
Thomas Andrew Garey, who became a leading horticulturist, and was later one
of the incorporators of the town of Pomona.
In the Arkansas party, with the Rubottoms, Thurmans and Kings, who
reached California in 1852, was the family of W. T. Martin, now one of Pomona's
oldest citizens. Though now (in 1919) seventy-five years of age, Mr. Martin
remembers vividly many incidents and circumstances of the nine months' journey
in ox teams by way of El Paso and Tucson. Most vivid of all is the memory of the
halt at Warner's Ranch, where the family was obliged to rest because of the grave
. illness of both father and sister ; while others of the party pressed on to El Monte.
Here at Warner's Ranch the father soon recovered, but the sister succumbed, a
victim of the terrible hardships of the journey. In 1853 the family moved on to
El Monte and the father, Wm. C. Martin, soon became prominent in the affairs
of the town. Born in Texas in 1824, when Texas was still Mexican territory, he
was schooled in adversity. His father was killed by Indians when William was
only a boy of ten. December 31, 1843, at La Mar, Texas, he married Rebecca C.
Miller, the daughter of an Alabama cotton planter, and the helpmeet who braved
with him all the hardships of a pioneer life and then survived his death to live with
her son, William T. Martin, in Pomona, until her own death at the ripe age of
eighty-two. In El Monte Mr. William C. Martin, the father, familiarly called
74 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
"Uncle Billy" Martin, conducted for years the Lexington Hotel, — like the Willow
Grove Hotel, a popular tavern on the old stage road. Both Mr. and Mrs. Martin
were in the South consistent members of the Methodist Church South, and were
active in the organizing of school and church in the new settlement. Like others
in the colony who, in 1853 and 1854, "took up" what they supposed to be govern-
ment land and laid out ranches with many acres of trees and vineyards, they were
driven from their possessions in 1864, when by a new survey it was discovered
that much of these ranches south of El Monte was a part of the Puente Rancho,
a portion of which was now owned by the Temples. As Mr. Martin says, "The
first survey of the rancho did not include the Monte at all, but the second survey
flopped over and took about the whole of it."
It would be most interesting if one could look into the public school of Monte
during the fifties; for there one should find gathered together as children those
who were to play, nearly all of them, an active part in the beginnings of most of
the towns and cities soon to spring up in Southern California. There was "Toots"
Martin, there were Ira W. Thompson's children and those of Samuel Thompson
(Nannie became later the wife of William T. Martin) ; and there were the Kings,
of whom we shall learn more later, and the Rubottoms, the Dorseys and the
Fryers. Later on "Toots" Martin himself was a teacher in the old ]\Iission district
farther east.
There was only one church building in Monte as late as 1860, and this was
occupied by three or four denominations, each in turn providing a preacher, on
succeeding Sundays. Among them were the Methodist South and the Baptist.
Here and in the camp meetings at Willow Grove there was usually good feeling
and harmony between these various denominations, and "they got on fine," as one
old-timer has narrated. The Willow Grove by Thompson's Inn was also the scene
of a number of big political mass meetings, at which the people of the outlying
districts came together to discuss county or state affairs. Newmark tells of one
of these mass meetings in August, 1859, at which a great barbecue was served
and "benches were provided for the ladies, prompting the editors of the Star to
observe with characteristic gallantry, that the seats were fully occupied by an array
of beauty such as no other portion of the state ever witnessed."
The Los Angeles Star, or La EstreJIa de Los Angeles, which appeared first
in 1851, was for years the only paper in Los Angeles, and by the same token, in
the county. Its editor was Ben C. Truman, and it was published weekly, half in
Spanish and half in English, and its circulation and influence were not confined to
the pueblo alone, but the sheet carried to the outlying settlements at San Gabriel,
El Monte and San Bernardino, and to the haciendas on the ranches, the gossip of
the Plaza and the news brought from the states by the latest arrivals around the
Horn or overland. Daily world news was, of course, unimagined, and that from
Los Angeles was often days in arriving. An unbridged torrent might fill the
banks of the San Gabriel, which no rider could cross. At this time there was no
broad ramification of "wash," but the river was about fifty feet wide and flowed,
in season, in a regular channel. Not until the floods of the winter of 1861-1862
did the river leave this channel and broaden its rocky bed, and the heavier floods
of 1867-1868 still further widened this wash. The bridging of the river at El
Monte was a public work undertaken by the county years later, when W. T. Martin
was supervisor, a work in which he took great satisfaction, after the many years
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 75
in which as boy and youth he had forded the stream or watched the advance riders
try place after place to find a spot for the stage to cross and escape the quicksands.
Some have wondered why the town of Puente (meaning bridge) should have
no conspicuous bridge, while the town of Monte (whose name is so much like
mountain) should have not even a hill, but should be marked by a long bridge
across the river. But as we have pointed out, Monte means thicket and not moun-
tain, and before ever a bridge was thought of across the San Gabriel there was a
bridge well remembered by all old-timers across the Puente Creek, a bridge made
of large poles laid across the stream, with a floor of smaller poles and brush
athwart them. It was this which gave to Puente its name. Over this bridge
"Toots" Martin and other children, set on horseback with bags of corn or wheat,
would ride from Monte to Rowland's mill at Puente, and then home again with
the flour which the mill had ground for them.
BEGINNINGS OF SPADRA
During the fifties and, of course, before that time, there were no merchandise
stores outside of Los Angeles, except one or two small country stores at El Monte
and one at the Mission. Ranchers were obliged to ride or drive to Los Angeles
for every needed thing that could not be made or produced on the ranch. Always
in the Plaza were to be found the fine mounts of the vacjueros and caballeros who
had come to town to trade. These men were to be found talking or having a
social glass at the saloons or at the Bella Union, or they might be at one of the
adobe stores which were scattered along the "Calle Principal" (Main Street),
Aliso and other streets leading into the Plaza, while their carretas might be resting
by the roadside in front. Some of the earliest shopkeepers were French, like
Ducommun, Mascarel and Ramon Alexandre, but more were of German descent.
There were Newmark and Kremer, Schumacher, Ferner and Kraushoar, Kaisher
and W'artenberg, Bachman and Bauman, Hellman, ]\Ieyer and Loewenstein, and
Baruch-Marks. All were shrewd, keen men of business, and some whose sagacity
was balanced with honest integrity have established great business houses and
their names are associated with well-known and highly respected banking firms.
There were others whose names are still remembered, but with associations not so
agreeable. In the firm of B. Marks & Co., and later engaged in business for them-
selves, were two merchants, Louis Schlesinger and Heiman Tischler, who are
more closely related to this historical narrative than others. Their headquarters
were at Melius Row and they occupied a storeroom later in the Temple Block, but
they were engaged chiefly in handling grain, a pursuit which took them all over the
Valley, and they were always alert for bargains in cattle or in land. Many of the
rich Mexican land owners were their regular customers, and these they encouraged
to trade on long-time credit, never urging a settlement, but from time to time
taking their notes for some hundreds of dollars.
Among the regular patrons of Schlesinger & Tischler, at ]\Iellus Row, were
Ricardo Vejar and his friends of the San Jose Rancho. They were always wel-
come, for they were easy-going men who bought freely and whose large estates
were ample security for any amount. Honest themselves, they were not suspicious
as to the accounts against them and did not examine or verify items charged. As
time ran on these accounts grew. Nothing was specified as to interest and rates of
three and four per cent, per month were boldly charged and frequently com-
pounded. Finally the day of reckoning came, and an account of some twenty
76 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
thousand dollars was presented against the old ranchero Don Ricardo \'ejar!
Schlesinger & Tischler demanded prompt settlement and obtained the signatures of
Senor Vejar and his wife to the mortgages they had prepared. Two mortgages
there were, one a chattel mortgage covering "all the horned cattle, horses, mares,
colts and sheep belonging to the mortgagor and bearing his brand earmark, that
may be found in the counties of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and San Diego,
with the respective increase thereof" ; and the other mortgaging "all interest and
right in the San Jose Rancho," etc. ; both as security for a promissory note of
$19,763.62, due' in ninety days with interest at two per cent, per month. At the
same time Schlesinger & Tischler got a lease on the land and cattle for such time as
the mortgages should remain unforeclosed. This was in April, 1861. By April,
1864, note and interest amounted to more than $30,000. Thirty thousand dollars
does not seem like an amount to ruin the owner of thousands of acres of rich pas-
ture land, feeding many hundred head of cattle. But the years 1863 and 1864 were
years of great financial stress, especially in Southern California. Though far
from the active scenes of the Civil War, the general depression of the country
was keenly felt. Three years of drought — three succeeding seasons almost without
rain — had wrought terrible havoc in a country whose sole production practically
was of grain and cattle, and at a time before irrigation was known, save at one
or two points in a very small way. Horses and cattle died by the thousands and
there was no possibility of the sale of land. Newmark, writing of the financial
condition at this time, says: "With a total assessment of something like two
million dollars in the county, not a cent of taxes (at least in the city) was collected.
Men were so miserably poor that confidence mutually weakened, and merchants
refused to trust those who, as land and cattle barons, but a short time before had
been so influential. . . . How great was the depreciation in values may be
seen from the fact that notes given by Francis Temple, and bearing heavy interest,
were peddled about at fifty cents on the dollar, and even then found few pur-
chasers."
At such a time as this, $30,000 was a great fortune. Though every effort was
made to delay the issue and to raise enough to transfer the mortgage, the \'ejars
were powerless to escape. Time passed quickly and the mortgage was foreclosed.
The final deed was signed by Seiior Vejar April 30, 1864, though Doiia Maria, his
wife, of the fine old Spanish family of Soto, realizing that it was in effect a deed
of sale of all their lands, steadfastly refused to sign the papers. By this transaction
the half interest in the San Jose Rancho belonging to the Vejar family passed into
the possession of Schlesinger & Tischler. According to the partition of 1846,
this included all of the southern half of the rancho — the San Jose de Abajo — the
old homestead and its adobe rancheria, together with all the herds of cattle and
sheep. It was a sad day for the family when, at last, they were compelled to leave
the old place, a princely estate of more than 10,000 acres of the finest land in the
world, with streams of water, and trees and buildings, which had been their home
now for more than a generation. Nor is it strange that the feeling of resentment
and hatred was intense, not only among the immediate family of the Vejars, but
also throughout the whole populace of Spanish rancheros and all their people.
Neither Schlesinger nor Tischler lived long to enjoy their ill-gotten gains.
But while they were both cut ofif, it may be said, by the hand of an avenging fate,
there was no restoration to the old Spanish owners of their fair acres. These were
lost to them forever. Just how these Jewish merchants met their fate is of more
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 77
than passing interest, but the fate of one, at least, will probably always be some-
what of a mystery. Louis Schlesinger was a passenger on the "Ada Hancock," a
Banning boat, which was sunk by an explosion in San Pedro harbor when loaded
with passengers for a San Francisco steamer, and he was doubtless lost in this
catastrophe. There is a persistent story still told by old-timers, that Tischler was
killed by a party of Mexicans while on a trip to San Bernardino. Xewmark's
account of their doings, however, is as follows :
"Shortly after this transaction" (that is, after their foreclosure of the \'ejar
mortgage), "Schlesinger was killed while on his way to San Francisco, in the Ada
Hancock explosion ; after which Tischler purchased Schlesinger's interest in the
ranch and managed it alone. In January, Tischler invited me to accompany him
on one of the numerous excursions which he made to his newly acquired posses-
sion, but, though I was inclined to go, a business engagement interfered and kept
me in town. Poor Edward Newman, another friend of Tischler's took my place.
On the way from the ranch to San Bernardino the travelers were ambushed by
some Mexicans, who shot Newman dead. It was generally assumed that the
bullets were intended for Tischler, in revenge for his part in the foreclosure ; at
any rate, he would never go to the ranch again, and finally sold it to Don Louis
Phillips, on credit, for thirty thousand dollars." There is a slight discrepancy in
this narrative, for the date of the foreclosure is given as 1864 and the Ada Han-
cock disaster is mentioned as having occurred "shortly after," whereas the latter
event happened on April 27, 1863.
There is another source from which a new light is shed on these events — the
murder on the road to San Bernardino, the disappearance of Tischler, and the
transfer of Vejar's property to Louis Phillips. This source is found in the vivid
story of an old vaquero recently told to the writer in such clear-cut form and
assurance as to give the impression of authenticity. When the firm of Schlesinger
& Tischler acquired their large herds of cattle and sheep in the Valley, they em-
ployed a number of vaqueros and borregueros to look after them. The foreman
of vaqueros, who worked for Tischler from the first, was a young man by the
name of Jose Antonio Perez. Tischler rode out from Los Angeles from time to
time to look after the interests of the firm, but with other business interests in
Los Angeles and other parts of the Valley, he could only spend a small part of his
time on the San Jose Ranch. Much responsibility fell upon Perez and he was a
good manager. Early and late, from one end of the rancho to the other, he rode
his fine horse, directing the work of the vaqueros. \\'eighing over 200 pounds, tall
and handsome, he always rode the largest and best horses on the ranch. "Born
in the saddle," and riding as only a Mexican can, man and mount made a com-
manding and striking picture wherever they went. But though Perez was a faithful
foreman, Tischler felt the need of a partner who should have a personal interest
in the business and could be on the ground all the time to direct it. Doubtless, also,
he was conscious of the hostile feeling of the Mexicans toward him, and was
willing to pass as little time on the ranch as possible. So it came about that Tischler
went to Louis Phillips, then a young man living on a small ranch east of Los
Angeles, in what is now Boyle Heights, and proposed that he should come out to
the San Jose Ranch and take charge. He was to have $100 a month, and in addition
to this was to receive as his share in the enterprise, half of the beccros and the
ganado — i.e., half of the increase in calves and colts and sheep that were born each
year should be his. Louis Phillips had come to San Francisco from Prussia in
78 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
1850 as a young man of about twenty, and for two or three years kept a store at
Long Wharf. On the way to California he had trudged across the Isthmus of
Panama afoot, his pack on his back. In 1853 he had made his way to Los Angeles.
Here he had engaged in various occupations. Without any funds or income at
first, by the thrift and enterprise which characterize his race, he had succeeded in
purchasing some land on the San Antonio Rancho east of Los Angeles. But he
was still a young man of slender means, and readily accepted the offer of Tischler.
It was in this way that Louis Phillips, the first resident in Spadra after the Mexican
grantees, came to the Valley to live. When Tischler brought Phillips out to the
ranch he said to Perez, "Phillips is to have charge. Work for him as you have
worked for me, and I will pay you just the same." Though Tischler was regarded
as rich and Phillips certainly was not, the latter was always careful to pay his bills,
while Tischler never did if he could help it, or, as Perez said, he was "poco malo
a pagar." Among the helpers who worked for Tischler was a boy who had not
been paid his wages for a long time. At last the boy grew restless, and when
Tischler came out to the ranch one day he said he "wanted to have a reckoning," —
a settlement. Tischler meditated. Then and there came into his head an evil
thought, as Perez said, and he said to the boy: "Very well, come with me to San
Bernardino, and I will pay you." Putting a carbine in his wagon, he started off with
the boy on the road to San Bernardino. From this moment no one saw them
again till Tischler drove wildly into San Bernardino with the body of the boy,
shouting that they had been attacked by brigands, who had killed the boy, and he
had barely escaped. A posse of armed men rode back with him to the spot on
the desert where he said the attack was made, and searched the country over. But
they found no trace of brigands, nor yet any tracks, or signs of any struggle.
Some were suspicious of Tischler's story from the first, and he was sharply ques-
tioned ; but he was a rich man and no one dared to accuse him of the crime. More
and more, however, people became convinced that he had killed the boy himself,
and their hatred for the Jew became so bitter that he feared to come out to the
ranch at all. Finally, one day he drove out in a fine new carriage with a splendid
span of horses. That night he spent with Phillips on the ranch and the ne.xt
morning they rode away together. When Phillips returned the ranch was his
and Tischler was never seen again. The papers, deeding to Phillips all the Vejar
interest in the San Jose Rancho and the cattle that Tischler had owned, were made
out in Los Angeles, April 30, 1864, a year after Schlesinger was killed in the Ada
Hancock disaster. The amount of the sale, which was nominally about $28,000,
was largely covered by a note for a sum far less than this, it is said, which Phillips
later redeemed, as we shall see.
When Phillips and Tischler rode off to Los Angeles that April morning,
Tischler told Perez (to return to the foreman) that he should look to Phillips for
his pay from that time on. Little did they realize how long that time would be.
For over fifty years the relation continued, till the time of Mr. Phillips' death. It
is said that Tischler sailed at once for San Francisco, but nothing is known of him
since. If he was not killed by the enraged Mexicans, as was so persistently
rumored, he doubtless suffered from constant fear of attack, and perhaps from a
guilty conscience. It was this, doubtless, which drove him from the scene of his
operations and from the land he had coveted, and had wrested by dubious means
from its rightful owner.
In marked contrast with the easy-going, generous methods of the early Cali-
f ornians, mostly Mexicans, was the shrewd, money-making habit which was a native
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 79
trait of the new owner. Sole proprietor now of the estate, Phillips began with
renewed determination to make his fortune. To the flocks and herds which were
his own by the first agreement with Tischler and by later purchase, were now added
all of Tischler's share. Never running in debt, never wasting, never spending a
cent when it could be helped, he was always on the watch for bargains in land and
cattle, and was ready to pay cash whenever a Mexican wanted to sacrifice a few
acres or a few head of cows for needed plata. But, honest in his transactions, and
paying promptly, he did not incur the ill will of his neighbor Mexicans as Tischler
had. Any day one might see him riding over the ranch alone or with Jose Perez,
notebook in hand, taking inventory of stock, marking what was his and noting
whatever needed attention. His herds increased and he added to the normal
increase thousands of sheep bought from other ranchers. Then he went far, if
need be, to market to best advantage his hides, wool and horses. Driving a band
of horses all the way to Salt Lake City, he sold them for enough to take up his
note and clear his title to the ranch. The center of life on the ranch was the cluster
of buildings by the stream at the foot of the Spadra hills, where stands the
"Phillips Mansion," the two-story brick house so long a landmark on the Spadra
road. Just east of where this house now stands was an old adobe, which was the
home of Chico Vejar (Francisco), a brother of Ramon and son of Ricardo Vejar,
the original grantee. This adobe was built for Chico Vejar, according to Jose
Perez, by three men — Juan Chino, another Mexican called Jesus, and "Nigger
John," the latter one of two colored men, Nigger John and Nigger Ben, who
were among the first arrivals in Monte, where they lived with their families, rais-
ing vegetables and working about town. In this adobe Phillips later kept a
tiendita, or small store, for the benefit especially of the people on the ranch, but
where passers-by might refresh themselves from his store of wine and beer. In
the bend of the hills farther east, by the Pedregoso stream, was the "casa vieja de
Ricardo Vejar," the old adobe ranch house which he first built for his homestead,
but abandoned later, when he had built his new house at Walnut, because the
Indians were so troublesome here. And then there was another small adobe, the
oldest of all, a little distance farther north. All these buildings have now disap-
peared, with many others of less stable construction. The San Jose Creek was
then a good sized stream at the junction of the Pedregoso and San Jose creeks,
and the pond was a real pond, where the ducks and geese had ample room. The
home orchard, of which a good many trees remain, was planted and enlarged with
all kinds of choice fruit trees.
Mention has already been made of the close relation to this Valley of the
colony at El Monte. From this colony came a number of the first families in the
new settlement which grew up in 1867-1868 on the Phillips ranch at Spadra. The
first of these families to move out from El Monte was that of William Rubottom,
known by everyone as "Uncle Billy Rubottom," who had come, as told before,
with other families from Arkansas in 1853. Early in the sixties Uncle Billy had
moved to the Cucamonga Rancho and built a tavern there on the upper road from '
Los Angeles to San Bernardino, not far from the ranch house of Colonel Rains.
It was at the suggestion of Louis Phillips that he left here and moved to the San
Jose Rancho, buying of him one hundred acres of land. Here on the Camino
Real he built another house and tavern that bore his name. Other families fol-
lowed, and the place became known at first as "Rubottom's" because of the Rubot-
tom House. But when a postoffice was secured it was called officially Spadra, on
the petition of Uncle Billy and those who had come with him from the town of
80 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Spadra Bluffs in Arkansas. This was accomplished through Ben Truman of the
Los Angeles Star, who was authorized to locate the station, and who rested at
Rubottom's on his tour of inspection. Uncle Billy was appointed the first post-
master on a salary of two dollars a month ! No place on the road from Los
Angeles to San Bernardino was better known than Rubottom's, and when the
stage changed its route, as it soon did, from the Mud Springs road to that by way
of Spadra, it became at once a busy place. The reputation of this hostelry was
due no less to the energy and attraction of Uncle Billy's daughter-in-law, whom
every one called "Aunt Sue," than to the genial hospitality of LTncle Billy himself.
As Susan Glenn, she was one of two families, the Glenns and the Flinns, who had
come to El Monte from Texas in 1860. Although a large party with 100 wagons
had left Lamar County, Texas, on the overland journey to California, so great
were the hardships they encountered on the way that only these two families
arrived at their destination. Some time after their coming to El Monte, Susan
Glenn had lived for two years with her uncle on the Cucamonga ranch, then
owned by Mrs. Col. Rains, a daughter of Colonel Williams of the Chino Rancho.
Here "Aunt Sue" and Jim Rubottom, Uncle Billy's son, were married.
Before the Rubottoms had finished building their hotel, another family, by
the name of Fryer, also mentioned before among the early settlers at El Monte,
had moved from there to Spadra. As before stated Mr. R. C. Fryer was a
Baptist minister who had come from Arkansas in 1852, with the spirit of the
pioneer as well as the preacher, "wanting more room," as he said. Later, in the
same spirit, and regarding the new location more healthful than El Monte, he had
followed the Rubottoms and had bought some 250 acres of land of Phillips, who
at this time was quite ready to sell small tracts to desirable settlers who would
help to build up a small village on the ranch near by. The sociability and protec-
tion of these neighbors from the States were doubtless welcome to Louis Phillips,
who had been surrounded hitherto only by Mexicans whose language and cus-
toms he was not familiar with, and by bands of troublesome Indians. Nor was it
altogether accidental that, the first of these being "a good gun man," resourceful
and courageous, the second should be a minister of religion.
The event which first brought R. C. Fryer to the ranch and into close contact
with Phillips was no less than the wedding of the latter to Esther Blake, which
Mr. Fryer was called from El Monte to solemnize. Dates are still reckoned from
the Phillips wedding. It was a memorable occasion, one which people who were
present still like to talk about. And every one was there from all over the Valley.
All of the best Mexican families were there, the Palomares and Vejars, the Yorbas
and the Arenas. And there were the Martins and Thompsons and others from
El Monte, the Burdicks from San Dimas, the Rowlands from Puente and many
from Chino. The old two-story adobe overflowed with guests and good cheer.
There was music and dancing and plenty to eat and drink. The wedding was
but the prophecy of many other occasions when Mr. Fryer was to serve the people
as minister here on the ranch ; for after he had organized at Spadra the first Bap-
tist church in the valley, the Phillips pond was often the scene of his baptisms,
and the cemetery near by of his burials.
Yet for some time the number of Americans living here was quite small.
After the Blakes came, Charles Blake, a brother of Mrs. Phillips, opened a store
across the street. A large load of goods for this store was hauled from Los An-
geles on the same day the Fryers moved in their household goods from El Monte.
And there was another store opposite the Rubottom House, owned by Long and
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 81
Swift, who later sold out to A. B. Cakhvell. This was long the principal store.
Charles Blake's clerk, George Egan, in time became his partner and then bought
him out, later moving the store to Pomona.
THE OVERLAND STAGE
Even from the beginning of the village of Spadra there was much travel over
the road from Los Angeles and El Monte to Chino and San Bernardino. Loads
of produce of every sort were hauled to the inland town and exchanged for lumber
and farm products. Teamsters, hauling machinery and provisions to the mines
in Arizona and L'tah, camped over night by the pond. Twenty four-mule teams
were not uncommon, "swampers"' riding by the "wheelers," or pushing ahead to
clear the way. But business increased and more travel came this way after the
hotel was built. Especially there came the Overland Stage. Local stages and
freight wagons there had been, and the Mormons had run regular caravans from
Salt Lake to Los Angeles. \"ehicles of many sorts passed over the road, and
various beasts of burden, but all were unimportant compared with the Overland.
Early settlers at Spadra recall an attempt to use camels for carrying mail from
Los Angeles across the mountains and desert to Fort ]\Iojave. Red-fezzed Turks
in native costume rode the animals and added their color and quaintness to the
strange picture. Children of the West, usually quite fearless, ran trembling to
hide when they saw and heard these unfamiliar, ungainly creatures. But the
experiment was not a success and the beasts were turned loose in the desert, where
at rare intervals the traveler might encounter one.
Nothing could rival the Overland Stage. The thrilling story of the gigantic
enterprise is told at length by other writers. Only the salient points in its history
need be mentioned here. There were many stages owned and run by individuals
and covering various stretches of road across the mountains and plains between
the Pacific Coast and the Eastern States, but the great Overland Stage was known
as Butterfield's, after the man who organized the enterprise and later founded
the Wells Fargo Express. From San Francisco to St. Louis by Los Angeles and
El Paso the distance covered by these stages was about 2,800 miles,* the longest
stage line ever established and successfully operated. Lummis says of it, "The
deadly deserts through which nearly half its route lay, the sand storms, the mirage,
the hell of thirst, the dangerous Indian tribes, and its vast length — forty per cent,
greater than that of any other stage line in our national story — made it a monu-
mental undertaking." When the line was opened in 1858, two stages a week were
run each way, but soon there was a stage every other day, and later six stages a
week each way. Changing horses every fifteen miles, more or less, according to
the character of the road, and exchanging drivers at division points, with farriers
and blacksmiths, and harness makers and stable boys all along the way across the
country, a huge establishment had to be maintained always at a high point of
efficiency. At its height seven hundred and fifty men were employed, and one thou-
sand horses and five hundred big Kentucky mules were used. The prairie
schooners first put on were replaced in 1860 by one hundred new Concord coaches.
Before the Overland Stage was introduced the travel from the East to California
had been mostly around Cape Horn or by way of the Isthmus of Darien. The
miners of '49 and later, prospectors and adventurers, coming singly or in pairs
or small groups as "pardners," had reached the coast by steamer. For the overland
* It is variously stated as from 2,759 miles to 2,880 miles.
82 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
trail was beset with great hardship and danger. Families, with their household
goods, horses and cattle, still found it cheaper and more practicable, but only in
large caravans, well guarded against attack. By even the best stage routes before
the Butterfield, a transcontinental trip from New York to Los Angeles required
at least a month. By the Isthmus of Darien it might be done in twenty-two days ;
but the Butterfield Overland brought the record down to twenty-one days or less.
This reduction in time of transit was of course more important for transmission of
mail than it was for passengers, and the government paid large subsidies for car-
rying the overland mail — over a million dollars a year during the latter part of the
time. In this connection one is reminded that an event of such supreme importance
to California as the passage of the Act admitting it as a State into the Union in
1850 was not known on the Coast until five weeks later, when the news was
brought by boat to San Francisco.'''
Faster even, much faster of course, than the Overland Stage was the Pony
Express which was maintained for over a year, beginning in April 1860, carrying
mail from the Missouri River to Sacramento, a distance of over 2,000 miles.
Averaging over 200 miles a day on its regular schedule, it set a record, unequalled
before the days of railway and telegraph, when Lincoln's Inaugural Message was
carried in seven days and seventeen hours ! This, however, did not follow the
Southern Route but crossed the Sierra Nevadas to Salt Lake, and thence to St.
Joseph. During the Civil \\'ar the Overland Stage over the Southern Route,
extending through so much Confederate territory, was discontinued for a time.
But what was known as the IMiddle Route, from San Francisco to St. Louis by
Sacramento, Placerville, Carson City, Salt Lake and Fort Laramie, was main-
tained in fine condition. At this time and for about five years Ben Holliday was
"Transportation King," receiving at first $800,000, then' $1,000,000, and finally
$1,250,000 a year from the Laiited States Government for transporting the mail
between the ^Missouri River (that is St. Louis, which was then the Western
terminus of the railways) and San Francisco. A remarkable man, this Holliday
had been in his youth a courier in the army, then had come to Salt Lake with
a caravan of goods and had risen in ten years to be the head of this great Overland
Route. Later he became the owner of sixteen steamers crossing the Pacific
ocean. After the war Holliday sold out to the Wells Fargo Company and the
Southern Route was resumed. Coming down the coast from San Francisco to
Gilroy and San Jose, thence to A'isalia and Fort Tejon, the distance to Los
Angeles was about 460 miles. From Los Angeles the route at first was through
El Monte and Mud Springs to Cucamonga (leaving Spadra to the south), and
thence to San Bernardino. While the Rubottoms lived at Cucamonga the stage
changed horses there, but after they moved to Spadra and built the Rubottom house
there, the route was changed to pass that way, and thence by the Chino Ranch
house to San Bernardino, and so on by Warner's Ranch to Fort Yuma, El Paso
and St. Louis.
It was a great day for Spadra when this change in its route brought the
Overland Stage through the village. Not only did the stages pass this way, but
the Rubottom House became a station where horses were changed and passengers
stopped for meals. And the chief event of the day was of course the arrival of
the stage. The cloud of dust in the distance and the thunder of horses' hoofs
and rattle of wheels, as they approached at a full gallop, gave ample tidings of their
coming. Drawn by six or eight handsome horses, the bright painted Concord
* See "How California Came into the Union," by George Hamilton Fitch in the Century Magazine.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 80
coach, "a grand swinging and swaying vehicle, an imposing cradle on wheels,"
hung on thorough-braces between the springs, swung into view like a chariot. On
the high box sat the driver with his long whip, and beside him the guard or con-
ductor, a gun across his knees and a brace of revolvers hanging from his belt.
Sometimes the road and fields were full of wagons and teams from Phillips' to
the station and far down the road, but a way was always made for the stage. The
panting, foaming horses were unhitched from the coach and fresh ones, harnessed
and waiting, were quickly put in their places. Fortunate indeed were those for
whom the stage brought mail or those who were near enough to the driver to
catch his anecdotes of adventure on the road. More times than a few they told
of attacks by Indians or holdups by highwaymen, and shots fired in defense as
the coach dashed by, or of traces quickly cut, a wounded horse dragged out and
barriers removed, while men with rifles intrenched behind the coach held ofif the
ambushing party. Sometimes after a winter rain when the river was swollen
with floods, the stage from Los Angeles could not get through. Xo bridges had
yet been built, and before it was safe to cross, bands of horses were driven across
the quicksand to pack and settle it.
One of the stage coach drivers of this time was S. L. Gilbert, who came to
California in 1858 from Iowa, and who still resides in Pomona, youthful and
keen of mind, though over eighty years of age. He tells of the excitement and
fascination of the life of a driver, which he followed naturally, as his father had
done before him. Driving most of the time on the dead gallop, they encountered
many dangers. The chief danger from Indians was beyond Yuma. There the
Indians would lie in wait, covering themselves up in the sand with their heads
just sticking out. "You couldn't tell the head of an Indian from a croW, and
when the stage passed by they would suddenly raise a rifle and let go. Many a
driver lost his life in the fight with those redskins. \\'e drove six California
horses, and there was never a horse that was well trained. They used to round
up a bunch out in the field and herd them into Los Angeles. In a corral they
would lasso a horse to the snubbing-post, reach down over the fence and put the
harness onto him, then half-a-dozen men would hitch him up to the stage. The
corral was where the Pacific Electric station is in Los Angeles today. I remember
one time we hitched up six green ponies to a stage, and about fourteen fellows
piled in. The driver lashed those horses all the way to Dominguez Field. There
was no obstruction in the way, and we went on a dead run. At a ranch near
Dominguez Field we had a barbecue, and along toward night started back. The
horses were so near dead that we came back at a reasonable pace. That was
about all the breaking those California horses got. I have seen a stage-driver
start out with a bunch of green horses, and one horse jump on top of the backs
of others. Then there would be some pile-up ! But it was all in the day's work."*
The Butterfield Stage was finally abandoned "sometime in 1868 or 1869, but
other companies continued to run stages over the same route : in fact it was so
much competition that brought the Butterfield enterprise to a close. Other lines
were running stages from Tucson to El Paso and from El Paso to St. Louis.
Phineas Banning, the leading transportation agent in the Southwest, whose stages
and freight wagons were running not only to meet his steamers at San Pedro, but
even to San Francisco, operated also a stage line from Los Angeles to Yuma.
Thus until the coming of the railway in 1874, Spadra was not without its through
vith Mr. Gilbert by Lowell Pratt, for the Pomona Progress.
84 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
stage, and after that for a time it was the terminus where the stages from the
East met the railway from Los Angeles.
As a notable point along the road of the Overland Stage, it was natural that
the Rubottom House should be the central spot in the life not only of the village
of Spadra, but of all the surrounding country. Hither came not only the vil-
lagers but the ranchers and their children and servants, on all sorts of errands and
at all times. A holiday party on May day or Christmas brought whole families
from far and near. Every one knew every one else. Especially every one knew
the Rubottoms. Uncle Billy had a son and two daughters. Jim, the son, had
married Susan Glenn, as we have narrated, while they lived in Cucamonga, and
she was a universal favorite, attractive in appearance and kindly to all.
And there were tragedies, too, that were known to all, as in a great family.
Of these Aunt Sue had her share, in the death of her first husband, Jim Rubot-
tom, and later of her twelve-year-old boy Billy, who was killed in trying to step
from one car to another. And then her daughter Ina was hurt and permanently
.rippled. Later she has lived a very busy but less troubled life as the wife of
Senator Currier, as will be seen. The greatest tragedy of all came to this family
while living at El ]\Ionte, before they came to Spadra. The younger daughter.
Civility Rubottom, had married a Southern officer by the name of Hilliard P.
Dorsey, who had won distinction during the IMexican war, and, coming to Cali-
fornia in '49, had made many friends in the new West. He was a leader in
Masonic circles, having organized the first lodge in Los Angeles, and having served
as its first Master. W hen the first land office was opened in Los Angeles in 1850,
Captain Dorsey was appointed Receiver and served in this office till his death.
\\'ith many sterling qualities, frankness, sincerity and winsomeness and energy,
he was entirely successful in business, both public and private, and he acquired
two large ranches, one above San Gabriel and the other south of Los Angeles.
But in the home life there were troubles. The young couple had built their home
on the San Gabriel Ranch near the Benito Wilson Lake, and had been very happy
there. But in time differences arose between them which grew to open quarrels,
and finally the young wife, taking their little boy, then only five months old, fled
one night to a neighbor's house. On a ranch near by was the home of William
Stockton. Here they found shelter till morning, when she was taken to the Rubot-
tom home at El ]\Ionte. Lfncle Billy Rubottom, not only welcomed his daughter
home again, but warned Dorsey that he must leave her alone. Nothing daunted,
the Captain tried to jiersuade his wife to return, and then somehow got possession
of the child and took it back to their home on the San Gabriel ranch. But this
did not bring them together. The young mother could not let the child go, nor
would she return to the Captain. So, watching her chance, she went to the ranch
slipped into the house when he was gone, and captured the baby again, running
again to the Stocktons' for refiige. Not daring to shelter them long for fear of
the Captain's wrath, Stockton hitched up a team early the next morning and
drove them home again to El Monte. On the way they stopped, as every one
did, at the store near the Mission. Cyrus Burdick, the proprietor of the store,
who knew all the families well, cautioned Stockton, "Better keep out of it," he
said. "Both L'ncle Billy and Captain Dorsey are dangerous men when aroused
and will shoot at the drop of a hat." "I know," said Stockton, "but I must take
the girl home to her folks; I'll have nothing to do with the men." \Mien Dorsey
learned that they had gone again to the Rubottom home in El Monte, he came
down to the store and loaded his gun. "Better not go," said Burdick, "Uncle
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 85
Billy is a desperate man and thinks nothing of killing." But Dorsey replied, "Cy,
I won't kill Uncle Billy," and went on his way. The old man saw his son-in-law
coming along the hedge, by the path that led to the house, and he stood on the
threshold to meet him. Love and honor were at stake with both. The father
would defend his daughter ; the husband would have his wife. Both were of
Southern blood, fearless and unyielding. Both had fought to the death before.
It was Uncle Billy who called out, "Dorsey, you can not come in." And Dorsey,
still advancing, said, "I'll have my wife or die in the attempt." "Stop," said
Uncle Billy, "not another step." But Dorsey, reaching up and plucking a leaf
from the hedge, put the stem in his mouth and came steadily on, tossing Uncle
Billy one of his brace of dueling pistols as he advanced. At the same moment
Uncle Billy reached for his shotgun and fired the fatal shot. Friends of the family
uphold them both. "It had to be," they said. "What else could either do?" But
those who knew him best said that Uncle Billy always grieved for the man, and
never ceased to regret. The baby boy, his grandson, Kewen Dorsey, found his
home with his grandfather until, sometime later, his mother was married again.
And years after the grandson cared for Uncle Billy in his declining years until
his death.
One of the heirlooms much prized by Kewen Dorsey is a bowie knife, pre-
sented to him not many years ago, by the man who cared for his father's body
when he was killed and who took this knife from his belt at the time. It has
an inlaid mother-of-pearl handle and was always worn out of sight but within
reach. For those were days when men were quick to act, when honor was counted
dearer than life, and a man's life often depended upon his quickness with gun
and knife.
Besides this knife which his father carried. Kewen Dorsey preserves also
another whose story is even more sanguinary than this. An older knife than his
father's, it bears the date 1826, the year when it was made for his grandfather.
Uncle Billy Rubottom. And this is the story of the older knife. When Uncle
Billy first crossed the plains in 1852 he came in charge of an emigrant train of
over one hundred wagons. One of the party took with him a parcel of nine
negroes. \A'hether these negroes were his slaves or were loaned or rented to him
by another plantation owner and were to be returned is not clear, but the negroes
became independent and would not return. And when Uncle Billy went back to
Arkansas there were some who said that he had sold these negroes himself and
pocketed the money. One day as he was organizing another caravan to go back
to California two men came to him with the direct charge. It is not difficult to
guess what Uncle Billy said. At any rate one of the men fired a shot which
passed through Uncle Billy's hand, tearing two fingers, nearly off and going clear
through his body. Believing himself mortally wounded, but with incredible
stamina he drew a silk handkerchief through the bullet hole to stanch the flow
of blood, and then in a frenzy of rage he dashed after the two men. With his
whole hand, he drew his knife from his belt and pulled off the sheath with his
teeth. Then following the men upstairs, it is said that he fell upon them
so furiously that he literally cut them all to pieces. A large ransom was
offered by the friends of the men for the capture of Uncle Billy, dead
or alive, and he was carried to the mountains by his brother, who cared
for him there until the wound was healed, for it did not prove fatal after
all. When he was well and strong again, the two came down to the valley
and appeared at a large gathering of townspeople. "Here's the man that ransom
86 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
is offered for." said his brother as they came into view, "if any one wants the
money he'd better get him now." But no one made a move; somehow or other
no one seemed anxious to take him. No court would hold him guilty, but there
remained a family feud — a feud which would very likely have been much more
serious if Uncle Billy had not soon moved \\'est just as he had planned to do.
Even on the way, it is said that a party came as far as New Mexico to get Uncle
Billy and take him back, but, as "Toots" Martin and others who were in the party
say, with a wise look and satisfied chuckle, "They went back without him." Nor
was this the end of the story. Many years after, when Uncle Billy was over
seventy years old and had only a few more years to live (he died October 14,
1885), when A. T. Currier was sheriff and A. B. Caldwell was postmaster in
Spadra, letters came to Caldwell from a sheriff in Spadra Bluffs, Arkansas, inquir-
ing about William Rubottom. As a result of the correspondence which was car-
ried on for some time, the Eastern sheriff wrote Caldwell that he was coming on.
Caldwell in the meantime had, of course, informed Uncle Billy and told him that
the sheriff was one of a number of the second generation determined to avenge
the death of the two men whom he had killed nearly a half century before.
Friends urged Uncle Billy to go north and avoid the trouble, and he was tempted at
first to go. But as the time approached the old spirit prevailed and he said, "H — ,
what do I want to go away for? I'm too old to run away. Let them come."
When the sheriff arrived at Spadra he was told where he would find his man.
And sure enough he found him. For the old man was waiting for him. With his
old pistol in one hand and the same old knife in the other. Uncle Billy shouted,
"hands up." And the sheriff's hands went up quickly as Uncle Billy said "This
is the same old knife that killed those men, and it is still good." There were
more words, too, but they need not be told even if we knew what they were. It
is enough that again the man who came to "get" Uncle Billy returned without his
quarry, and Uncle Billy was never molested again. In his later life the memory
of the men whom he had killed would often come up to trouble him ; but he would
always say, as he talked confidentially with his grandson, "I should have to do
just the same if I were living it over again."
Still another tragedy in this much troubled family came very near to wiping
them all out, including the grandson, Kewen Dorsey, as well. It was some years
after the death of his father, when his mother had married James M. Greenwade
and they were living in Cucamonga, not far from the country store which Green-
wade kept. There were the father and mother and three little children. In those
days when every one drank, and holidays were celebrated by drinking "a little
more," it came about that Greenwade and a comrade were celebrating Christmas
night in the way they were wont to do, and the celebration continued till New
Year's day, 1869. In all this week from Christmas to New Year's neither of them
was quite sober, and both were threatened with delirium tremens before the spree
was over. On New Year's Eve Greenwade went down to the store with his jug and
filled it up at the barrel. Every country store then had its "barrel" for the con-
venience of its customers, usually in the back of the store. A dipper hung near
by and every one helped himself, leaving a dime for his drink. So Greenwade
filled his jug at the barrel, but with it he mixed some strychnine, mistaking it per-
haps for whiskey, in the hazy state of his mind. Coming back to the house again
he got some glasses, filled them with the concoction, and urged them all to drink.
Greenwade himself drank first, and his little daughter with him, but the mother
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 87
became suspicious and caught the glasses away from the boys before she or they
had tasted it. Her suspicions were at once confirmed, as husband and daughter died
on the spot from the poison. Only by a miracle had Kewen and his mother and
his half-brother Jeff escaped the same fate. Kewen's mother wa.s a true Rubot-
tom, determined and fearless. After the death of Kewen's father, his namesake,
Colonel Kewen, came into possession of certain papers and property belonging
to Kewen and his mother. The mother tried repeatedly to get them from him, but
in vain, until, taking matters into her own hands, she demanded them of him at the
point of a revolver and got them.
These accounts of the tragedies in this one family in Spadra read to us today
life the fantasmagoria of another world, as indeed they were, for the times were
strenuous, and law and order were only in the making then. They were not
strange then, however, but rather typical. Despite this background of another
generation, and in fact partly because of it, Kewen Dorsey has been a most
valuable citizen in town and valley. By reason of his good judgment and ability,
he has helped very materially in the building up of its resources. His tall, well-
knit figure is typical of his rugged strength of character and his clear, steady eye
is the mark of his sincerity.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE SPANISH SETTLEMENT AT SAN JOSE HILLS
Cyrus Burdick, the Pioneer of Pomona — Revolutionary Forbears — Over-
land Journey — Residence at San Gabriel — Earthquakes — Removal to
San Jose \'alley — First Orange GrovE — Mexican Life at the Spanish
Settlement — Passing of the Early Generation — Children of Ygnacio
Palomares — The Vejar Families — The Ygnacio Alvarado House and
Its Activities — The Indians — The First School and Its Teacher, P. C.
ToNNER — First Schoolhouse — Tonner the Teacher — Tonner the
Student and Poet — Sweet San Jose — The Loop and Meserve and Other
Early Tracts of the San Jose de Ariba.
The scene of this story reverts very soon to the spot at which the story
began, to the eastern end of the San Jose Hills and the stream throngh the willows
at their foot, where Don Ricardo Vejar and Don Ygnacio Palomares first sur-
veyed the valley with approving eyes and where a little later, together with their
families and with appropriate religious exercises, they took formal possession of
the Rancho.'''' It was in 1870 that Cyrus Burdick and his family came to this
place and bought a small tract of land beside the stream and over the end of the.
hill. As he was thus the first American, not of Spanish blood, to come into what
is now Pomona to live, and since he was so conspicuous a figure in its early devel-
opment, it will be of interest first to go back some years and follow this family
from their Eastern habitat to their final home in the Golden Hesperides.
In Revolutionary days the forbears of both Cyrus Burdick and his wife lived
in Vermont and New York. Gideon Burdick, his grandfather, was born in Rhode
Island in 1762, and was a drummer-boy in the army. From an authentic account
of that time we find that "when very young he volunteered in the Revolutionary
War, and served under General George Washington in Defense of his Country:
for which several years previous to his death he received eight dollars a month,
as a pension from the Government of the United States." Judge Thomas Burdick,
father of Cyrus, was a surveyor and teacher when a young man in Jamestown.
Utica, and other places in New York. He wrote a text book on arithmetic which
was published in Albany and used in the schools of the state. In Iowa, to which
state he moved later, he was mentioned as "a prominent and well-known citizen
at Council Bluflfs," and he held various positions of trust in Pottawattamie
County, among them that of county clerk and of county judge. The spirit of
the pioneer must have been in their blood, as the family moved from point to
point westward across the continent. Not for the sake of adventure but in search
of a permanent home and a larger, freer life in the ever enlarging ^^'est, they
followed the retreating frontier from New York to Ohio, from Ohio to Illinois
and Iowa, and thence, trekking over plains and mountains, to the very Pacific
Coast. Time after time the familv halted on the frontier and established them-
90 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
selves, believing their wanderings over and hoping to abide. But each time it
was only for a sojourn of a few months or years before the same spirit com-
pelled them to "pull up their stakes" and move on. The last long trek was that
in 1853 from Council Bluffs, Iowa, in prairie schooners across the plains to
Colorado, Utah and California. The party made up a large caravan. Wagons
loaded with household goods and provisions were drawn by oxen and by horses.
Women and children also were made as comfortable as possible under the great
canvas tops of these wagons. But the younger men for the most part rode horse-
back, herding the cattle and scouting ahead to make sure of the road, and to guard
against attack. z-\t least, this was the way they started out. When they arrived
in San Bernardino, the men were all afoot, and barefoot many of them besides, the
last cows of their herd were hitched into the wagons, in place of the oxen and
horses with which they had started, dragging them slowly in on the last stretch
of the terrible overland trail. Sickness had delayed them at Salt Lake and com-
pelled them to ch.-inge their plans and to come by the southern route to Los
Angeles instead of going to Sacramento Valley as they had intended. Yet not-
withstanding all the sufferings and hardships which they actually experienced on
the way, they appear to have been more filled with gratitude for their escape
from other and worse dangers than with weariness and relief on account of those
encountered and now past. Once at least they had escaped an ambush by hostile
Indians, once they had all but drunk of poisoned water, and once a fate like
that of the Donner Lake party at the hands of Mormon-supported Indians, was
narrowly averted. Survivors of this journey tell of supernatural guidance, of
spiritual warnings on account of which by taking a different course, or making a
long detour, each of these disasters was avoided. Wonderful it certainly was,
if not even miraculous or providential. As the party came down from the pass
into the midst of the green fields and gardens of the little settlement at San Ber-
nardino, it seemed to them a very paradise. Here were feed for the cows and
fresh fruit and vegetables for the travelers, rest for all, and freedom from the
thraldom of anxiety and hunger and fear. But after a short time for rest at San
Bernardino the Burdicks and others of the party pushed on to San Gabriel and
Los Angeles.
In the family of Cyrus Burdick, then a young man of nineteen, were his
father. Judge Thomas Burdick, his mother Anna (Higley) Burdick, his two
brothers Horace and Thomas, and his sister Lucretia who had married James
Frank Burns, one of the overland party as they were crossing the plains. At-
tracted by the settlement at San Gabriel and by the favorable conditions for
farming, they first secured some land east of the village, and made their home
there while looking into various opportunities for occupation and investment. In
their search for favorable openings Cyrus Burdick went as far north as Puget
Sound, and was interested for a time in mining in Arizona and in the tin mines
at Temescal. In 1856 he decided to open a store in San Gabriel in company with
Frank Burns. Burns was a dynamo of energy and in the opening and building
up of their business was a good partner for the more quiet and conservative Bur-
dick; but he soon grew tired of the store, and while he retained his interest in
the business, he ceased to take an active part in it. He soon moved to Los Angeles
where he was for many years a notable character and filled many important
positions — teacher, county school superintendent, county sheriff and chief of
police.
CYRUS BURDICK
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 91
The long adobe building just across the road from the Mission church was
a strategic location for their store. It was a central spot for the villagers as well
as for the ranchers who came in for tools and provisions. It was convenient for
travelers on the road between the Pueblo and the country who wanted to stop for
something to eat or to drink, or for ammunition for their guns, for feed for their
animals, or for rope or leather or anything else needed in mending wagon or
harness, or bridle. It. was also a convenience for those who lived at the Mission
or who came there to mass and could thus do their errands on the way. More-
over they soon discovered that besides keeping a good stock of the necessaries of
life, the young storekeeper Burdick was always fair in his dealings, ready to
accommodate and never meddled in others' affairs. Studying with Padre Sanchez,
he set himself earnestly to learn the language of the Mexicans, who constituted,
of course, the greater part of his customers, and he was often consulted by those
who were in trouble, for they found they could always trust in his advice. Traders
came from far-away points, not only to buy but to sell and exchange grain and
potatoes and onions they brought from El Monte ; butter and eggs, and shingles
and wood from San Bernardino. So the business and good reputation of the
store grew steadily stronger, and friends and acquaintances increased.
The incident related in the last chapter, when Hilliard P. Dorsey stopped at
the store to load his guns on the way to his last impromptu duel, was not an
uncommon one. As a result doubtless of his willingness to accommodate and
his giving every one a square deal he rarely "lost an account." Sometimes in
those days of the A'igilantes, more unscrupulous and lawless than their name-
sakes in the North, an account would end abruptly, as when one day some men
came by the store with a fellow whom they had caught stealing horses, and one de-
manded some rope to string him up with. "T'll sell you no rope for lynching,"
said Burdick. "If you have the power to take the man and hang him you have
the power to take the rope." As they strung up the thief to a tree on' the street,
the merchant went to his ledger and wrote across the credit side of the fellow's
account, "balanced by death from hanging."
In January, 1859, Cyrus Burdick married Amanda Chapman, a young daugh-
ter in a family whom the Burdicks had known in the East. By extending the
adobe store building, a suite of rooms was added for their home. It was while
taking an inventory of some goods he was buying from her father that Mr.
Burdick met the young woman who soon became his wife. Charles P. Chapman,
her father, had come across the plains from Iowa. Her mother, Amanda Fuller,
was from Vermont. According to a number of early settlers in ]\Ionte and San
Gabriel, she was "the prettiest girl in the Valley." But more than this, she was
a fine housekeeper and nurse and a most necessary helpmeet for the young store-
keeper. Though of Eastern parents she soon became a favorite with the best
Mexican families as well as with the few Americans in the Valley. Among those
who liked to tarry at the store and visit with the Burdicks, when they came to
the Alission or passed by on their way to Los Angeles, were the Palomares and
Vejar families from the San Jose Rancho. And there were other friends living at
this time near the Mission who later moved to the San Jose Valley. Notable
among them were the families of C. F. Loop and F. M. Slaughter, of whom thi?
history has more yet to say.
So the life here was full of incident and interest, of pleasure as well as busi-
ness. As one looks back upon it, there must have been far more of service, in
contributing to the comforts and needs of others, than of profit getting for them-
92 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
selves. Living for a time in quarters at one end of the store, they awoke every
morning with the chimes of the Mission bells in their ears — "those musical Mission
bells," as Mrs. Burns, Mr. Burdick's sister, now in her ninety-first year, refers to
them, fondly recalling the memories of those Mission days. Sunday services and
daily mass were conducted by the Spanish padres, of whom there were still one
or two always there. And Mrs. Burdick tells of gala days, fiestas and barbecues —
and of the bull-and-bear fights so dear to the Mexican heart, with gay toreador.s
and with the usual gory ending when the bear, rising up on his liaunches with
forepaws outstretched for his bear hug, would receive the ugly thrust from the
horns of the angry bull.
In 1860 Mr. Burdick brought from San Diego three swarms of bees, the first
to be introduced in the Valley. Studying their habits and taking special care of
them himself, he was able to sell at a dollar a pound all the honey he could produce.
This alone would soon have earned him a small fortune, but he became so impreg-
nated with the poison from bee-stings that he was threatened with tetanus and
his doctor warned him that he must give up his bees at once.
During a large part of their time in San Gabriel earthquakes were of frequent
occurrence. The most vigorous and terrifying of all was that of 1855, when Los
Angeles and all the Valley were rocked to their foundations. Adobe houses with
walls three feet thick cracked and crumbled into piles of debris. When a heavy
shock was felt people would rush out into the open, there to find the cattle bawling
with legs asprawl, and tree trunks swaying from side to side like drunken men.
The water in the ditches was rocked and spilled, or even quite emptied out Foi
weeks at a time, so the older residents narrate, the earth was never quiet. Dishes
were always rattling. Retaining strips were fastened to the shelves to keep things
from sliding oiT. Even when not conscious otherwise of a tremor, one might
often see the surface of the water in a tumbler slightly quivering. Those who
lived in old adobe buildings like the store, whose massive walls supported those
great square-hewn pine timbers, hauled from the San Bernardino ^Mountains,
were in constant fear of being buried under these great roof timbers.
It was during their life at San Gabriel that the Civil War broke out. l\fany
of the Burdicks' closest friends were Southerners and one of the most intimate
was F. M. Slaughter, who was intensely "rebel" in his sympathies. But in his
quiet way Cyrus Burdick was always deeply loyal and patriotic. He early enlisted
for service in the Union army and received his arms and equipment from the gov-
ernment, but as mobilization of Western volunteers was repeatedly postponed,
for him as for many other Calif ornians the call never came.
It has been stated that Burdick and Burns rarely lost an account. This was
especially true of their Mexican customers. Honesty and candor usually command
a return in kind — noblesse oblige — but not always. In an unfortunate hour Mr.
Burdick was per.suaded to endorse a note for a minister living then in San Gabriel.
The amount of the note — about $8.000 — would not be considered large today, and
the possibility of demand upon him would seem to be remote considering the
position and standing of the principal signatory. But when the note matured the
minister, a Air. Brewster, had absconded leaving word that Mr. Burdick would
have to pay the note. All he had was in the store. He was urged to repudiate,
to go through bankruptcy, to place his property in his wife's name or his part-
ner's. But for him all this was unthinkable. Doubtless he could have borrowed
a large part of the amount from friends, but after this experience he would ask
no one to endorse any note of his. There was only one way to meet the obliga-
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 93
tion and this he followed without hesitation. At a fearful sacrifice everything
was sold out, even their private furniture — everything had to go. But the money
was raised and the note paid off.
This e.xperience is a striking index of tlie sterling integrity which was a dom-
inant characteristic of this pioneer — all the more conspicuous in a time when life
and law and order, and character even, were lightly esteemed. This same char-
acteristic of scrupulous honesty compelled other sacrifices later. At one time after
bargaining for a large tract at Twelfth and Main streets in Los Angeles, and
making certain payments on it, he sacrificed it all to meet other obligations. Con-
sidering the enormous values existing in and on properties which Mr. Burdick
has owned in Los Angeles and Pomona, one might well wonder how he escaped
becoming a millionaire. But the explanation is clear. It was this absolute honesty
and an almost ultra-conservatism which combined to prevent his gaining great
wealth. Because of these traits manifested often later in the development of the
town and valley he has been called sometimes "timid" and a "moss-back." They
were, however, elements most needed here at that time and later in the mad days
of wildcat speculation bursting in the boom, elements that made him a tower of
strength both to the community and to many reliant friends. No wonder that
every one said "his word is as good as his bond" ; no wonder that "Don Cy" was
trusted implicitly b}' every one, especially by the Mexicans, who knew that he
would not see one wronged or exploited, as so many were because of their ignor-
ance of our language and laws.
About this time Judge Burdick disposed of his ranch at San Gabriel and se-
cured a place near the old fort on Fort Street then in the outskirts of the Pueblo
and far enough from the Plaza to be had at a small price. It extended from the
corner of First and Fort, now Broadway, well up the hill opposite the spot on
which the City Jail now stands, and as far as the Fort on the side which now
overlooks The Times. It was a fine, sightly location, and on it was a large adobe
house, built by some Mexicans of earlier days, and ample enough to accommodate
not only "Grandpa and Grandma Burdick" but the families of their children when
they returned for long or short visits, as they often did. For Thomas Burdick
was very fond of his children and ready to make any sacrifice for them. So the
old adobe below the Fort was the headquarters for all the Burdick families for
many years after. Here Judge Burdick even in his declining years found mucli
to do in a legal and clerical way. In 1856 he was elected County Supervisor.
Dignified in appearance and bearing, always scrupulously clean and correct in his
dress, he was a figure even more conspicuous in the ^^'est than he had been in
the East. And these were but the outward signs of an inner breeding and upright-
ness finite as marked.
■ After disposing of their business at San Gabriel in 1864, Cyrus Burdick was
engaged in several occupations in Los Angeles and elsewhere, including a mining
venture in Arizona. In 1866, he went to the Chino ranch where for two years
he had a dairy and made fine cheese for the Los Angeles markets. Here again
he had as friend and neighbor Hon. F. M. Slaughter, who had moved from San
Gabriel to his ranch at Rincon. This was after the death of Robert Carlisle, and
while the ranch was in charge of Joe Bridger, another son-in-law of Colonel
Williams.
After two years on the Chino Tslr. Burdick decided to have a ranch and cattle
of his own, even if on a small scale. In the San Dimas Canyon, north of Mud
Springs, there was living at this time a Dr. Charles Cunningham and his family.
94 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
who had come from San Bernardino not long before and taken up a quarter
section of government land. He called j\Ir. Burdick's attention to part of a
section between his land and that of Henry Dalton, in the addition to the San
Jose Tract, near the mouth of the San Dimas Canyon, and urged him to come
there. Thus it came about that he selected for his ranch the place on which is
now the C. C. Warren house and grove. Here they built a dwelling house, barn
and milkhouse. From the Chino ranch they secured a small bunch of selected
cows and heifers and a few horses. For a time the venture proved successful.
There was plenty of water and feed for the cattle and their stock increased in
number.
And then there came the terrible drouth of 1869; the feed gave out; and the
stream was dry far up in the canyon. Finding a place where the feed was better,
near what was Anaheim Landing, he arranged for pasturage and drove a herd of
100 fine cows over there. Then came a scourge of disease. Every day seven or
eight of the animals would come up to the fence by the house and stand there
with legs spread out till they dropped down dead. No remedies seemed to avail.
So his herd dwindled away and all his capital (and interest, too, in tlie business !
till he went back to San Dimas and sold out his ranch to the Cunninghams.
Until after 1870 the chief industries of the San Jose and neighboring ranches
had been the raising of cattle, and to some extent also, of grain. Only in a few
home plots, near the larger haciendas, had any attempts at horticulture been made.
Ricardo Vejar had a small orchard of pears. At the Alvarado and Palomares
homes were other deciduous fruits. In the court at "Cactus Lodge" — the old
Ygnacio Alvarado place now owned by H. J. Nichols — is an old cherry tree
which was doubtless planted before this time, also a number of old olive trees.
Farther away, at Billy Rowland's on the Puente ranch, is an orchard of olive
trees that must have been planted when the Rancho was first deeded to its grantees.
And there are also orange trees, planted in the early fifties. Still farther removed
from this Valley were the Vignes and Wolf skill orchards. In the old Mission
garden at San Gabriel the padres of a previous generation had planted a few
orange trees. This little orchard of perhaps a half acre, enclosed within heavy
adobe walls and long guarded under lock and key, was probably the oldest citrus
grove in the South.
When Cyrus Burdick turned away from his ranch at San Dimas he wa.^
looking not only for a new place of residence but for a new occupation. After
careful investigation he decided to engage in horticulture and especially in the
raising of citrus fruits. The few experiments mentioned showed that climate and
soil were most favorable. As an industr)' citrus growing was practically unknown ;
irrigation, save in a few rare instances, was equally foreign ; and as for organized
marketing, there was none. But he had faith to make a beginning; and this
decision was of much importance, for his experiment was of far more than per-
sonal interest and significance. His grove of seedling oranges was the first in
this Valley. It was in fact a pioneer enterprise. But it was not an undertaking
of large proportions — small indeed as compared with modern orchards, and small
as compared with contemporary enterprises of other kinds. For the loss of his
cattle, and other losses too, compelled him to begin all over again ; looking to his
father for assistance in purchasing the land for the venture. In selecting the
right location not soil but water was the first consideration. In this choice he was
aided by his acquaintance with the large ranchers of the \^alley. It was Francisco
Palomares, son of Ygnacio, who urged him to come to the San Jose ranch. Here
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 95
at the end of the hills was the finest of soil and abundance of water. To the other
Mexican families on the Rancho San Jose de Ariba the Burdicks were equally
welcome and they were able to buy a choice tract of land, with permanent water
right in the stream which flowed through his land and in the springs to the north
which were its source.
So it came about that Cyrus Burdick, the pioneer American in Pomona,
chose for his home and orchard almost the identical spot which had proved so
attractive to the original grantees of the Valley, Ygnacio Palomares and Ricardo
Vejar, when they first explored this region a generation or more before. The
forty acres of land which he bought at this time extended westward from Tomas
Palomares' west line, and northward over the hill from the "Old County Road." as
Orange Grove Avenue was called. Part of this land is now in Ganesha Park,
south of the hills, and part in the new Ganesha Park tract.
The first large planting was about five hundred seedling orange trees bought
of a French nurseryman in Los Angeles. It was then supposed that orange trees
would not do well if planted by daylight, so the holes were dug, and the trees
brought out under cover, and Mrs. Burdick held a lantern while Mr. Burdick and
his helpers set them out by night. This was in the spring of 1872. As these trees
grew larger they became a source of considerable income, but when the marker,
for navels was established the crop was of little value. With the opening up of
the Ganesha Park tract in Pomona, this orchard of the oldest and largest orange
trees in the Valley was cut down. Many trees of other varieties were planted
from time to time, and when later the navel orange was introduced a number of
acres of these were added. Besides the oranges, there were lemons and olives and
a row of limes. There were walnuts, and almonds, and apples of many varieties,
quinces, pears, peaches and plums. The plain board house with its stone fire-
place and chimney, which ]\Ir. Burdick built when he bought the place, was the
family home for eighteen years. Conspicuous at first in its coat of whitewash,
it was soon embowered in vines and lost among the large seedling orange and
walnut trees about it.
At this time, that is in 1870. the generation of i\Iexicans with whom the story
of the Valley began, was passing ofif the stage, and a new generation was coming
on. Those whom Cyrus Burdick found as his neighbors and contemporaries on
the San Jose Rancho were the sons and daughters of the original grantees.
MEXICAN LIFE AT THE SPANISH SETTLEMENT
Before turning to the beginnings and development of the town of Pomona,
it will be fitting at this time to consider briefly the passing of the earlier generar
tion of Mexican pioneers, the families which took their place, and their life at
the San Jo.se Hills before the Americans came, save for the Burdicks and a few
who followed them.
The first of the early generation of Spaniards in this \^alley to pass ofl^ the
stage, one of the most noted of his time, was Don Antonio Maria Lugo, grantee
of the great Chino Rancho, who died in 1860. The great estate was now divided
among his grandsons and granddaughters or their husbands. The Chino had
passed from Colonel Williams, his son-in-law, first to Robert Carlisle, who mar-
ried his daughter, Francisca, and then, after the death of Carlisle, to Joe Bridger,
who had married another daughter, Victoria. The Cucamonga Ranch was in
charge of Colonel John Rains, husband of Maria Pierced, still another daughter
of the Colonel.
96 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Don Ygnacio Palomares had died on the second of Xovember, 1864. dividing
his half of the San Jose Rancho among his immediate heirs. It is doubtless true,
and will probably continue to be true historically, that the interest of the people
will generally center about this one of the two first owners of the land in the San
Jose \'alley more than in any other of its worthy pioneers. For this reason we
have reproduced parts of the wills both of Don Ygnacio Palomares and of his
mother, i\Iaria Benedita Saiz, resurrected from the early records of the Probate
Court in Los Angeles.
Excerpts translated from the
!J-ILL OF YGNACIO PALOMARES
State of California ] Township of San Jose.
County of Los Angeles j My last will.
In the name of God, and of the Great Creator, considering that we are all
mortals and being a little ill, I wish to dispose of the small fortune that God has
given me, before being deprived of the corporeal faculties with which the nature
of man is endowed.
This twenty-third day of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, I, Ygnacio
Palomares, in due form according to the law of the L'nited States, do name as
executors my wife, Concepcion Lopez, and my son, Francisco Palomares ;
Article 1. I charge that when my soul is parted from my body, this shall be
buried in the graveyard where part of my family is already laid.
Article 2. My burial shall be simple and without pomp.
Article 3. I leave my wife absolute owner of the following property (speci-
fication of horses, cows and sheep) the land of the Rancho, excepting the portions
my sons possess, which are the following:
Tomas Palomares, my son, possesses a house with the land which it occupies.
His fences shall be forever respected.
I leave my son, Francisco Palomares, owner of the old house ("la casa vicja" )
and land that is fenced separately from the property of Tomas Palomares. The
vineyard of San Antonio and house that is on the land of San Jose, together with
the other house which is on the Camino Real of the same Ranch and the remain-
ing property shall be respected as belonging to my wife.
I declare that I have had eight children, four males and four females. First,
Luis Palomares died single. Second, Tomas Palomares lives, married. Teresa
Palomares lives, married. Francisco Palomares lives, single. Manuel Palomares
died, married. Josefa Palomares lives, single. Maria de Jesus Palomares died,
single. Carolina Palomares lives, single.
My executors are freed from any bonds.
A vineyard which belongs to the estate of my deceased mother, Benedita
Saiz, shall be delivered to her heirs by my executors.
And that rny will be respected by my heirs and assigns and by the laws of
the L'nited States, I sign this on the Rancho de San Jose, this twenty-third of
April, eighteen hundred and sixty- four.
\Mtness: Ygxacio Palom.\rES.
Ygx° Alvarado
his
RlC,\RD0 -)- Vejar
mark
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 97
Filed m the Probate Court with this will are :
1. Witness of Ygnacio Alvarado as to the will and death of Ygnacio Palomares.
2. A receipt b_v \\'hiling & King, April 1, 1875, for $200 by Francisco Palomares
for "professional" services in the matter of contest of survey of San Jose
Rancho and water rights of said rancho.
3. The appointment in April, 1875, of A. T. Currier, P. C. Tonner, and William
Rubottom as appraisers.
4. Petition for probate of will, December 14, 1864, by A. J. King, naming as
heirs, Tomas, Teresa, Francisco, Josefa, Carolina Palomares, and Samuel
Rubidoux de Palomares.
5. Decree allowing the final account, ]\Iarch 18, 1876.
6. Petition for distribution, March 17 . 1876.
7. Decree of distribution, June 3, 1876.
8. Statement of account.
9. Will of Benedita Saiz, mother of Ygnacio Palomares.
The decree of distribution recognizes as heirs : Tomas Palomares, Teresa
Palomares, Francisco Palomares, Josefa Palomares, Carolina Palomares, and
Concepcion Lopez de Palomares, his wife. It directs that the whole property be
delivered to his wife. The property described consists of 3,335 acres of the
Rancho San Jose, of the appraised value of $23,345, and cash amounting to
$17,500.
The will of his mother is even more quaint and interesting, especially in the
original ; but only a part of the translation is given here :
"In the name of God Almighty, one in spirit and three in person, in whom I
have faith to live and die according to the Catholic religion which I profess, and
in which I profess to live and die, I, Maria Benedita Saiz, finding myself in sound
health and full judgment, have resolved before three witnesses to write this
my will ;
1st. Committing my soul to the Lord most High, who created me and re-,
deemed me with his precious blood, by wdiose favor I have lived till now in this
world :
2nd. I desire and it is my will that after my death my body shall be buried
in the Catholic cemetery of this city of Los Angeles.
3rd. Furthermore, I affirm that I am seventy-three years of age, a little
more or less ; that I was married according to the rites of the Catholic Church to
Don Jose Cristobal Palomares in the former mission of Santa Clara of this State
of California, at the age of twelve years, a little more or less, by which marriage
we have had twelve children. Of them, three died without issue, and the other
nine who are living are the following : Francisco, Ygnacio. Barbara, Concepcion,
Maria del Rosario, Estefana, Dolores, Josefa, ]\laria de Jesus. The which I con-
stitute my legitimate heirs, and my goods shall be divided among them in equal
parts, except my house, which I actually possess, which I leave to my son Ygnacio,
as is explained in a separate article.
4th. (No obligations and no bills due.)
5th. Furthermore, I affirm that I have a home situated on Main Street,
consisting of three rooms, which I order and it is my wish that it be delivered with
its own ground plot to my son, Don Ygnacio Palomares, excepting eleven varas,
a little more or less, to the south of said house, which I have deeded to my
daughter, Maria del Rosario.
(Omitting 6th and 7th.)
98 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
8th. Furthermore, I designate as my lawful executors, my son Ygnacio
Palomares, Don Jose Luis Palomares, and Don Ygnacio Maria Alvarado; and I
charge these three gentlemen to comply religiously with this my last will, in whose
hands I place henceforth all my trust, not doubting that so it shall be justified.
Angeles, 10 December, 1855.
Mari.\ + Benedita Saiz.
witness witness
Ca(t)yetano Arenas Jose Ant° Carrillo
witness
Jose Juan Alvarado."
Of the children of Ygnacio, three had died — Luis, Manuel and Maria de Jesus.
Carolina, the youngest, and a most charming girl, lived to be nearly twenty years
old and was about to be married when she died. It was natural and fitting that
two of the children of Ygnacio Palomares should marry two of the children of
Ricardo Vejar, and that the association of these old grantees of the rancho should
be in this way perpetuated. Thus Tomas Palomares. the oldest living son. married
Madelena Vejar, and Teresa Palomares was married to Ramon Vejar. The home
of Tomas Palomares was situated, as has been .stated, east of the Burdick place,
in a two-story adobe house, long known as the "Alkire Place" and not far from
the San Jose Oak. Don Tomas was a large man, stout and hearty, with a knid
heart and a cheery laugh. He wore a full beard and was a good-looking man.
Quiet and retiring in disposition, he was thoroughly honest but not shrewd. .And
because he was not more aggressive he lost much of the land which he inherited.
At this time a large family was growing up around them — Ricardo, Luis,
Isidora (who later married Manuel Garcia), Jesus (wife of Leborio Rowland at
Puente), Ramon, and Carolina.
For a time after the death of Ygnacio, Pancho Palomares, as Francisco was
always called, lived with his mother, Concepcion, and the younger children at
the home place. This is the adobe built by Ygnacio on the Camino Real, and later
known as the Meserve place, on Cucamonga Avenue in North Pomona. The first
house, which had stood between the present sites of the "Casa Palomares" and
"Cactus Lodge," had been taken down and its adobe bricks used in other buildings.
The old homestead on the Camino Real was a popular place in its day ; and its
ticndita was a favorite resort.
When Pancho married Doha Lugarda Alvarado they moved to the Casa
Palomares, nearer to the San Jose Hills, and since known as the Pancho Palomares
house. Here his children, Concepcion, Cristina, Frank and Porfirio. were born.
Pancho Palomares was genial and popular, more energetic than Tomas and more
inclined to business. He was designated by his father as an executor of his will
and was also his mother's agent in most of her business relations. He was later
associated with Mr. Burdick on the school board and in various subdivisions
and sales of land. From 1872 to 1875 he held the office of county supervisor.
There was another sister of Tomas and Pancho Palomares, Dona Josefa, who
was the second wife of Trinidad, son of Bernardo Yorba, whose grants from the
Mexican Government included the Rancho de la Sierra, Rancho Santa Ana, and
Rancho de Canon Santa Ana, a great estate of 165,000 acres, whereon are now
the cities of Santa Ana, Orange, and Anaheim, and most of Orange County.
In 1870, Don Ricardo Vejar was still living, well along in years, at the home
in Walnut to which they moved in 1849, on leaving the old place by the Spadra
hills. This later home place, a two-story adobe, with its home orchard, sur-
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 99
rounded by a strong trascorral, was a fine example of the old Mexican hacienda.
Here also was built the first chapel in the Valley, and the bejl which was hung in
this chapel was the first church bell* to ring in this region. Here he spent his
declining years till his death, at the age of seventy-seven. His children, now
married and with families of their own, were widely scattered. Two of them,
Concepcion and Josefa, had married Demetrio and Leonoro Martinez ; Pilar was
the wife of Jose Antonio Lugo (of the Antonio Maria Lugo family) ; Maria had
married Antonio Maria Reyes, and after his death Teodoso Perez ; Francisco
(Chico) had built and occupied the adobe in which Louis Phillips later lived ; and
two, as we have seen, married children of Ygnacio Palomares. Of these two we
have already referred to Doiia Madelena, the wife of Tomas Palomares. The
other was Ramon, who married Dofia Teresa Palomares. Their estate included
then, as now, some 250 acres north of the San Jose Hills and south of the Lords-
burg road. It was Ramon who as a boy of sixteen watched the battle of the Chino
Ranch House, and recovered his mount after it had been seized by a soldier. The
Vejar home was another center, not only of ranch and farm life, but of family
reunions and general good cheer. Dona Teresa Palomares de \'ejar was quite
remarkable for her quiet dignity and reserve. Her fine character showed in the
strong lines of her face. A perfect lady, "to the manor born," she was fond of
her home, bringing up her large family with scrupulous care. Though living to a
ripe old age, her mind was always clear and keen. The old adobe house has
only recently been destroyed by fire, and with it priceless heirlooms of early Span-
ish and foreign origin: Don Ramon is. at the time this book is written, in 1919,
one of the last of his generation in the Valley, and though seventy-nine years of
age, is still vigorous in mind and full of the memories, both humorous and tragic,
of the early days.
By 1870 Luis Arenas, third of the early grantees, was gone and his children
were living, some of them at the Huaje.t others farther west on the County Road,
all J:o be widely scattered in later years. The wife of Luis Arenas, Dona Josefa
Palomares de Arenas, sister of Ygnacio, was, like her niece. Doha Teresa Palo-
mares de Vejar, a lady of distinguished appearance and dignified bearing, having
the highest respect of all who knew her. The daughters of Seiior Luis and Dofia
Josefa were all beautiful women. And one at least was to become quite rich in
her marriage to the "Bean King" of \'entura County.
Beyond the \'ejar place to the west on the Mud Springs Road was the ranch
of Trinidad Yorba. Sencr Trinidad Yorba was a son of Bernardo Yorba, men-
tioned above as one of the leading Spanish gentlemen of the county. In the story
of the Puente Rancho, the relation of the Yorba family to the Rowlands, grantees
of the Puente Rancho, has been noted. Doha Sinobia Yorba, who married Tomas
Rowland, and Dona Leonora Yorba, who married Juan Rowland, brother of
Tomas, were both sisters of Trinidad and daughters of Bernardo Yorba. The
large family of Trinidad Yorba was reduced, by the early death of six children
and of Don Trinidad himself, to the mother, Dofia Maria Jesus Lugo de Yorba,
and two children, Francisca and Porfirio. Of these, Porfirio now lives with his
* This bell is guarded as a much prized relic bv the family of R
it was used at the pageant in the Greek Theater in Claremont, celebra
versary of Pomona College. '
t The "Huaje" (Indian for springs) was at the turn of the "Old County Road" now known as Orange
what is now Garey rntl San Antonio avenues, but ran diagonally in a northeasterly direction and crossed
"El Verde" ranch between the house and barn.
100 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
family on the old place, and Francisca is the wife of Frank \'ejar, a son of
Ramon, their home being on the \''ejar estate, to the west of the old homestead.
There was still another family whose name is well known among the ranchers
living about the San Jose Hills in 1870, and whose name, through their children,
is a familiar one today. It is a name also closely associated with that of Palomares.
For it was through Epomoceno Alvarado, who married Dona Barbara, a sister of
Ygnacio Palomares, that the Alvarado family came into the \"alley. The older
generation soon passed away, but two of the children were living at this time, with
their families, south of the San Jose Hills. The land of Mariano Alvarado lay
to the west and south of Cyrus Burdick's. Isidro Alvarado, his brother, lived
still farther to the west on the north side of the County Road. Mariano
had lived for a time on what was later the Loop place. It is said that he
bought the place of Ygnacio Palomares for two horses, as the latter was anxious,
while living in the old adobe to the west, to have another family near by, on
account of the Indians, who sometimes made trouble. Later, however, the place
reverted to the Palomares family and Mariano moved to their place farther west
on the County Road. Another brother, Francisco Alvarado, lived near the Rubi-
doux Hills, beyond Chino, and his daughter, Dolores, became the wife of Hon. F.
M. Slaughter of Rincon. The fine adobe east of the San Jose Hills and south of
the Casa Palomares, now called "Cactus Lodge," was the home of Ygnacio
Alvarado. During the later years of his life Ygnacio Alvarado was confined to
his bed, stricken with paralysis, hut the house continued to be a center of attraction
in the community, because of its location and roominess," and because of Dona
Luisa Arvila de Alvarado, his wife, whose quiet hospitality stood out in contrast
to the brusqueness of the paralytic. The picture of "Tia Luisa," as recalled by
one who knew her, is that of a lady in black, dressed always in a loose waist, but-
toned in front like a smock, and full-plaited skirt, with a large white neck-scarf
or handkerchief over the shoulders, pinned at the throat with a brooch of jet or
of Spanish gold, and with white stockings and black cloth slippers on her feet. Her
kindness and generosity are well remembered.
Across the road from Tonias Palomares, by the stream which ran south from
the hills through the Tomas Palomares place, lived the Garcias, a large family
with many children and a saintly mother, who was good not only to her own
children but to all poor waifs about, a viadrina — godmother — indeed to everyone.
North of the hills the Arnetts leased land for farming for a few years before
they moved to Spadra.
Such was the extent and personnel of the settlement around the eastern base
of the San Jose Hills in the early seventies. Farther east on the Camino Real was
the little settlement that clustered about the Rains' place on the Cucamonga
Ranch. Southeast on the road to Warner's Ranch was the Chino Ranch House,
now in charge of Joe Bridger, and its surrounding villagers. Down the San Jose
Creek to the southwest was the Phillips Ranch House, Rubottom's and the begin-
ning of the Spadra settlement. At Pomona there was nothing — save pasturage and
grain for the Phillips herds — not even the name or thought of a name.
The adobe house of Ygnacio Alvarado, with its one spacious room, was
always the gathering place for any social or religious occasion. The Alvarado
dances were gay affairs. Sometimes the Mexican caballeros were dressed as of
old in velvet knickerbockers, long silk hose and silver-buckled pumps, embroidered
jackets and bright-colored waists and sashes, but usually riding in from a neigh-
boring ranch, they would doff their sombreros and neckerchiefs and dance in their
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 101
high leather boots and clanking spurs, which sometimes, in spite of their easy
grace, wrought havoc with the rich silk dresses of their partners. And those
dresses of the senoritas, heirlooms from generations of Spanish ancestry, and the
Chinese shawls of silk and gold, the lace and the mantillas ! All this weahh of
dress was only a foil for the beauty of face and figure of those who wore them.
To the music of fiddle and guitar or accordion, and with much clapping of hands,
while someone called the changes, they danced the old quadrilles, the schottische
and the polka. Or they sat around the room on the benches against the walls,
while someone more graceful than the rest danced the cachucha, or the garrida.
The young men bought cascarones from the old Indians who made them, and the
belle of the evening was the seiiorita, or seiiora, whose hair was most filled with
the sparkling confetti from cascarones broken over her head.
Here also, at the Alvarado house, services were held once a month on Sunday,
when the padres came out from the Mission. And there was a time when the
services were held alternately here and at the Palomares house farther east on the
Camino Real. And the old adobe house has witnessed a number of weddings,
which among the Spaniards were great events. No money was spared to make
the day as joyous as possible. However poor the family, the bride must have a
fine silk dress with veil and a wreath of wax flowers in her hair, white kid gloves
and slippers — all paid for by the groom. Her mother must prepare a sumptuous
dinner, at whatever cost. If the money was not at hand they raffled off a cow
or sold a horse, or borrowed it somewhere. Weeks beforehand the preparations
began, canning fruit and chilis, pickling olives and drying meat which later would
be pounded fine and served with gravy. Hogs were fattened for bacon and
tamales. When at last the wedding day approached, everyone was invited. The
marriage ceremony, following confession, was long and impressive, conducted by
the Mission priest, and was for the most part in Latin. Arising from their knees
with the benediction of the padre upon them, the gay company went to the wedding
dinner. Sometimes as many as a hundred guests sat down to one of these feasts.
And the Spanish housekeeper made the most of this chance to show her skill.
Indians were hired to help; a large beef was killed and broiled on the coals; fried
chickens and other meats were served for variety. There were steaming bowls
of sopa — a Mexican dish made of boiled rice with onions and garlic and seasoned
chilis, and with olives scattered through it like plums in a pudding, the whole fried
to a delicious brown. Of course there was no end of sweets, like cakes, pastelles,
jellies, fruits and conservas. But the most delicious dish of all, the piece dc
resistance (how one's mouth waters to think of it!), was the juicy roast of young
pig, stuffed with spices and brown as the crackling skin that Charles Lamb's Bobo
and Hoti found so delicious. Of course there was always the dance, much as we
have described it above, but with even more gallantry and fine dress. Sometimes,
as in the old days, men wore, just below their knees, yards of fine ribbon with
little dolls and gewgaws fastened to their flying ends.
Nearby was the scene, too, for the celebration of festival days, of which there
were so many in the Catholic calendar. Above all other days one remembers
San Juan Day. The favorite sport on this day was sacando el gallo. Choosing
a place beside the road where it was broad and shady, they would bury a rooster
in the ground, leaving only its head and neck sticking out. Then men and boys
would ride far up the road, each one ready to take his turn at the play. Down
the road they would gallop at full tilt, each one leaning over and trying to grab
the rooster by the head. But el gallo is quick and usually dodged. Sometimes
102 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
twenty or thirty would dash by before the rooster was caught. Sometimes a
horse would shy and the rider would fall oflf, only to be dragged out of the way
to make room for the rest. When one succeeded in catching a cock, there was
great fun as he chased the others about, lambasting them with the fowl, which he
still held by the head. They always rode in Mexican saddles, of course, with the
big pommels, and with bridle reins of horsehair or hide or of braided leather.
Other sports of San Juan Day were horse racing and trick riding, and cock fights.
And then there was always a barbecue under the willows in what is now Ganesha
Park. Here a fat steer was killed and a bonfire made. Then everyone got a piece
of juicy meat and roasted it, holding it on a stick over the fire.
On these occasions the Burdicks, and other American families who followed
them soon after, were always invited, for the generosity and hospitality of the
Mexicans toward their neighbors were unlimited. Whenever one killed a hog or
beef, he brought a quarter aS a gift and hung it up in the cooler. And if they
wanted to borrow a wagon to go to Los Angeles, it always came back in better
condition than when they took it, and with something from the city to pay for the
trouble. If anyone was sick, they always brought delicacies to eat and were ready
to help with the work. If "Don Cy," as Mr. Burdick was familiarly called, ren-
dered one some assistance, or gave some advice in a matter of business, there
were sacks of grain or slabs of bacon by way of appreciation. Even when small-
pox raged and whole families were wiped out, they did not desert each other, but
there were plenty to care for the sick. It was doubtless this lack of precaution
which accounted for the terrible toll which the disease levied upon the Mexicans.
And it was even worse among the Indians, as will be noticed later.
But life at the San Jose Hills was not all fiesta and celebration in those days.
These are the high lights in a picture full of the grey and somber colors of ordinary
ranch life, when every one was hard at work. And a busy life it certainly was,
when everything there was to eat, except perhaps sugar and tea and spices, was
produced on the ranch, and most of the clothing was made at home.
This picture of the setting in which the Burdicks found themselves when they
came to the San Jose would not be complete without some reference to the Indians
of the Valley. Under the sycamores and willows beside the stream, just where
the picnickers now eat the'ir lunches at the tables in Ganesha Park, was an Indian
"rancheria" or village. Near the Hiiaje, farther east on the County Road, was
another, a larger encampment, which remained long after the others had disap-
jjeared. Another was situated at the eastern edge of Indian Hill to the north of
Claremont, and others still at Cucamonga and by the southern hills.
By this time the Indians were no longer a serious menace to civilization and
civilized people. They lived, however, a most lazy, shiftless life, doing very little
even in the way of hunting, save as they were absolutely obliged to, and drinking
as much as they could get and hold. There were sonietimes bad Indians among
them, malditos, as Ramon Vejar calls them ; and sometimes a band of Coahuillas
or "Piutes" would ride in from the mountains and bring consternation to both the
\'alley Indians and Mexicans alike. At one time a number of San Antonio Indians
were camped on the site of Packard's place, called later the Evergreen Ranch,
gathering the fruit of the cactus pear, or tuna, when a band of "Piutes" swooped
down upon them and killed them all, except one girl about twelve or fourteen years
old, who came running to the Vejars with an arrow hanging from her neck. At
another time the Alvarados were sleeping one night in their veranda in the Huerta
de San Antonio, or Vineyard of San Antonio, as the Loop place was called, when
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 103
a Coahuilla Indian who had been working for them attacked them with.an axe.
One he struck on tlie side of the head, severely wounding but not killing him.
Another he killed outright, and then ran away. Of course a party was formed to
get him. Manuel Alvarado and others hunted till they found him, and hanged
him from the limb of a sycamore. While they were preparing to string him up, a
certain Juan Garcia tried to persuade him to repent and pray for forgiveness, but
he picked up a rock and smote his solicitous intercessor a savage blow on the side
of the head. Yes, he was a maldito.
As a rule, however, the Indians of the A'alley were not dangerous ; and they
were available for all sorts of ordinary labor, if not too protracted or strenuous.
Occasionally a fiesta was watched by the old-timers with interest, especially for
the young folks, when the Indians from the tops of their jacales, or huts, would
scatter strings of pinofies, baskets and bits of silver money, which the children
scampered to pick up as souvenirs. For one minded to see it, these Indian ranch-
erias, with their crude jacales, their home-made pots, baskets and rugs, their open
campfire, their meager nondescript clothing barely covering the dark-hued bodies,
and all the other features of a semi-barbaric life, furnished a certain picturesque-
ness to the scene which is now forever gone.
THE FIRST SCHOOL AND ITS TEACHER, P. C. TONNER
After the Burdicks had settled on their ranch by the San Jose Hills, the
ciuestion of how their children were to be educated became a serious one. Their
four children, except perhaps the youngest, were of school age, and there was no
school in the A'alley. At San Gabriel there had been schools, and there had been
the Mission fathers, too, who were good instructors. Upon inquiry they found
others wrestling with the same problem. At Spadra there was a considerable
number of children in the Fryer, Phillips, Rubottom, and Arnett families, and
no school ; and in all the haciendas about them were the children of the Palomares,
Alvarado, A'ejar, and Garcia families. So Mr. Burdick advised with the school
trustees and with the teachers whom he had known well in San Gabriel — the
Hoyts, and the Loops, and Frank Burns — and a school district was organized,
called the Palomares district, with Francisco Palomares, Cyrus Burdick and Juan
Garcia for its first board of trustees. A man by the name of Eskridge was chosen
for the first teacher and the school was held for a time in the large room of the
Alvarado house. Then a plain wooden schoolhouse was built by some sycamore
trees south of the Alvarado house, much of the labor of construction being done
by the trustees themselves, who drove to San Bernardino for the lumber. It was
made of rough boards and cost about eighty dollars. As the school became
crowded a raiiiada, or veranda, was built around it, covered with vines, and the
roof thatched with palm leaves, for protection from the heat. The first teacher
did not prove very successful, partly because he knew very little Spanish ; and the
second, a Mr. !McFadden, stayed but a short time on account of his health, so ^Ir.
Burdick went to Los Angeles to find another. There he learned of a young man
who seemed to be well qualified for the place. In fact, his training and qualifi-
cations were far beyond the requirements of the little district school on the ranch.
For he had been educated for the priesthood in the Catholic Church and could
speak Latin and Greek, as well as Spanish and other modern languages. The
young pedagogue with the Irish brogue and shock of red hair was P. C. Tonner.
a man who was to be for twenty years- the most striking character in the new
104 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
town oi Pomona. He was looking for a position as teacher of Greek, but as
such positions were not very numerous in the far west he was glad to come to the
Palomares district. The children were of all ages and grades, from three-year-old
infants, whom he sometimes carried to school, to big, strapping fellows of twenty
or more. Some classes were held in the rainada, and Laura Burdick, oldest
daughter of the trustee, assisted with the little children. Evening classes were held
for a time, in which the rudiments of the Spanish language were taught.
Patrick Tonner was an original teacher, as indeed he was original in every-
thing else. He taught the children much in his own way, and entertained them
more, for he was fond of reading and could repeat from his well-stored memory
poems and orations without end. But the responsibilities of his office rested
lightly on his shoulders, and the lure of the out-of-doors, in this wonderful new
country, was very attractive. And more than this, the wine of the tippler was in
his veins, so that "I should" was lost in "I would." More than once Mr. Burdick,
plowing in his orchard in the morning, saw Tonner go by, gun in hand, on his
way from the school to the hills. "Where are you going?" ]Mr. Burdick would
say. "Going to hunt hares," might be his reply. Or, again, he might find the
schoolmaster fast asleep in a furrow of the field, and have to trundle him home in
a wheelbarrow to sober off. And the next day he might recite impressively to
his school Poe's "Raven" — Quoth the raven, 'Nevermore' " This, by the way,
was his favorite recitation at the Good Templars' Lodge, which later he liked to
attend. So, in his way he taught the three R's, and spared not the rod, as Chileno
and Juan de Dios and others'may recall.
With the growth of Spadra the children from that section outnumbered those
of the settlement at the San Jose Hills, and as they had much farther to go to
school, it was decided to move the schoolhouse nearer to the village of Spadra. So
it was moved to a point on the County Road some distance east of the Phillips
house, "in the swag on the bank of a blind wash from San Antonio," as one recalls
it, and here it was remodeled and enlarged. Then came the division of the district,
and the little peregrinating schoolhouse was moved once more, this time to a point
still farther east on the road, by the road crossing next west of the railway crossing.
Here it stood until long after the new schoolhouse at Spadra had been built and
occupied. This latter event was in the summer of 1876, the school opening in
September following the dedication, which was celebrated with a big ball.
The story of the schools in Pomona, following the division of the school dis-
trict and the beginning of the town, is narrated later. When the building was
moved to Spadra the teacher, Mr. Tonner, gave up his teacKing for the study and
practice of law, and more immediately for the business of real estate.
P. C. Tonner was born in Ireland. From generations of ancestry in the
Emerald Isle he inherited the keen perception and ready wit, the facile tongue,
the retentive memory and the powerful intellect so characteristic of his people. He
was brought to America as a boy and was placed in a Roman Catholic school at
Philadelphia. When the Civil War broke out he ran away from school and
enlisted in the Federal Army. One or two others followed him, and the bishop,
at the head of the school, set out to find them and bring them back. It was not
an easy task, but he found them at last, and demanded their release. The officer
refused to let them go; the army needed men, especially eager and husky young
fellows like these ; once in, they could not be relieved. But the bishop insisted that
they were under the lawful age and were bound to the parochial school. So the
boys were discharged and returned to school. After this, as Tonner himself used
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 105
to say, he was a hard case to handle, and at length he ran away again, this time
making his way to California. Arriving first at San Francisco, he learned of a
position which was open at the college in Monterey, where a teacher of Greek was
wanted. Now Patrick was still a good Catholic, and he had received at the
parochial school a large part of the training for the priesthood. With all his way-
wardness he had acquired a good education and was, of course, well schooled in
the classics. But when he appeared at Monterey to apply for the position they
did not want him because of his youth. "We want a man, not a boy," they ssid.
"I thouglit you wanted someone to teach Greek," said Tonner. "Is it a man you
want, or an instructor of Greek?" "Do you know Greek?" they asked. "Try
me," he replied. So they tried him, and forthwith engaged him for the place.
The work was quite to his taste and he was well equipped for it ; nor was he
averse to following the calling for which he had been chosen. But the relations
with his colleagues were not agreeable. In course of time he was obliged to
discipline an unruly student, administering a severe flogging. This was the begin-
ning of the end of his work in the college, and in the church, for the boy began to
make trouble for him, reporting that his teaching was heretical. He was sum-
moned before the authorities and questioned as to these reports. Asked if he had
been teaching thus and so, he did not deny it. "Yes," he said, "that is what I
think and believe to be true." "Well," they said, "you must not teach such doc-
trines here." "Do you mean to say that I may not speak as I believe?" was
Tonner"s fierce demand, voicing the world-old cry of self-assertion and independ-
ence of thought against authority. "No, you may not," was the reply. "Then I
will never wear these vestments again," said Tonner, as he pulled off his priestly
robe and tore it in two. So a brilliant intellect and powerful influence were lost
to the church, and the man from his best estate. Turning from the life of a
student and priest, he plunged into the ways of self-indulgence and masterful gain.
Drinking freely, he forged the chains by which he was to be enthralled and from
which he could never escape. For a time after leaving IMonterey he tauglit at Los
Nietos, and then, dismissed perhaps because of his habits, he was engaged to teach
in the Palomares district, as iias been narrated. The bitterness of Tonner's feeling
toward the priests of the Catholic Church is expressed in his
Lines Written egr .\ Tile oe the S.\n Gabriel Church
Thou vestige of an ancient race,
Caught from a crumbling shrine,
You recall the days when the monk's dark face
Bent o'er his sacred wine.
You recall the days when the Mission plain
Was willow and oak and ash.
E'er the Si-bag-na' by the friar Cambor"
Was converted by lasso and leash ;
You recall the days when the River Temblor'
Was a fair and lovely scene.
Where the peaceful Indian dwelt content
Beneath its larches green.
E'er the bipot priests from cruel Spain,
Salvation en their lios.
Converted to Christ the Indian race
With bloodhounds and with whips. ►
1. Si-bas-na. name of the Indian tribe living at San Gabriel.
2. Cambor, for Cambon. one of the two Franciscan monks who came to establish tlie Jlission.
3. The San Gabriel was called El Rio dc los Tcmblorcs because of the frequent earthquakes experi-
enced by those who lived near the river.
i06 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
This condemnation of the priest agrees with the arraignment by Hugo Reid,
the Scotchman who married an Indian woman and hved with the Indians near
San Gabriel, and he is regarded as an authority in many respects on the Indians
of the \'alley. Except for this opinion of Reid and a few others, we should regard
this attitude of Tonner as evidently prejudiced and entirely without foundation.
How small the ground was for such a judgment of the methods of the Mission
fathers with the Indians may be seen from the brief account of the ^lissions,
especially that of San Gabriel, given in an earlier chapter.
However severe his denunciation of others, there were times when Mr.
Tonner was quite as bitter in self-condemnation. This was a side of his character
which was little known, of course, save by his most intimate friends. Yet our
estimate of the man, as we read of his strange conduct and most reprehensible
acts, may be modified somewhat by the glimpses we get of a kindlier nature from
some of his verses which have never been published hitherto. These finer traits,
we may be sure, were known and appreciated by the young woman whom he
married, in spite of all his faults, and who stayed by him to the end — a woman of
the finest character, as everyone agrees. From a poem written probably before his
marriage, entitled "Penitence," these lines are significant :
But now for lack of self-control
I've lost the idol of my soul
For man-debasing wine,
And fiercely on myself I turn,
And rack my soul with pain.
I've lost thy love — I know it well :
I fell from Heaven to deepest hell :
It burns and racks my brain.
And there is his 'A'alentine to Roxy, Aetat Four" :
I know a maiden fair,
She's my love.
In ringlets hangs her hair.
She's my love.
She's as sweet as sweet can be,
Nothing fairer can you see,
.\nd she's all the world to me,
Is my love.
(Two other verses.)
Now I'll to you confess
( She's my love.
And I'll never love her less.
She's my love).
That this charming little queen
Scarcely has four summers seen —
It is my baby that I mean
By "my love."
^^"hatever may be said of the quality of Tonner's verse, one cannot but sym-
pathize with its sentiment in such a gem as this. It was a vehicle which he was
fond of using whenever moved by any emotion, whether worthy or unworthy. It
might be a humorous caricature of some neighbor, or a memorial ode. It might
be a satirical attack on an opponent, like his "Old Nick against Loud," when he
was attorney for Dr. Nichols in the great land case which he won against H. ^I.
Loud : or it might be a stirring patriotic call, like the "Sinking of the Maine."
\Mien the conflict was on. years later, between the liquor interests and their
opponents, and men were .sharply divided into two hostile camps, Tonner himself
appeared to be divided, openly marshaling the forces in favor of the saloons, yet
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 10/
publishing the poem, "O Wine, Wine ! Thou Most Seductive Curse of Humanity,"
which equals the most impassioned invectives of John B. Gough in the fierceness
of its condemnation of the liquor traffic, and calls upon the voters of Pomona to
drive it away. Was this hypocritical ? • No ; it is quite possible that the poem may
have been written while under the influence of liquor, as some of his best legal
work was done in that condition, and he was fond of reciting and writing at such
times. But it is just as likely that it may have been written in a moment of sin-
cere revolt against the domination of the evil over himself. Those who saw the
man staggering along the street or lying in the gutter, or who knew of his un-
worthy acts and plans, were usually ignorant of this personal struggle for mastery
and self-control, and some would doubtless be incredulous of it yet. Not only to
himself and to his wife were pledges given for reform, but to intimate friends as
well. One day, after the saloons had been abolished and only one or two "blind
pigs" remained, a man with whom he had an important business engagement
failed to find him at his office and was told that he was possibly at the
Hotel. Not being a citizen of the town, he succeeded, after much persuasion, in
inducing the proprietor to lead him to the bar. Through dark passageways,
and through doors which were unlocked and locked again, they came to the bar,
where the keeper was handing Tonner a glass of whiskey. "Have a drink." said
he, and urgently insisted. "No," said his friend, "you know I don't drink, and
you don't want me to. And you don't want to. either. Come, now, let us attend
to that business." "All right," said Tonner, overturning the glass, "come on, little
"un." But there was a struggle later in the carriage when Tonner tried to recover
a bottle which his friend had abducted from a side pocket. Yet he was not often
dangerous in his cups. More often he might be seen standing by the counter,
holding in one hand a full glass of wine, while for ten minutes at a time he
declaimed, repeating from memory the great speeches of modern or classic orators,
or perhaps some rhymes of his own, gesticulating with the free hand or with his
glass, yet never tasting it until fully ready.
One might fill a volume with incidents, amusing and otherwise, of Uiis remark-
able character. One evening he wandered into a Guild social of the Episcopal
Church, saying, "I like the 'Piscopalians-;— (hie ) — they don't meddle with politics
nor r'ligion." At another time, before the saloons had been closed. Constable
Slanker, who had so often taken him home to sober off, saw him coming out of a
saloon early in the morning after a night of drinking and poker (for he could
drink long without becoming helpless), and said to him, "Tonner, aren't you ever
going to quit?" His reply was, "I'll bet you a five-dollar hat you'll be seen in this
saloon before I am." "Done," said Slanker, and from that time on Tonner was
sober for a whole year, so it is claimed. Then the constable saw him again coming
out of the same saloon, and began to take him to task; at which Tonner said,
"You old fool, don't you ever forget? Come on over here;" and at the store
across the street he said, "Give this man the best five-dollar hat in the store."
He conceived, and carried out for a time, the most audacious and far-reaching
swindle on his fellow citizens, yet he was often good-hearted and generous, ready,
if in the right mood, to assist in all sorts of benefits. He was especially active in
canvassing subscriptions for the Catholic Church when it was built. In his chosen
profession he soon became an authority. Lawyers and law students today, reading
his arguments in former cases, are struck with the clearness of his reasoning and
the extent and soundness of his legal knowledge.
108 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Young men who studied law with him — and a number who have taken high
rank in the profession were thus associated with him — testify not only to his
keenness but to the value of his instruction and partnership. ;\Iore is said later of
his real estate operations and of his connection with important movements in town.
In concluding this brief character sketch, and before considering the begin-
nings of Pomona, it is appropriate to introduce some verses from a poem written
by P. C. Tonner, on the occasion of a visit to the San Jose Hills, perhaps in 1869,
and certainly before there was any Pomona, any churches or stores or orange
groves. Of the twenty-one verses composing the poem, the six pertaining
especially to San Jose are selected for reproduction here :
Sweet San Jose
But fairer yet shall bloom our tields,
And grander orchards grow,
And sweeter music than the birds
These pleasant vales shall know.
For Science here shall rear her seats.
And, versed in arts of peace,
Our public schools shall emulate
Ihe shrines of ancient Greece.
But San Jose, sweet San Jose,
Thou mountain valley fair.
Begirt by half a hundred hills.
Enthroned 'mid beauty rare,
Shall see thy towering domes arise
Where Phillips herds his sheep.
And orange orchards yet shall stand
Where Vejar's mustangs sweep.
The flocks of Palomares
Must seek sotue distant land.
His hog-trod rich cienegas
The golden wheat shall yield.
.And all those plorious uplands.
Where rabbits burrow now.
Shall t'lrill beneath the Saxon's trod.
Behind a Yankee plow.
The Indian for a t'lousand years
That lovely vale possessed.
The Soaniard for a century
The native race oporessed.
But now the hlue-eved Saxon.
Froin o'er the dist.int main.
Witli steady step is drivinq- back
The dark-eyed race of Spain.
I see a thousand vineyards.
All o'er that lovely plain ;
I see the fair-haired Saxon
Where dwelt the sons of Spain.
I hear the laboring en sine.
Where once cfrretns crawled;
I he.-ir the songs of children
Where Spanish oxen bawled.
I see the lovely cotta.ee
Where rancheria stood,
I he?r our country's music
From out the distant wood.
.\nd where base superstition
Wrs once the neople's cuide,
I sep arise the public school —
The freeman's hcpe and pride.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 109
"THE LOOP AND MESERVE" AND OTHER EARLY TRACTS OF THE
SAN JOSE DE ARIBA
Earlier chapters have narrated liow the San Jose dc .Ibajo, or lower half of
the San Jose Rancho, passed from the possession of the Yejars and came into the
hands of Louis Phillips, and a few hundred acres were sold by him to the earlier
settlers of Spadra previous to 1870; but in the San Jose de Ariba, or upper half
(which is also the northern part), there was practically no transfer of property
until toward the end of the year 1873, except as a few of the homesteads, long
occupied by friends and relatives of the first grantees, were formally deeded to
heads of families then holding them. The land remained for the most part legally
in possession of Ygnacio Palomares, and then as the undivided estate of his wife,
Concepcion, and the children. As before stated, most of these families had occu-
pied their places for years without formal title, and some continued to do so for
years later. Before the death of Ygnacio Palomares, in 1864, deeds had been
given to i\Iariano Alvarado in 1858 for 229 acres ; to Josefa Palomares de Arenas
in 1858 for seventeen and a half acres by the Huaje; to Saturnino Carrion in 1862
lor their place south of La \'erne ; to Jose Maria Valdez in 1863 for a generous
home place ; and to Ygnacio Alvarado in May, 1864, for their home place.
During the ten years following the death of Ygnacio Palomares other lots of
various size, from two or three acres to 200 acres, were deeded by his wife,
Concepcion, or by her son and attorney, Francisco, to friends and relatives, — the
Lopez place of fifty acres to Jose Lopez; the Tomas Palomares place of eighty-
eight acres north of the hills, and the 188 acres to Francisco Palomares northeast
of the hills ; the large estates on the Lordsburg Road to Josefa Palomares de Yorba
and to Teresa Palomares de \'ejar, and later still the 600-acre tract to Concepcion
Palomares de Soto.
In December, 1868, David L. Hall of San Gabriel bought, or began the pur-
chase of, 1,720 acres in the northeast section of the rancho, which he called Hall's
Selection and subdivided into forty-acre lots for sale ; but only two sales were
made, five lots to one purchaser and one to the other. Five years later the whole
property reverted to Concepcion Palomares on the failure of Hall to complete
his purchase. But a year later — that is, in November. 1874 — the "Loop and
Meserve Tract" of nearly 2,000 acres, comprising a large part of "Hall's Selec-
tion" and much more to the east, was sold to C. F. Loop and A. R. Meserve for
$16,000. This considerable tract included most of the land lying now between
the towns of Pomona and Claremont and much of North Pomona, north of the
La \"erne Road, between La \^erne and Claremont. On the Camiiio Real de San
Bernardino, and within the tract, which it crossed, was the San Antonio vineyard
and house mentioned in the will of Ygnacio Palomares, and the old adobe in
which he lived so long and kept the tavern where the overland stages stopped.
Also within its confines, but not included in the deed, was the old cemetery. When
the old Palomares house was built and the vineyard of San Antonio planted, a
ditch was dug and the water led all the way from the canyon to the upper corner
of the place, and thence in a flume to the house. Only a fraction of the water,
flowing so far over gravelly soil in an open ditch whose banks were overgrown
with weeds, reached the end of the ditch, and sometimes, in the summer time,
none at all, except at night. But the deed of the tract conveyed also this ditch
and the valuable water right to half the water of San Antonio Canyon, a claim
resting upon the implied provision of the Spanish land grant. In 1870 the Palo-
110 HISTORY AND lUOGRAPHY
mares and others interested had sought and secured from the courts judgment
for damages against parties who had been diverting water from tlie ditch ; also a
perpetual injunction establishing their claim to the water. _
Of the two purchasers of the Loop and Meserve Tract, Alvin R. Aleserve
had come to California from Maine in 1852, when nineteen years old, and had
been engaged in business in Sacramento and Santa Cruz for over twenty years
before he came to the Valley. Here for twenty years more he was to combine
business with horticulture until, in 1896, he became Horticultural Commissioner
and moved to Los Angeles. Two of his sons were to follow in his steps as horti-
culturists, Harry W. in Imperial County, and Elmore as Park Commissioner in
Los Angeles. The second son, E. A. Meserve, was to be a successful and
respected attorney in Los Angeles ; and his daughter. Bessie; the wife of the attor-
ney, C. E. Sumner, who before his removal to Los Angeles played an important
part in the building of Pomona, as will be seen.
The Reverend Charles F. Loop came to California in 1863 as a missionary
of the Episcopal Board of New York. Though best known in Southern California
for his horticultural pursuits, his early life was spent in active religious work. A
graduate in theology of St. Paul's College at Palmyra, Mo., and ordained a min-
ister in the Episcopal Church, he was for some years from 1857 rector of Christ
Church in St. Louis. For a short time before coming to California he served the
church in missionary work in Missouri and Illinois. He had entered upon his
ministry rather late, being twenty-eight years old when he entered college. This
was due to his having gained his academic training while at home on a farm, and
then having spent .some years in teaching in order to earn money to carry on his
professional study. His first missionary field in California was in the neighbor-
hood of Santa Cruz, where he organized the Episcopal Church. It was here that
the acquaintance with Mr. Meserve began which was to result in their association
together in the development of the "Loop and Meserve Tract" of Pomona. The
earnestness and energy with which Mr. Loop conducted his work led to his being
sent to Los Angeles to establish churches and to foster the interests of the
Episcopal denomination in the South. Coming to Los Angeles in 1868, he
organized the Church of St. Paul, and directed its affairs for over a year, at the
same time beginning that extensive campaign over the whole field of Southern Cal-
ifornia which, continuing for over twenty years, was to result in other churche-^
at Pomona, Ontario, Riverside, San Bernardino and a number of smaller places.
To his ministry in the church Mr. Loop had brought not only a religious zeal and
good scholarship, but an aesthetic sense and love of art which were to enrich both
his church and his home town. In all this he was most heartily supported by his
wife, and indeed it was probably true that in all these qualities, as well as in thrift
and sagacity, she was even more strongly equipped than he. Born of good families
in New York, the father of Mrs. Sophia (Loomis) Loop was Thomas Loomis,
and her mother a Deferriere. For a time before coming to Pomona they lived at
San Gabriel, and there Mrs. Loop became well known and loved as a teacher.
Here in the little community by the Mission began the friendship between the
Burdicks and Loops which continued throughout their lives, as they became prom-
inent in the new town of Pomona.
Soon after coming to Los Angeles the Loops bought 160 acres of land east
of San Gabriel and began to plant it in vineyard and orchard. So began their
active interest in agriculture while still engaged, both of them, in their other work.
HISTORY AND lUOGRAPHY 111
Doubtless it was a revival, rather than a beginning, of a natural instinct,
for Air. Loop was born and reared on a farm. His father, David Loop, had been
a farmer as well as a physician in St. Lawrence County, N. Y., where Charles
Loop himself was born in 1825. It was probably this fondness for horticulture
more than the pursuit of wealth that led him in 1874 to purchase with Mr. Aleserve
the 2,000-acre tract of land in the San Jose \'alley.
\\ hen they came to the A alley to live, the Aleserves took and occupied the
old Palomares adobe, a building which, with some modifications, served them well
as a home till after their children had married and moved away; and the old
house is still known best as the "jNIeserve place." The Loops chose for their
home the site of the old adobe farther east, by the "Vineyard of San Antonio,"
building soon, however, a larger house in which to live, and this remained their
home until, in 1882, the ranch was sold to the Land and Water Company. Later
the Loops bought the Mueller place in Pomona and moved there to live.
Never was there a greater transformation than that which came over the
fields of the Loop and Aleserve Tract under their enthusiastic direction. Only a
few olive trees, a small orchard of seedling oranges and a slightly larger vineyard
of jMission grapes remained from the Mexican occupation. Now a large acreage
was set out with vines, not only of wine grapes but many kinds of table and raisin
grapes, with oranges and lemons of different varieties, and with all sorts of decid-
uous fruits. Searching the ranches of the South and levying upon the experi-
mental stations of the Department of Agriculture, they soon had a nursery whicli
was at once the marvel of the region for its rare variety, and the main source of
supply as orchards w.ere being planted in the new tracts around Pomona.
Conducting their experiments in fruit growing on a large scale, with intelligence
as well as industry, they became leaders in the great horticultural interests so
rapidly developing in the \'alley. TIic olive industry was especially introduced
and established by them. Twice Mr. Loop went to Europe and studied the viticul-
ture and olive growing of Spain, Italy and other Mediterranean countries, bringing
home many choice varieties and new knowledge and inspiration. And when later
he encouraged the Rowlands in their production of olive oil, which at one time
led the state in quality and volume, he brought from Italy skilled workmen to
introduce their ex]5ert knowledge of the manufacture of oil from the olive, and
of the growing of trees from cuttings. Not only in the sale of thousands of
young trees from their nursery, but by instruction in private and public, by pub-
lished papers and by assisting in the organization of growers, both Mr. Loop and
Mr. Meserve were pioneers of large influence in establishing the fruit growing
which has become the chief industry of the Southwest.
But all this anticipates by many years the chronological sequence of our story.
For it was not long after the Loops and Meserves came to the \'alley that the
town of Pomona was begun, and this story must now be told.
CHAPTER FIVE
BEGINNINGS OF POMONA
Coming of the Railroad — Tonner-Burdick-Palomares Coxtracts — Los
Angeles Immigration and Land Cooperative Association — Thc New
Town of Pomona — Public School — Collapse of the L. A. L and L. C. A.
— Pomona Land and Water Company — The Boom — Pomona in 1882 and
1885 — Constable Slanker and Other Old-Timers.
It was thirty-five years or more after tlie grantees of the San Jose Rancho
came to the \ allej' to live before there were any indications of a community on the
site of Pomona. In 1872 Kewen Dorsey was still raising grain there for Louis
Phillips and Antonio Perez was tending his cattle as they grazed over the plains.
As usual the first impulse toward the building of a town was given by the
prospect of a railroad crossing the Valley. The story of the coming of the rail-
road here is naturally a part of the railroad story of the State. This has been so
fully told elsewhere that it need not be recounted here. A very good resume
of the early history of the railroads of Southern California was printed in the
Pomona Progress of January 6, 1887. The introductory paragraph of this article
reads as follows : "The history of the construction of the railroads in Los An-
geles forms one of the most interesting chapters in the annals of the county. It
illustrates how by determination and a little forethought, a few active minds
overcame the many difficulties jealousy, selfishness and ignorance threw in their
path and is another * * =•= instance * * * where the spirit of progress and im-
provement triumphed over every obstacle."
The first movement had been the agitation for a railroad between Los An-
geles and San Pedro. This was led by Phineas Bamiing, that prince of trans-
portation whose freight wagons had long been running out from Los Angeles to
San Francisco, to Yuma and Arizona, and whose steamers were also plying in
and out of Los Angeles Plarbor. This agitation began in 1861 with a bill intro-
duced in the State Senate authorizing the supervisors of Los Angeles County to
subscribe $150,000 toward the construction of a railroad between Los Angeles and
San Pedro, and culminated at length after much opposition in the campaign of
1868, when an election, called by the supervisors on the petition of ex-Governor
Downey, Dr. J. S. Griffin and John King, as directors' of the '-'Los Angeles and
San Pedro Railway" to authorize $150,000 bonds for capital stock, and a similar
election in the city, resulted in a combined vote of 700 for the measure and 672
against it. This road was completed in October, 1869. On April 4, 1870, the State
Legislature passed the "Five Per Cent. Subsidy Act," authorizing counties of the
State, through their boards of supervisors, to aid in the construction of railroads.
"Then," says the historian of the Progress, "arose another monopoly howl which
waxed so loud that no politician in either party dared keep silent." A desperate
fight was made to repeal the act of 1870, but it failed through the vigorous oppo-
sition of Benito Wilson in the Senate, Asa Ellis in the Assembly, and others.
"Had it not been for their timely efforts the grand prosperity which now causes
114 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
'the wilderness to rejoice and blossom as the rose' would have been deferred for
many years."
Could the people in 1870 have looked forward thirty or forty years and fore-
seen the complete domination of the business and politics of the State by the
Southern Pacific and the tremendous struggle which issued to overthrow iU
power, doubtless the opponents of the railroad would have been delighted and
their cause perhaps triumphant. But the opposition to the railway was not all a
single-eyed contest against monopoly. There was not a little of selfish interest and
of conflicting schemes as well as ignorance and superstition, as there always is
in the introduction of modern invention and organization. The struggle for the
railroads was in its day essentially a progressive movement, notwithstanding the
selfish designs of some of its leaders and the evils of political control which fol-
lowed. That the railroad has been indispensable to the development of the country
few will question, even though the courage and wisdom of the people and their
representatives have not always been adequate to control its political power.
Aided by the Five Per Cent. Subsidy Act, the Southern Pacific had incor-
porated and was building its road through the San Joaquin Valley when the people
of Southern California began to realize that it was a vital question whether the
road would touch Los Angeles or would follow an easier and more direct course
to the East. By the way of Los Angeles the road would lead over Soledad Pass
by heavy grades and through long tunnels, and the financial problems would be
equally difficult. The other way, over the plains to Needles, was smooth going.
Then began the campaign of 1872, so all-absorbing and intense that even the
presidential contest between Grant and Greeley was forgotten. A mass meeting
was held in May at which resolutions were passed urging the construction of the
road by way of Los Angeles and promising every possible assistance. A com-
mittee of thirty was appointed which, after conference with the Governor, Colonel
Leland Stanford, prepared an ordinance for submission to the voters of the
county, by which the county should devote the proceeds of bonds amounting to
five per cent, of the property valuation, including the $150,000 raised for the Los
Angeles and San Pedro Railway and its holdings, "in aid of and for and in con-
sideration of the construction of a railroad within its borders," stipulating that
the Southern Pacific should build fifty miles of main trunk line through the
county and city of Los Angeles, should construct connections with Anaheim and
with the railroads of the county ; the overland route to be from San Francisco
through the city of Los Angeles and east through the San Bernardino Valley to
the Colorado River at or near Fort Yuma. The committee of thirty was composed
of the most prominent citizens of the city and county, and included Henry Dalton
of Azusa, B. D. Wilson, L. J. Rose, George Stoneman and J- de Earth Shorb of
San Gabriel, Silas Bennett and F. W. Gibson of El Monte, John Reed of Puente,
and Francisco Palomares and Louis Phillips of the San Jose.
Again there was much opposition and the campaign was even more spirited
than that of 1868, but the ordinance was carried in the election of November 5,
1872, by a vote of 1,896 to 724. So the Southern Pacific came to Los Angeles.
The first train to run from Los Angeles to Spadra was on .April 4, 1874, when
also the first train ran to San Fernando.
On July 10, 1873, the Southern Pacific secured of Louis Phillips a contract
for right of way across his land, that is, across the lower San Jose, 100 feet wide
and including fifty acres, wherever desired, excepting across the ten acres reserved
for the cemetery, and that reserved for the Catholic Church. In September the
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 115
time of the contract was extended to February 11, 1874. With the railroad com-
ing to Spadra and surveyors laying out its course across the \'alley toward San
Bernardino, the conditions were fully ripe for beginning a town. Climate unsur-
passed, soil fertile and virgin, water available in cienega and canyon, rail connec-
tion assured with the city and an eastern market promised for produce — what
more could be desired? Only men with determination and capital. The men
were on the ground. During the latter part of 1874 and early in 1875, Cyrus
Burdick, the pioneer, P. C. Tonner, the teacher-lawyer-poet, and Francisco Palo-
mares, the owner of the land, obtained joint control of some 3,000 acres in what
is now the city of Pomona. JNIost of this was south of the line dividing the
Upper and Lower San Jose and was secured by contract with Louis Phillips, who
had acquired it, as we have seen, from the mortgagees of Ricardo Vejar. Some
was purchased outright. A part of the land was pooled by the three and subdi-
vided in ten or forty acre tracts ; 2,000 acres was contracted for by Tonner alone.
On the 27th of January, 1875, an important transaction was effected by which
Burdick, Tonner and the wife of Pancho Palomares obtained from Concepcion
Palomares the right to all water rising and flowing through the water-bearing
lands around the base of the San Jose Hills, together with the right to develop
more water and to maintain necessary ditches and reservoirs, reserving to the
original owners water sufficient to irrigate not to exceed 100 acres of land, and
also reserving the waters of a certain spring for Francisco Palomares. It was
the design of the three men to subdivide the tract into orchard plots and place it
upon the market, selling water for irrigation with the land ; but none of the men
had sufficient capital to finance the enterprise properly.
In the meantime there was organized in Los Angeles a company of men who
had also seen the possibilities of development in the Valley, which the railroads
were unfolding. It was called "The Los Angeles Immigration and Land Cooper-
ative Association." (Men used to say they did not like to do business with them
because of this interminable designation.) Its articles of incorporation, dated
November 27, 1874, state that "the object for which it is formed is to circulate
information throughout this and other countries regarding Southern California,
and to promote immigration thereto, to buy and sell real estate on commission,
and to do any other business incidental to carrying on a real-estate office." Its
capital stock was $250,000, half of which was subscribed. The directors were
J. E. McComas of Compton, who became later one of Pomona's most prominent
citizens, J. T. Gordon of Azusa, T. A. Garey, the horticulturist of Los Angeles
(already mentioned in the story of El Monte"), George C. Gibbs of the San
Gabriel ^Mission, also Milton Thomas, H. J. Crow and R. M. Town of Los
Angeles. T. A. Garey was president of the company and L. M. Holt, mentioned
as a stockholder, was secretary. The reader recognizes all the names as they
have been perpetuated in the streets and avenues of Pomona. Here were men
with capital looking for investment ; on the San Jose Rancho were men with land
and water looking for capital. In a few weeks they came together.
A. L. Tufts and L. J\I. Holt tell of a prize offer of a town lot for the besi
name proposed and adopted for the town. Solomon Gates, the nurseryman,
familiar with the Pomona of the Grangers, and aware of the mythological char-
acter of Pomona, the Goddess of Fruit, proposed this name for the new town and
won the prize. Mr. Holt also tells of the making of the old reservoir at the
corner of San Antonio and Holt avenues, and how it was so full of squirrel and
gopher holes that it would not hold water. This was before the days of cement
116 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
reservoirs. \\'hen ^Ir. Holt saw their predicament he went to Louis Phillips,
the rancher, of whom they were purchasing the land, and asked him to lend them
his sheep. "Take them along," said Phillips. So Holt gave his instructions to the
borregueros to drive the sheep into the reservoir ever)' night for two weeks. At
the end of the time he ordered the water turned in. The tamping of thousands of
tiny feet had made it as hard as a rock !
After living in Pomona for a year or two, looking after the affairs of the
company, Mr. Holt returned to Los Angeles. Two years later he came out to
see what had become of the town and was amazed to find how things had grown.
He measured the height of a line of eucalyptus trees which he had planted and
found them to be fifty-six feet high!
Among other projects in which Mr. Holt was interested, either as secretary
of the company or individually, were the town of Artesia (also promoted by the
Los Angeles Immigration and Land Cooperative Association), use of the Colo-
rado River in the irrigation of the Imperial \'alley, and the Bear \'alley Dam,
in the interests of which he went abroad as expert adviser.
Early in April, 1875, a contract was drawn up between the three men, Tonner,
Burdick and Palomares and the land company with the long name, the former
agreeing to secure to the land company a title from Louis Phillips and Palomare^^
to all the land described above and to the water rights which they had secureii
from Concepcion Palomares, except that land for the railway and its station as
well as that for the Catholic Church and cemetery was excluded, and water was
especially reserved for the irrigation of the orchards of Burdick and Tonner. For
the water rights and for surrendering the land contract held by the three together
they were to receive $10,000; the price of the land was set at thirty-five dollars
an acre.
Then followed the laying out and "booming" of the new town. This was
not in the eighties, but in 1875, long before the "big boom," but every feature
which characterized the opening of a new townsite in those frenzied days was
present. After the land was cleared and graded Mr. A. Higbie, the surveyor,
laid out the town and set the stakes. The streets were graded and a number of
buildings begun. Especially a hotel was erected at the corner of Fifth Street and
Garey Avenue. About a hundred orange trees were set out north of the railroad
and a reservoir was constructed. Then appeared everywhere posters announcing
an auction sale of lots in the new town of Pomona, February 22, 1876. Those
who joined the excursion or accepted an invitation to ride out from the city and
attend the auction, found a band playing in the park( ?), streams of water flowing
in open ditches down the streets, and zanjeros directing their course, teams with
attentive drivers waiting to show them about, and a dinner at the new hotel.
Then, after dinner, came the auction sale. And a good many lots were sold. .A
Mr. Reed paid fifty dollars for the lot on which the First National Bank stands
and Joe Bridger bought one north of this. The plot included lots of various sizes,
from twenty-five-foot business lots to ten-acre tracts. The first sale, as was well
advertised, was one of these ten-acre tracts to Judge J. M. Hamilton, jMaster of
the State Grange of California. The next day the ditches were dry and the water
which for a day had been diverted from the San Jose Creek was returned to its
normal channel. .\nd few knew that a dense fog which had covered the Valley
all the morning, as with a wet blanket, had just lifted when the excursionists
drove in, thus saving the day, also the reputation of the promoters, who had adver-
tised boldly that the place was well above the fog belt. But the sale had been
HISTORY AND BIOGRAl'IIV 117
a success and the new town was laimched. The first day's sale amounted to
$18,000 to $19,000. :\Iost of the lots sold at this time have changed hands many
times, but there are today people in Los Angeles who are still paying taxes on lots
which they purchased then at Pomona.
About this time appeared a little news sheet which has been called by some
"Pomona's first newspaper." But it was evidently printed in Los Angeles rather
than Pomona, and was chiefly an advertising circular. It was entitled "The New
Italy," with a sub-heading, "The Immigrants True Guide to Homes in Southern
California." In the Pomona Public Library is a copy of the issue of Vol. I, No. 8,
dated Los Angeles, Cal., August, 1875. On one side of this single sheet is a map
of the town of Pomona; on the other side, following the headings and date line,
is an article headed "Pomona — The New Town on the Southern Pacific Railroad
— Thirty-two !Miles East of Los Angeles." Opening with the statement "The Los
Angeles Immigration and Land Cooperative Association now have at Pomona a
tract of nearly 6,000 acres, 2,500 of which is now being put on the market at
private sale," the location is then explained and the advantages of the site as a
commercial center ; its scenery and climate are also set forth in glowing colors.
The years have demonstrated the truth of its claim that "As a fruit country
Pomona cannot be excelled in Southern California; * * * trees growing in the
immediate vicinity prove the fact beyond a peradventure." The railroad and the
water supply are acclaimed and the sale of water stock with the land is promised.
Emphasis is placed (not too much) upon the company's "abundant supply of
good, pure, soft spring water."
The stockholders of the new company manifested their faith in the enter-
prise to the extent of larger or smaller purchases of lots in the town site, but only
two or three of them built blocks or houses and became identified later with the
town. T. A. Carey, a little man of German parentage, with unlimited energy and
enthusiasm, was on the ground much at first, but he had many other interests
elsewhere. In fact he was associated with others in the incorporation of at least
two other towns — Artesia and Garey (in Santa Barbara County). As before
stated, he was one of the early settlers of El ^lonte. From his nursery in Los
Angeles he sold in one period of three years $175,000 worth of young orange and
lemon trees. He was recognized as a leading horticulturist, holding numerous
important positions, such as overseer of the State Grange and president of the
county Pomological Society. His Mediterranean Sweet and St. Michael oranges
and Eureka lemons are known everywhere. Through his zeal a considerable
number of orchard plots were sold in the 4,000 acres of the "Pomona Tract"
which was divided into forty-acre lots. But Garey was not really a Pomona man.
C. E. White was. Born in Massachusetts near Boston in 1830, he had come to
California in '49, in an eight months' voyage around the Horn, and for thirty
}ears had been engaged in the nursery business and sheep raising until, in 1880,
he moved to Pomona, and established himself on Holt Avenue, planting the
orchard which was long a model in the \^alley. Though not one of the incor-
porators, he was for some time vice-president of the Los Angeles Immigration
and Cooperative Land Association. He became a well-known citizen in the
town, holding important positions, and built the White Block, in which the Ameri-
can Bank is housed, at the corner of Second and Thomas streets. Years after,
in 1889, he superintended the first planting of the Richards orange grove of 300
acres at North Pomona. A brother of Mr. L. M. Holt, the secretarv of the com-
118 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
pany, was one of the first to build in the new town and lived for some years on
the avenue which bears their name.
The other director of the company who demonstrated his "faith by works"
was J. E. McComas, who bought a lot for home and orchard as well as several
business lots. Fifth Street was regarded as the choice residential section. Heie
within a year were built the homes of J. E. McComas and P. C. Tonner. Here
within a year they brought their brides, to begin their married life in the new
Valley town. And here for some time they lived as neighbors, improving their
home plots and working for the development of the town. Senator ]\IcComas
was to be for many years one of Pomona's foremost citizens, and frequent
reference is made to him in the subsequent account of the city's progress. An-
other neighbor of McComas and Tonner in the first years was John Scott, the
blacksmith, whose house was burned early in 1879.
The first buildings in the new town site are said to have been the hotel, a store
and blacksmith shop. The hotel building erected by the land company at the cor-
ner of Fifth and Garey, was a good, substantial wooden building, two stories high,
and was called the Pomona Hotel. The old villagers of Spadra regarded the new
town as a joke and spoke of it as "Monkeytown," but the Spadra merchant, George
Egan, was enterprising enough to see its possibilities, and moved a part of his
store building to Pomona, opening up a general merchandise store with his brother
James, at first, in charge. George Egan had come to California in 1864 as a young
cavalryman twenty years old, discharged from the Confederate army on account
of his health. Two years later he had come to Spadra as a clerk in Charles
Blake's store near the Phillips place, later sharing the business of "Egan and
Blake," and then purchasing it himself as the health of his partner failed. In
1878 he sold out his business in Spadra and bought the Pomona Hotel; moving
the building to a more central location at First and Main streets, he enlarged it
and made numerous improvements, investing all his small capital in the enterprise.
\\^ithin a year it was destroyed by fire and Egan was obliged to start all over
again. He moved away from Pomona, and for eight years or more was engaged
in various occupations and ventures to rebuild his fortune. After the boom, in
which he had gained some profit in the building of the town of Beaumont, he
returned, in 1887, to Pomona to live, doing an insurance business and improving
his fine fruit orchard in the southeast part of town. Gradually other people came
to the new town, and a rural village began to grow up around the store and shop,
with unostentatious little houses and home plots of garden and fruit trees.
Probably the most important event in Pomona after the opening sale w^as
the actual building of the Southern Pacific, whose probable coming had been fore-
seen for several years, and had warranted the beginning of the town. While this
event could not compare in its novelty with that of its coming to Spadra in 1874,
and marked no such revolution as had the earlier event, at which time railway
trains were unknown in the \'alley, nevertheless it was the realization of the
dreams and promises of the promoters, and it meant a great deal for the
town. Building material and freight of all kinds could now be brought from Los
Angeles by rail instead of by the long, slow haul over the adobe road, always
deeply covered with dust or mud. It would no longer be necessary to ride or
drive to Spadra, or perhaps all the way. when one wanted to go "to town." It is
true that the passenger accommodations were none too good, trains were few and
slow, and the fare was at first $3 for the trip, yet it was a long step ahead, and
gave the town a new lease of life. The new depot and warehouse were the center
iM>.^ ^
^BHKt_ "^ ^ J t "^ 1 4_ A k s t^k
Ll^..
^^^gjg^
PBP''P''*^^^x. ■
|ta.^-^^-.x ' .„ -- .. Xv
—~^^^^m
EARLY VIEW OF POMONA
'HiztiteyB
POMONA HOTEL
FIRST TRAIN ARRIVING IN POMONA
HISTORY AND P.IOGRAPHY 119
of much activity, tourists began to come out to see the town and some, attracted
by its beautiful setting, came back to Hve.
Next in importance to the advent of the railway was its connection with
Colton in 1881, and then, at Deming, with the East, thus giving the town the
tremendous advantage of location on one of the main lines of transcontinental
railway. The coming of the railroad through the Valley and the booming of a
new town gave impetus to the sale and planting of other orchards adjoining the
Pomona Tract and near by. South of Orange Grove Avenue and west of Ellen
Street (now Park Avenue) the eighty or ninety acres between the ranches of
Trinidad Yorba and Soledad Alvarado were subdivided into five-acre lots and
placed on the market as Burdick's Addition, just after the opening up of the
Pomona Tract in 1875. In this tract, between White and Park avenues, James
Loney and R. F. House, with their wives, bought lots, the latter twenty acres and
the former about fifteen. In the well-kept orchards which they planted may now
be seen some of the oldest seedling orange trees in the Valley. These men were
able after a time to turn from their occupations as conductors on the Southern
Pacific Raihvay to business and ranching, later building attractive homes on Park
Avenue. Thomas Flanagan and William O'Conner, Joe Bridger and Fred
Lambourne were others who bought about this time in the same tract.
Between the Burdick and Alvarado places, north of Orange Grove Avenue,
was an orchard lot which P. C. Tonner had bought of Thomas Burdick, brother
of Cyrus, and on which he had lived until his house had burned down. This lot
he now sold to a I\Ir. Weile, who had been for a good many years United States
consul in Ecuador and Peru, and who, after living here for a time, married Fannie,
a daughter of Rev. R. C. Fryer of Spadra.
To the north of the Pomona Tract, in what was known as^Lot One of Fran-
cisco Palomares, and north of that, Capt. A. J. Hutchinson, about the first of
January, 1875, leased a hundred acres on which he began to experiment in raising
tobacco and hogs. Both the hogs and the tobacco did well, but the tobacco did
not find a ready market with the large dealers, because, they said, it was too strong.
It was used, however, in large quantities in the making of sheep dip at shearing
time. About fifty acres of this land he enclosed with a board fence, and bought
the place two years later. The old house, still standing on a lot partly surrounded
by large eucalyptus trees at a bend in the road on Garey Avenue, marks this
spot. It was on this land and on that of Pancho Palomares adjoining that he
later bored a number of artesian wells, the first artesian wells in the Valley.
Captain Hutchinson had a Chinese cook on the ranch, called Louie, whom
everybody knew. Unlike other Chinese of his day, he had cut ofif his queue and
discarded his Chinese dress; also, he had learned a certain amount of English, as
appears from a story told by C. A. Sumner in his "Early Days in California,"
which appeared in the Los Angeles Times in 1918. ]\Ir. Sumner drove out one
Sunday with Captain Hutchinson, who was then living in Los Angeles, to visit
his ranch at Pomona. Louie was still in charge, but they did not find him nor did
they find anything to eat, so they shot a rooster and cooked it for lunch. When
they started for Los Angeles they left a note for Louie to explain their visit. His
reply, as Mr. Sumner remembers it, was: "Honored Sir, why in h — 11 didn't you
stop longer ? I've got no cash, got no grub, got no credit, and now you've killed
my best rooster. Your obedient servant, Louie."
In the Palomares Tract north of the Ivlud Springs or Lordsburg Road and
west of the Loop and Meserve Tract, J. W. Brim, G. Heath and J. H. Goodhue
120 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
each bought over a hundred acres. Four miles east, James M. Armour bought 160
acres of government land and planted a few Tahiti orange trees, keeping also a
good many stands of bees, until in 1882 he sold it all to the Land and Water
Company and went into business, being for a time the proprietor of the Central
Hotel. In the Loop and Meserve Tract, east of San Antonio Avenue, Robert
Cathcart, in 1876, bought one hundred acres and set it out to citrus and deciduous
fruits, but with the expectation of sinking artesian wells, which he did later, as
will be seen.
At the southern end of the Loop and Meserve Tract and north of the Pomona
Tract, another considerable acreage, about 150 acres, was bought in 1877 by H.
K. W. Bent and \V. G. Halstead, land from which the Packard and El Verde
ranches were later sold. This was the first sale in this tract, the price being $25
per acre. Though not long associated with the town of Pomona, Mr. Bent's influ-
ence was to be felt later on the Board of Trustees of Pomona College. He was
a man of high purpose and ambition, whose education and later career were
repeatedly arrested by ill health. Coming to California from Massachusetts in
early manhood, he had regained his health while living an out-of-door life as a
surveyor and mining engineer. Later he came into prominence in Los Angeles
as a leader in public affairs, in politics, in horticulture, and in education. He was
for a time chairman of the county Republican committee, was postmaster of Los
Angeles from 1873 to 1877, and was a member of the committee which drew up
the city charter. When the Los Angeles Public Library was established he was
one of its organizers. He also served as president of the Board of Education.
From this wide experience and from his enthusiasm for Christian education he
brought to his position as trustee of Pomona College, when this institution was
founded, great wisdom and force.
Returning to the story of the town itself, the first public building to be
erected, after the hotel and railway station, was the school building. The begin-
nings of educational work in the Valley have been related in the last chapter.
After the division of the district, the little old peregrinating schoolhouse having
been moved to Spadra, after conducting the school for a time in the house of
Tomas Palomares, the school trustees had put up a new building near what is
the corner of Orange Grove and Park avenues. Here, in 1874, Trustee Palomares,
Don Francisco, had deeded to the trustees for the district two acres of land. The
teachers here were Mr. Green and Mrs. Ellen Finley, the latter still remembered
affectionately by a few who, as little children, were pupils then. It was a little
country school, serving the families of the haciendas in this part of the Valley.
But as people came to Pomona and the hamlet began to assume the proportions
of a village, a larger building, more centrally located, became necessary. For this
purpose the trustees, Burdick, Palomares and Garcia, raised $1,500, Pancho Palo-
mares, Don Francisco, being the principal donor. In addition to this the I. O. O. F.
contributed $1,000, providing that the upper story should be used as an assembly
hall for the lodge, recently organized, until such time as the room might be needed
for school purposes, when the amount should be returned from the school funds.
Supplementing thus the amount provided by the county, a substantial building was
erected in 1876, at the corner of Holt and Ellen (Park Avenue). This building,
long known as the Central School Plouse, was moved back when the new building
was erected, and later sold for an apartment house.
The first teachers in the new school house were Charles T. Coleman, Jr., and
Emma M. Loughrey. Mr. Coleman was a young man who had just come with
HISTORY AND mOGRAPHY • 121
his bride from Massachusetts. Both were people of culture and full of ambition.
Until they could build, they lived, as Mrs. Finley and other teachers had done, at
the ranch home of Mr. and Mrs. Burdick. Under the able instruction of these
teachers the school was well conducted. The attendance was small, of course,
and mostly from the Spanish families of the surrounding region, there being about
a dozen children of the more recent families of settlers.*
Miss Loughrey had come from the East, where she had lived and received
her education, to join some relatives in Compton. Here she met Mr. J. E. IMc-
Comas, who was interested in a ranch there. It was doubtless through his interest
both in the town and in the teacher that she was engaged for the position. She
was also engaged soon to Mr. McComas, the young officer and lawyer, who was
so active in building up the town ; and at the end of her first year of teaching they
were married. Her people being then at a distance, the wedding took place at the
home of their mutual friends, the Burdicks, with whom she had been living. This
was in September, 1876. Soon after this they moved, as we have said, to their
new home on Fifth Street, where the young Tonners were already living.
But the dreams of the builders were rudely interrupted. In spite of two or
three seasons of abundant rain, there had been a long series of dry years. With
the exception of those three years the average rainfall for nearly twenty years was
said to be only about ten inches. And now, following the birth of the town, there
came two more years of drought, when for a scant month the hills and valleys
were just tinged with green and then were soon dried out and brown. The only
water the villagers had was from surface wells. When these ran dry they turned
to the company, urging them to develop more water. But the directors had already
invested all their available capital in the town and were unable to furnish more.
For the tide of prosperity which had rolled in from 1872 to 1875, and on whose
crest the Pomona boom had risen, Avas now ebbing fast, not only here but through-
out the state. With loans from the Temple and Workman Bank in Eos Angeles,
the directors of the Eos Angeles Immigration and Land Cooperative .Association
had indeed organized a subsidiary company called the Pomona Water Company
(not to be confused with the Pomona Eand and Water Company, organized later)
to buy and develop water and to pipe and deliver it through the town. But the
failure of the California Bank in San Francisco was followed in 1876 by the
collapse of the Temple and Workman Bank in Eos Angeles, and the panic which
ensued left the company stranded "high and dry." LTnfulfilled contracts with
Eouis Phillips could not be met, and they were involved in much litigation with
him, as he found it necessary to press his claims. In the meantime P. C. Tonner
was playing his own game with consummate skill and cunning. The game was
too intricate and the tangled tale woven at this time too long to be unraveled here.
It would be a most fascinating story quite by itself. In the end Tonner gained
control by sheriff sale of all the water rights and rights-of-way and some of the
land interests held by the company, and sold them out to Eouis Phillips, only
keeping certain strings in his own hands. The result was the complete collapse
of the old company.
The failure of the company and its inability to save the settlers was a bitter
disappointment to both the directors and the people. .\ meeting was held to see
what could be done. It was believed that artesian water could be had, if only the
money could be found to pay for boring the wells. But all were poor, and Mr.
Phillips seemed to be the only one to whom they could turn, with money enough
*The story of tlie Pomona Schools is resumed in Chapter VIII.
122 . HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
for such an undertaking. As a director of the company, a home builder and a
friend of Philhps (whom he had assisted in various business matters), Mr. ]\Ic-
Comas was delegated to interview the rich rancher and urge him to invest in the
enterprise of developing artesian wells. Now Air. Phillips liked the young lawyer,
but had no interest in the town, and laughed at the idea of sinking money in deep
wells. "I'm going to run my sheep over where your town is," he said. Then
courage fled, though not their love of the place which they had come to think of
as home. Already they could see the herds of sheep running over their gardens
and orchards. A number of them decided to move away, the McComas family
among them. Certainly with no water there could be no town. Selling the home
place, which had cost them $3,000, for $1,000, and taking half of that in stock,
the AlcComas family moved to Compton. They had lost, altogether, some
$19,000. The story of the McComas family is typical of many at this time. The
times were desperately hard. Unable to raise the mortgage on the Compton ranch,
and Mrs. McComas' health not being good so near the ocean, they moved to
Arizona, where the son was engaged in teaming and his father in the practice of
law. It was from Benson, in Arizona, that Mr. McComas wrote to Tonner,
urging him to sell his business lots in Pomona, and offering them all for sale at
$500. This included the corners at Second and Main and at First and Thomas,
on which he later built the McComas Blocks. But Tonner wrote back : "You old
fool, I'll do nothing of the sort. Keep the lots. I won't sell them." They did
sell the corner on which the Campbell & Pierce Drug Store has stood, for $100,
paid in installments of $10 each. After two or three years in Compton and a
year and a half in Arizona, they came back to Los Angeles, where Mr. McComas
opened a real estate office. But the attachment to Pomona was strong, and when
Phillips offered him twenty-five acres on Holt Avenue at $50 an acre if he would
buy before the new syndicate took possession, they were glad enough to accept.
When they returned, in 1883, the new company had brought water into town and
a new era had begun. From this time on, for thirty years, his life was devoted
to the best interests of the town and valley.
In all this time when Pomona lay dormant for lack of means to develop its
water resources, there were not a few who understood well its possibilities. A
disinterested editorial in the Santa Barbara Press, as early as March, 1875, says
of Pomona: "During the six months of my lecturing on Southern California in
the East, I was constantly beset with questions from people * * * asking for
reliable information concerning some inland region, on the line of a railroad,
* «■ * where the land was fertile, the climate warm and dry and yet tempered
by the sea breeze, where there would be a quick growth with permanent pros-
perity, and a country surrounding the town and tributary to it, large enough to
build up a good local business and make the people prosperous who had settled
there for the sake of making permanent homes, * * * and I was unable to find
any one locality combining all these advantages. * * * At last I believe I have
found the place so much inquired after. * * * About thirty miles due east of
Los Angeles, in a broad valley, * * * on the line of the Southern Pacific Rail-
road, * * * is the most perfect site for a large and flourishing inland city ;
* * * and on this lovely plain, almost environed by mountain scenery, * * *
with a sagacity which seems like providence, certain gentlemen in Los Angeles have
bought a rare tract of about 6,000 acres and founded the 'Village of the Plain,'
called Pomona." How fully this faith was to be realized not even the writer could
foresee.
HISTORY AND IHOGRAPHY 123
Fortunately there were others who had not only this vision of the prophet,
but the means and the determination to make that vision come true. Rev. C. T.
Mills of Oakland, who visited the Valley with his wife early in 1882, was so
delighted with its natural beauty and its evident prospects that he associated with
himself J\Ir. M. L. Wicks of Los z-\ngeles, and they together entered into a con-
tract with the owners and holders at that time of the Pomona Tract and of the
Pomona Townsite, for the purchase of the greater part of the Phillips and Palo-
mares holdings in what is now comprised in the city of Pomona. \\'ith this land
they secured the water rights held by the former water company. They also con-
tracted with Loop, Meserve, Sorby and others for a large part of the Loop and
Meserve Tract, including their valuable water rights in the San Antonio Canyon.
In October, 1882, Messrs. Mills and Wicks incorporated the Pomona Land and
Water Company, associating with themselves certain other northern men. In
December of the same year all the land and all the water rights which Mills and
Wicks had secured were transferred to the new company. Thus the Pomona
Land and Water Company came into possession of nearly all the land in the town
of Pomona and in the Pomona Tract surrounding it, of the Loop and Meserve
Tract, the Northeast Pomona Tract and the North Palomares Tract, and also of
the San Antonio and Monte \'ista Tracts in San Bernardino County. To these
were added a considerable area of government land farther north and east, making
altogether more than 12,000 acres, with all the waters and water development
rights on this property. The Pomona Land and Water Company then commenced
the first active and effective development of this territory, sinking a large number
of wells, constructing many miles of pipe line, clearing the land and preparing it
for development and sale. Hitherto there had been no substantial growth in the
town for lack of water. To the supplying of this need the company directed its
attention first of all. How this was accomplished, by conservation of the canyon
waters, by development of the cienega supplies, and by the boring of many flowing
wells in the artesian belt, is related at length in the chapter on Water. It was the
plan of the company to sell land only as fast as it had actually developed a suffi-
cient supply of water for its orchard and domestic use, and then to sell water
rights with the land.
The fundamental spirit which actuated the management of the Pomona Land
and Water Company from the first was that of cooperation in the development
and control of the land and water in this vicinity to the end that the individual
landowners might proportionately participate, in the spirit of democracy, in main-
taining the highest degree of development consistent with the valuable water
supply and productive capacity of the land, uniting at all times in the defense
against any encroachment on the part of adjacent communities and discouraging,
so far as possible, development which might result in waste or exportation of the
water supply, so vital to the successful maintenance of such purpose. The suc-
cessful completion and fulfilment of this plan and purpose were marked by the
action of the company a few years ago when, having sold the greater part of its
irrigated lands and having largely performed its mission in the development of
this section, it divided among its stockholders the remaining unsold portions of its
holdings, retaining only certain reserve water, water rights and development rights
in the company, which still maintains its corporate existence and organization.
The life of the company was at first Dr. C. T. Mills. He had come to Cali-
fornia in 1858, after some years spent as a missionary in the Hawaiian Islands and
India. In the North he and his wife were especially known and beloved as the
124 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
founders of Mills Seminary (now Mills College). \Mien he died, in April, 1884,
he was eulogized as "the frail, nervous, tireless, genial, generous, large-hearted
planner and organizer, who has made the sleepy, unknown town of Pomona waken
and grow and bloom and blossom, and waft the perfume of its orange blossoms
throughout all the state."* The treasurer of the company then, and for many years,
was Frank L. Palmer, later manager of the great Richards grove, whose high
worth is known to all. A number of Pomona's substantial business men were then,
or have been at some time, connected with the Pomona Land and Water Company.
John P. Storrs, cashier of the American National Bank, and Charles M. Stone,
president of the First National Bank, were secretaries ; H. J. Nichols, now presi-
dent of the company, has been from the first the expert director of its water inter-
ests, and A. P. Nichols was for some time its attorney, the first attorney being
Warren Olney, Sr., of San Francisco. Dr. B. S. Nichols, father of H. J. and
A. P., was long its president. With the Nichols, Stone and Storrs families came
a number of others from Burlington, Vt., — Brodie and ^Morgan and E. P. Shaw,
the genial field agent, and Harry A. Storrs, brother of Mr. John Storrs, and since
consulting engineer in the reclamation of arid lands for the Government. James
T. Taylor was the company's surveyor for a time before H. A. Storrs, and be-
fore he became city engineer and opened an office for himself ; also H. E. Stod-
dard. After him followed W. H. Sanders, later a consulting engineer in Los
Angeles. P. C. Tonner, retained by the company for his rare professional skill,
sometimes won important law cases for them, and sometimes plunged them into
hot water. A. H. Smith of Honolulu, who built a block on Second Street for the
post ofiice in 1885, was a member of the company.
Those were busy days in the company's forces, with draftsmen and clerks in
the oiifice, surveyors in the field, gangs of men plowing and grading, other crews
It work boring wells, and still others laying pipe. And this activity was reflected
in a new life in the town and valley. Numbers of those who had lots began to
build residences upon them, five and ten-acre lots began to be set out to citrus and
deciduous fruits. "On the Street," which meant for the most part Second Street,
new stores were opened in frame buildings. Visitors to the town saw everywhere
unfinished buildings going up, ranchers busy with laying out new groves, and
here and there artesian wells flowing abundant streams of pure, sparkling water.
There was a tonic in the air, a contagious atmosphere of push and progress, as
well as the natural invigorating freshness of this rare climate. Who that has
known the experience of coming from an Eastern winter, from the blizzards and
flatness of the Middle West or from the less favorable sections of the North —
from anywhere in the world almost — into this valley of paradise with the per-
petual miracle of perfect climate, of unbounded growth, can ever forget the
inspiring impressions of his first mornings and evenings — the thrilling sunrise
and the more gorgeous sunsets, the meadow larks and the roses, the golden
oranges and the ragged, towering rows of eucalyptus — the very joy of living in
such a world? Add to this the peculiar sense of satisfaction of ownership in a
piece of ground, be it large or small, and of playing at husbandman with such a
lavish Nature ; then the persuasive representations of the promoter pointing out
everywhere the evidences of prosperity and progress, and one understands a little
the spirit of the times. In fact, the bootn was on. It may be dated, perhaps, from
the time when the Pomona Land and Water Company struck the first fine flow of
artesian water in 1882. Early in 1883 the papers record "an unparalleled boom for
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 125
the past four months,"' so that it was almost impossible to find houses ; and this was
only the beginning. Kerckdioff and Cuzner, from the branch lumber yard already
established, were receiving sometimes twelve carloads of lumber in a day. Seven
contractors and their gangs of workmen had all the work they could do. In this
year the Land and Water Company completed its cement pipe line, replacing the
open ditch from San Antonio Canyon, at a cost of $63,000. Other agents were
busy as well as those of the Land and Water Company. Mr. J. E. ]\IcComas, who
had returned to Pomona at the beginning of the year, sold to J. E. Packard, in
March, the eighty acres on Towne and San Antonio avenues on which the vine-
yard was planted. He also sold a good many smaller tracts, which w-ere the
orchard homes of permanent residents.
The long strides by which the town marched forward during the boom are
clearly marked by the contrast between two pictures, one early in 1882 and the
other three years later, in 1885. Since no good photographs can be found of
these scenes, one must attempt to draw them in his imagination. In 1882 we
must picture a village of 150 or 200 people, all told, clustered chiefly about the
few stores on Second Street, with a few outlying homes and orchards, especially
between the village and the Spanish settlement about the San Jose Hills. Just off
Second Street on Main was the new hotel which Louis Brosseau had opened the
previous Christmas. Here, until in 1883 he sold out to Morris Keller, the genial
French-Canadian dispensed hospitality, rejoicing in the better times, after five
years of fruit-growing following the earlier boom of 1876. His livery stable was
farther west on Second Street. Theodore Ruth, whose father was the veteran
pastor of the little Episcopal mission, had a general merchandise and drug store
just below on Main Street, and there was another, kept by Jackson and then by
Henry Sattler, on the corner of ^Main and Second, and one on Thomas and Second
by L. Alexander and H. AlcComas. There was G. W. Farrington's grocery and
two hardware stores — T. D. Holladay's, where the Pomona Bank is now, and E.
J. Votter's, later bought out by his clerk, Richard N. Loucks, who has now been
identified wnth the town for nearly forty years, sharing in all its vicissitudes and
contributing greatly to its advancement. Two blacksmiths shod horses and mended
wagons — \\'. D. Smith on Main Street and ^^'right and Holladay, where E. B.
Smith was later. George Young was the barber and watchmaker ; A. R. Johnson
made and repaired shoes : Garthside, Reed and Conner, architects, planned the
new buildings; the KerckhofT-Cuzner IMill and Lumber Company furnished the
lumber and John \\'hyte the brick and stone to build them. For those who were
not satisfied with the best water in the world there were already two or three
saloons, one at First and Main and one in the O'Conner Building. For those who
were in business trouble there was P. C. Tonner, the lawyer (John J. Mills having
just died ) : and for those in bodily trouble there were two doctors. Dr. C. W.
Brown, at Third and Main, and Dr. Fairchild, whose quarter-section of govern-
ment land north of Claremont was so conspicuously marked by its huge stone
wall. If we except Dr. Kirkpatrick, who lived for a short time at the west end
of the settlement on Orange Grove Avenue, Dr. Brown was the first physician in
town and lived to be one of the oldest.
The only houses south of the village were those of Rev. P. S. Ruth, the Epis-
copal rector ; P. C. Tonner, the lawyer ; H. L. Strong, an orange grower ; S. Gates,
the nurseryman, and John Whyte, the brick and stone mason and dealer, on his
ten-acre tract. There was nothing on Second Street west of Kessler's on the north
and Brosseau's livery on the south. North and east there were only the little
126 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
houses of C. E. White and L. D. Conner opposite on HoU Avenue, till one came to
the open country, with its scattered ranches. Such are the outlines of the picture
in 1882.
In 1885, instead of a village of less than 200, we see a town of over 2,000.
The Kerckhoflf-Cuzner Mill and Lumber Company had put in a mill and enlarged
their stock ; and another lumber yard, opened by Phil Stein, had been bought out
by O. T. r>ri)\vn. Five real estate firms were doing well, J- E. AlcComas having
taken in C. R. Johnson as a partner, and the firm of Brooks and Holladay being
strengthened by Colonel Firey, who in 1883 commenced that life of notable and
high service for Pomona which has continued ever since. Instead of one grocery
store, there were ten to feed the growing population, that of V. de Brunner being
conspicuous. The little country merchandise stores had given place to others more
specialized. There were four dry goods stores, among them Greenbaum's and that
of Converse Howe, who was to be for a time so prominent in Pomona affairs, both
in its business and its education. There were three drug stores, two bakeries and
two meat markets ; also two furniture stores and two boot and shoe shops. Toots
Martin's and that of P. J. Tarr, the veteran shoe man and loyal Pomonan, who
came in December, 1884. Of confectioners and book stores there were four, in-
cluding those of E. T. Palmer and of R. N. Loucks, who also handled insurance
and real estate. To Brosseau's livery were added three others, E. Hicklin's among
them. Kessler had opened "Tonsorial and Bath Parlors" in his Second Street
Block. Three millinery stores and one for jewelry tell of feminine interest in the
new population. But there were many homeless citizens as well as visitors and
tourists, to whom four restaurants and four or five hotels now catered. Keller's
and King's both claimed the name of Pomona Hotel, the first by priority and the
second by location near where the old Pomona Hotel had burned down. For a
time these had been the only two hotels in town, and both were popular, "Mother
King" being much in demand for her nursing. After the first hotel had burned
and before Brosseau had built, there had only been a restaurant, kept by a Gov-
ernor Mercer of Iowa, who had come here for his health, and a small house on
Main Street kept for two or three years by one Garcia, a Mexican, called Saboni.
Now there were also the Des IMoines and Brown's Hotel, and the ]\laison Fran-
caise, with a considerable clientele of French colonists and visitors. M. G. Rogers
had opened his feed store at Second and Ellen, and Smith Brothers their flouring
mill ; Graber was in charge of Phillips' warehouse by the station ; and there were
now five blacksmiths and two harness shops.
With all this increase in business two banks had been established ; the first,
called the Pomona Valley Bank, had been organized in 1883 with J. H. Smith, J-
E. McComas and Dr. Thomas Coates as officers, and occupied the new brick block
which P. S. Ruth had built in 1882 at Third and Main. The other bank was the
Pomona Bank, in the Palmer Block, of which H. A. Palmer was president. James
L. Howland, who had come from Massachusetts in 1882, had joined S, Gates in
the nursery business, and their stock covered forty acres at Cucamonga and Orange
Grove avenues, with 100,000 orange trees and 200,000 olives. Two live papers had
been established. The Pomona Times, founded by H. N. Short and W. D. Morton
in October, 1882, had become the Times-Courier, with John H. Lee, who had
started the Courier in 1883, in place of Short. The Progress ha 1 j.ist begun (Jan-
uary 31, 1885.) its long, unbroken record of service to the town.
Dr. Brown had been joined by Dr. Coates, who also was to continue his suc-
cessful practice here to the end of his life; and there were also Dr. Burr and Dr.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 127
r. E. Howe. Dr. F. DeW'ilt Crank had come, in the fall of 1884, from Pasadena,
where he had married a daughter of Colonel Banbury, that pioneer of the Indiana
Colony, who built the first house in Pasadena ; the first of Pomona's early physi-
cians to continue to the present time. Dr. Von Bonhurst, the dentist, had now a
rival in Dr. J. H. Dunn. In the legal profession Foley and Clark were partners
of Tonner ; here Claiborne had entered the field, also the new firm of Joy and
Sumner, of whom more is to be written in a later chapter. Though not yet in this
profession which he was to follow in Pomona to the present time, U. E. \\hite
came to Pomona as a youth of sixteen, with his folks, in 1883, having, in fact,
grown up with the town and been interested in all its progress. Such, then, is the
picture of Pomona early in 1885 — a real town, with a post office of the third class.
Remarkaljle as was the growth of these three years, that of the next few
months was even more striking. Early in 1886 the population had grown from
2,000 to nearly 5,000; ten churches had been established, five of them well housed ;
and there were strong lodges of the fraternities I. O. O. F., F. & A. M., K. of P.,
A. O. U. W., Good Templars and Grand Army. On December 31, 1885, there
were counted ninety-eight business concerns in Pomona. Four schoolhouses had
been erected, and a good modern hotel. The Land and Water Company alone had
now spent $400,000 and had disposed of 4,000 acres of land, with water, at prices
from $50 to $200 an acre. Two thousand acres were set out with trees, 60,000
trees having been planted in 1885. Six hundred inches of water was flowing from
eighty artesian wells.
Moreover, even at the height of the boom, the growth of Pomona was sub-
stantial. Materially a better class of construction was now employed. In addition
to Ruth's brick block at Third and Main, which contained his store and post office
and the Pomona A'alley Bank, there were the Palmer and McComas Blocks, and
the four brick buildings at Second and Gordon were built during the year. In the
>-ear 1885. 1,200.000 brick were used in Pomona. And the substantial character of
this growth was not simply material, but there was less inflation of values and con-
sequently less loss and sufifering here than in many other places following the boom.
In sketching this picture of Pomona in the days of the boom, the writer can
only bring out in detail certain features which chanced to form the high lights in
the scene as he found or remembered it, and these, of course, might have been
quite different from those seen by another from a different point of view. Some
of these more noticeable features we may now consider.
The opening of the Hotel Palomares was a notable event. A really modern
hotel, attractive in appearance and furnished in good taste, it was conducted at first
by Frank Miller, before he had become known to the world as the proprietor of
the Glenwood Inn. For the "opening week" in November, 1885, there were
dinners and dances and various special functions and a number of distinguished
guests who came from a distance, and there were many compliments for the
directors, who were also directors in the Land and Water Company. The new
hostelry was always crowded with visitors and tourists ; and business men of the
town, who could afford it, liked to lunch at its excellent table. So popular, indeed,
was the house that a new and larger building was soon projected and the first one
moved to one side to make place for it in the center of the block. So long as the
good times lasted its prestige brought patronage and it proved a great attraction for
the town. Incidentally, these days marked the high tide of the hotel business in
the Valley. Opposite the Hotel Palomares Dr. Crank and Dr. Coates built, and
Mr. Mueller moved into his new residence, then regarded as quite elegant.
128 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
In the ten and forty-acre tracts adjoining the town, and farther out, new sub-
divisions were put on the market, with excursions and auction sales. At such a
sale of lots in the Currier Tract, one day in February, 1887, there was a tremen-
dous downpour of rain and a man named Carter was struck by lightning. The
next month another "grand excursion to the beautiful town of Pomona" was
advertised by Easton and Eldridge, with'O. F. Giffen as special agent, for the
sale of lots in the Palomares Tract. Los Angeles was flooded with pictures and
circulars. Seven hundred people came on the excursion train and all were served
with luncheon. Lots were sold at from $50 to $250, amounting to $16,400.
A number of outstanding figures not already mentioned in the early history
of the town, who were here at the height of the boom in 18S7, or before the Santa
Fe was built, may well be mentioned here. One of these was Frank Blanker, for
thirty-three years now the efficient and faithful constable of the San Jose Town-
ship. \\'hen Captain Hutchinson was boring the first artesian wells in the Valley,
in 1880 and 1881, Frank Slanker was foreman in charge of the tools, and "Bill"
Mulholland, Los Angeles' great engineer, of acjueduct fame, was working for him
at $2.23 a day. But Mr. Slanker wanted to be a blacksmith, and so after these
four wells were drilled, and one or two for Pancho Palomares, he set about to
learn the blacksmith's heavy trade. After six years he had become a master
workman and was associated with W. D. Smith, when one day at the close of the
yeai: 1886, J. E. McComas came to the shop and said, "We are going to elect you
constable tomorrow," and would listen to no refusal. 'Til buy your stock," he
said. "We want some one to clean up the town," for there were then fourteen
saloons in the place. When he was elected the next day, Mr. McComas had a
silver star made and came to the blacksmith shop to present it to him. Louis
Phillips, who was also there, said to him, "Throw that away and I'll have a gold
one made for you." But Frank Slanker has worn his silver star with honor, from
the first of January, 1887, when he entered office, to the present time. It was
while boring a well for Pancho Palomares and boarding at his home that the latter
told him the story of Old Prieto and his money (already narrated), and promised,
that, if he should die first, he would come back and tell Slanker where it was
buried. This he had also promised to his friend Cyrus Burdick. Tonner, too,
who knew the story well and was a friend of the three, had made the same
pledge. As constable, Slanker saw much of Tonner in his drunken moods, tak-
ing him home literally hundreds of times. At such times Tonner often talked
of the hereafter, and so earnestly that Mr. Slanker said once to him, Tonner be-
ing sober, "You do not talk of the things when sober that you do when drunk ;
I'd like to be able to say that P. C. Tonner has said so-and-so when sober," to
which he replied seriously, "I'll come back and tell you about it some day."
In the early days of his office there was still a rancheria of Indians by the
Arenas Springs, also called the Huaje, an ever-shifting crowd whose men were
mostly sheepshearers. Sometimes they were troublesome, gambling and fighting
among themselves and cutting each other, though not doing much shooting, and he
was obliged to straighten them out. There was a very red, one-eyed Indian in
camp called "Dan," whom he asked one day, "Dan, how long have you been here ?"
Slowly the old man answered, "When I came here Old Baldy was a little hill like
that," holding his hand only a little above the ground.
One might fill a volume with stories of this constable's adventures, if only he
were willing to tell them, for with all his modesty he has seen much service, espe-
cially in the earlier, wilder days. But there are two, already on record among the
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 129
court and legal documents, which illustrate his shrewdness and his courage. In
the days of the saloon there was, of course, much drinking, carousing and gam-
bling. The streets were full of drunken Mexicans. Sheepherders and miners
came in from the plains and mountains after pay-day with their pockets full of
money and would carouse for a couple of days till they were "broke" again. Into
the back yards of saloons — and every saloon had its back yard — the men were
rolled when full. Often two or three might be seen lying in a back yard
dead drunk. At one time there was much complaint among the tipplers that they
had lost large sums of money, "and it didn't all go to the saloonkeepers, either."
The thieves could not at first be located and there was much speculation as to who
they were. Finally Constable Slanker determined to find out. Dressed as an old
miner, with full beard, flannel shirt and trousers tucked in his big boots, he went
the rounds of the saloons. Soon he discovered that two men were following him
about. He recognized them as two painters who had been in town for some time,
and not always busy. So, entering a saloon north of where Armour's store now
is, and observing that the two men had followed him in, he bought a pint of
whiskey. The price then was 50 cents, and he ofifered a five-dollar gold piece in
payment, dropping part of the change. One of the men jumped to pick it up and
hand it to him. Slanker then went out and down the alley and lay down against
the fence as if drunk. .After about twenty minutes these two men came up to him.
One in front and one behind, they rolled him over, cut his pocket and took $3
which they found. ( This is what was called "rolling" in the parlance of the day.)
The other $1.50, in quarters, he had dropped into one of his boots. "Is that all?
He must have more," said one of them, and the saloonkeeper called out to them,
"How much did you get?" "Only three dollars." "He must have a dollar and a
half more" (!) So they rolled him over again and the money in his boot was
heard to clink. "He's got it in his boots," they cried, and were about to pull them
off. But the Constable had a "forty- four" in the other boot, so he pretended to
wake up a little, getting up on his hands and knees, and they decided to "let him
go." The next day he got out a warrant for the men, arrested them and locked
them up. They were convicted, of course, and sent to jail for several months.
But an interesting incident occurred at the preliminary hearing. A brother of one
of the men came to Constable Slanker and said, "You don't want to send E
to jail. For the sake of the family let's fix it up. When you go to get him from
jail, just let him go. He'll run and you shoot after him, but don't hit him. ^^'e'll
have a conveyance ready to take him away. Just as soon as he escapes I will give
you $500." To which Frank Slanker quietly replied, "Tell your brother, if by an\
chance he should get loose, not to run, for I'll shoot to kill, and I'll get him."
The other story is about the celebrated bandit, Silva, wdio was captured finally
in 1897. But the San Francisco papers which then published thrilling accounts of
his career had forgotten, or did not know of. an earlier capture of the desperado by
Constable Slanker, when he was known by his true name of Lugo. A comparison
of photographs taken at both times leaves no room for doubt as to their identity.
The sheriff of Chino had learned that Lugo was wanted by officers in the north,
and not knowing where to find him, came to Slanker to see if he knew anything
about him. The Chino sheriff would not tell by whom or for what he was wanted,
but Slanker told him, nevertheless, where he was at work shearing sheep, and just
how he could get him. So Lugo was caught, but on the way back, passing his
home on Hamilton Avenue, he asked to be allowed to go in to get some clean
clothes. The sheriff let him go in by himself and waited some time for him to
160 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
come out ; then, going inside, he asked where Lugo was. An old woman answered,
"No sais, qnisas se fue," — I don't know, perhaps he has gone. Of course he had —
gone straight through the house and escaped the back way. When the constable
saw the sheriff again, this conversation took place :
Constable : "Did you get him?"
Sheriff: "Yes, I got him."
Constable: "Well, what did you do with him?"
Sheriff: "Oh, he got away."
A little later the constable learned that Lugo was visiting a girl in the south
part of town, and wrote to officers in the north to learn if he was still "wanted."
He found that he was wanted very much and that a considerable reward was in-
volved. So Mr. Slanker laid his plans to catch him. Going to a young doctor of
his acquaintance, he asked him if he would be willing to stay up several nights
"ready for business." "Someone is going to need attention," he said, "either I, or
someone else." In a shed back of the house he hid and watched for several nights.
Then Lugo came. Riding down the alley, he put his horse in the barn and went to
the house. Then Mr. Slanker took the horse out, hitched him in another place
and waited for Lugo to come out. Some time after midnight he saw him coming
down the alley, his knife in his hand. "Now is the time," said Mr. Slanker to
himself, and he rushed upon him as he was about to enter the barn and struck him
on the side of the head with his revolver. Lugo fell, but not senseless, for as Mr.
Slanker started to bring him out he grappled with him and a deadly struggle fol-
lowed. Both lost their revolvers in the tussle, but Mr. Slanker managed to get
hold of Lugo's. Somehow — he could not remember all the details later — Mr.
Slanker got the best of Lugo. Finding a bad wound on the top of his prisoner's,
head, the constable took him to the doctor. "A few minutes more and he could
not have been saved," the physiciaij said. "You hit me too hard, Slanker," said
Lugo later; "I knew it was you." "How did you know?" the constable asked.
"No one else would have dared try it," said Lugo.
Of the permanent residents of Pomona who came before the boom and are
still living here, few have contributed so much to the high standards of the com-
munity as Fred J. Smith and his wife. Coming to Pomona in 1881, as Captain
Hutchinson was boring his artesian wells farther west, before the Land and
Water Company had organized and begun its water development, he was especially
concerned in the problem of water supply, recognizing its importance in the future
of the Valley. Believing that flowing wells could be sunk on the forty-acre piece
north of his present place, on the old Loop and Meserve Tract, he tried to purchase
it of H. K. W. Bent and his associates, who had bought it from Loop and
Meserve, but they refused to sell the right to develop water (though they did sell
it later to Hixon, and the wells on his and the Camp place farther north confirmed
Mr. Smith's judgment). So he bought the tract which he still owns, west of San
Antonio Avenue and south of San Bernardino, and began its improvement, setting
it out mostly to choice vines, but laying out the beautiful home plot which sug-
gests their good taste and perhaps the instincts for a home estate, inherited from
his English ancestors. Across the upper corner of the place ran the old County
Road, the Camino Real de San Bernardino, packed like rock after generations of
travel, as Kewen Dorsey says, who came from Spadra with his teams and tools to
break it up. The connection of Mr. Smith with the water development will be
noticed later.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 131
Pomona's present postmaster, Col. Frank P. Firey, from the first a leader in
the upbuilding of the town, came to California in 1883. Toward the close of the
tedious train ride, in company with his traveling companion, Prof. W. T. Tibbs,
he remembers especially stretching their legs, as travelers do, at the little town of
Pomona, and noting the rows of tall eucalyptus (more noticeable in the earlier
landscape than now) against the background of the mountains. After knocking
about Los Angeles and San Diego, looking for a suitable location, they remembered
their impression of this oasis, after crossing the desert, with the result that both
he and Professor Tibbs came to Pomona and bought homes in the Kingsley Tract,
and he has been identified with the city from that time to the present. During his
term of service as mayor of Pomona, the new City Hall was built and other im-
provements made, especially in the development of Ganesha Park. In his discrim-
inating review of Pomona's progress at the laying of the corner stone of Pomona's
Greek Theater, Colonel Firey prefaced his more substantial facts as to the banks
with this incident :
"The Pomona Valley Bank, thirty-three years ago, * * * was run by one
man, and that was Dr. Coates, pioneer physician of Pomona. I remember going
into the bank one day, which was then located in what is now known as the old
Ruth Block. As I went into the bank Dr. Coates sat in a chair in the middle of
the room behind the counter, sound and fast asleep. I looked at him for a moment
or two, and as he snored away I rapped loudly on the counter. j\Iy noise awak-
ened him and he sprang to his feet with his arms extended, as though he was
expecting a bank robber."
About the same time came the Lorbeer family, whose sterling character has
made its favorable impress on church and town. Mr. Charles I. Lorbeer came first,
in 1883, his mother, Mrs. C. A. Lorbeer, and others coming later. The former
with enthusiasm and high purpose threw himself into many of the town's best
enterprises — the library, the schools, the new incorporation, the fight against
liquor. He was for some years editor of the Pomona Progress, and when the
storm against Chinese labor was at its height he was one of the prime movers and
secretary ( J. B. Camp being chairman ) of the Steam Laundry then established.
He was also one of the founders of the ^Mutual Building and Loan Association.
In January, 1886, Ira F. White and Son, of Vacaville, bought out John John-
ston's hardware store and began their long and solid business career. After some
years in retirement, the father has just been active in organizing the Pomona
Valley Pioneer Society. His son, Frank, is remembered by many as the inventor
of improved ladders and clippers for fruit men, and of many other devices, which
he is now manufacturing on a large scale in Plainfield, N. J.
Doubtless a little search would bring to light old fences or buildings any-
where in the Valley, or stones upon the mountains, still bearing the inscription,
"We Sell the Earth." No one who lived within forty miles of Pomona in the late
eighties and early nineties will forget R. S. Bassett and his cheerful, indefatigable,
hustling way, as he burst into the town and began to sell pianos and other musical
instruments, sewing machines and everything else, but especially real estate.
Others were associated with him at times in real estate — James F. Taylor, the
engineer, and Fred J. Smith, the more conservative horticulturist — but Bassett was
the unique and superlative booster, both of his business and of the town.
The shoe merchant, P. J. Tarr, will also be long remembered for his ingenious
advertising as well as for his substantial place in business and church and town.
■One day, after the countryside had been startled by the legend appearing every-
132 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
where, "Try Tarr on Shoes," a stranger followed one of the numerous paths of
black footprints which, coming from every direction, all led to Tarr's, and entered
the store in great indignation. "I've tried tar on my shoes and ruined them," he
said. "I want damages." Nor was his wrath appeased when shown that the
advice was "Try Tarr on Shoes" — not tar.
Another family, which has been conspicuous all through the history of the
town, always exerting their influence and giving of their means for the highest
life of the town is the Doles, formerly of Bangor, Maine, who came to Pomona
in 1887. John Dole arrived in the spring and his brother, William B. Dole, with
liis family, in the fall. Both were stockholders in the People's Bank, which was
organized that year, John Dole being one of its cashiers. The Congregational
Church and Pomona College owe much to their cordial and active support. Always
prominent in Alasonic circles, their place has been taken by their brother, "Uncle
Albert" Dole, as he is alTectionately called, and by Arthur, son of \^'illiam B. Dole.
The latter has also been most valuable in library and educational affairs of the city.
From the time of his arrival in Pomona, in 1886, until he moved to Los
Angeles in 1904, few men, if any, accomplished more in the building up of the
town than did Stoddard Jess. Following his parents here from W'aupun, Wis.,
where he had been in the banking business with his father, and had risen to the
post of mayor of the city, he at once identified himself with the progressive life
of the city. Together with Carlton Seaver, he placed the First National Bank on
its strong foundations ; and he was one of the founders of the ^Mutual Building
and Loan Association. On the side of good order in the contest for incorporation,
he served as the city's first treasurer. The library, the cemetery, the L^nitarian
Church were among the other interests \vhich received his earnest support. Both
Stoddard Jess and his father, George, built attractive homes in the midst of groves
and flowers on Ellen Street (Park Avenue).
Another strong factor in the building of the new town was C. E. Sumner,
who came in 1882, after living a hermit life on government land in Live Oak
Canyon, where he recovered his health, which had been impaired by overwork.
Now placing himself at once on the side of the forces making for a clean city, he
threw his energies into the conflicts, to be described later, against the liquor deal-
ers, and for an incorporation which should establish good order. He was one of
the framers of the first city charter ; then drew up the ordinance against the
saloons which put them out of business. He was editor for some time, with W.
D. Morton, of the Times-Courier, and also served the city as city attorney, devot-
ing his entire time to the office, on the munificent salary of $35 a month ! His
marriage to the daughter of A. R. Meserve has been mentioned. Not until after
a long and faithful term of service for the city did he retire to Los Angeles to
acquire a good practice and reputation in the legal profession there.
There is one personality of the earlier days of whom one thinks with the
deepest admiration — yes, and affection ; one who, like Barrie's "little minister,"
entered so many of the homes all over the Valley, with the healing of his profes-
sional skill and the comfort of his rare sympathy. How many in sudden anguish
of anxiety, or tossed on beds of pain, have felt the glad, intense relief that came
when was heard the rapid beat of his horse's hoofs outside, and then when one
looked into his deep, dark eyes. He spoke but little, yet communicated volumes
of helpfulness and courage. Steady and cool and skilful in the hour of crisis, his
whole ambition was of service to those in need, regardless of wealth or station.
Once, when a man was buried by a cave-in of earth in a tunnel five or six miles.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 133
north of town, and a message was sent him that a poor, unknown fellow was
buried in the ground, without hesitation, nor caring who-he was or whether he
could pay, he ran to his buggy and raced as fast as he conld drive to the spot,
arriving long before it seemed possible for him to make it ; and then, jumping
from the buggy before it had stopped, he had the man's tongue out and was apply-
ing every known means of revival, even before the sufferer was quite released
from imprisonment ; nor did he cease his efforts till every chance was past, though
realizing, doubtless, from the first the probability that it was a hopeless fight.
Never again, perhaps, will it be given to one man to minister so completely to the
whole community as it was given to Dr. Frank Garcelon, the "little doctor,'" who
fulfilled to the utmost his high calling and privileges.
"Time would fail" to mention the long list of other names of those who,
even before 1890, were active in the upbuilding of the city, and whom some, doubt-
less, would recall more vividly and with equal recognition of worth and service.
There were Will S. Bailey, the jeweler, who moved later to Los Angeles, and
C. C. Zilles, still relied upon here as jeweler and watchmaker: L. T. Bishop
and I. N. Sanborn, builder and mason, and both builders in the Congre-
gational Church : Judge Evey, S. Caldwell, the druggist, and J. E. Patterson,
still serving the public as undertaker; Ramish and Cohn of the People's Store, and
Padgham, and Minier, and Woody, .the grocers; Col. George Roher and Peter
Fleming of the Sycamore Water Company, also mentioned later.
Following the great boom of 1883-1887 came another period of depression,
as was true after the lesser boom of 1875-1876, when Pomona was begun. The
general condition was not so acute, to be sure, nor was there such dire distress at
any point; yet a number of concerns went to the wall; horse cars ceased to run,
some lines surrendering their franchise; families moved away, and hobos even
fled the country. Also the well-to-do and the land-poor were hard put to it to tide
over. Before the Loops sold their interest in the Loop and Meserve Tract to the
Pomona Land and Water Company — a sale which, by the way, made possible their
long journey abroad — Mrs. Loop used to say that they surely would have starved
but for the lime hedge from which a picking of limes was always a possible dernier
ressort.
CHAPTER SIX
WATER, LIGHT AND POWER*
Three Sources of \\'ater — Old Settlement Water — Canyon Water-
Artesian Wells — Water Companies — Tunnels — Conservation — Elec-
tric Light and Power.
The history of the development of water in the Valley, and its consequent
forms of energy, light and power, so essential to our modern life, might properly
fill a volume by itself. Such a history should be written by an expert -who is
familiar with both the technique and history of these subjects. Those who are
best fitted, probably, to deal with the subject of water are Willis S. Jones, civil
engineer and expert adviser for the county, in charge of all the conservation work
now in progress in this section; H. J. Nichols, president of the Pomona Land and
Water Company, and Fred J. Smith, formerly of the Citizens Water Company.
At a meeting of the Pomona Valley Historical Society in October, 1916, Mr. Smith,
in a paper entitled "The Coming of the Water," presented the most satisfactory
account of this matter which has yet been prepared. Written from an intimate
personal knowledge of the facts, with free access to relevant documents and in
consultation with Mr. Nichols and Mr. Jones, authorities just mentioned, and
compiled with intelligent judgment, the paper was of such value as to be published
in the Bulletin, and filed in the Pomona Public Library in a pamphlet entitled,
"Early Days in Pomona." Frequent and extended use of this article is made in the
following pages.
A writer describing the resources of the Valley in the very first issue of the
Pomona Progress, in January, 1885, rightly says: "The valleys and plains of
Southern California are blessed with rich soil, but blessed indeed, twice blessed,
is that land to which can be added abundance of water." As Mr. Smith says in
the opening paragraph of "The Coming of the \\'ater," "The importance of water
to this Valley may be realized by the statement that more than a million dollars'
worth of orchards is at present dependent on every square mile of the San
Antonio watershed, twenty-seven and a half square miles in extent, from which
primarily all our water is derived." After the direct supply which falls over the
Valley in the form of rain, and which is largely absorbed either by surface vege-
tation or by seepage down to the underground supplies, there are practically
three sources of water supply. One of these is the stream in San Antonio
Canyon ; a second is found, or was, in the cienegas where underlying impervious
strata of the earth, cropping out or coming near the surface, have caused the
water to appear in springs ; and the third source is artificial wells and tunnels by
which the water is brought to the surface through human agency, sometimes flow-
ing freely, as in the first artesian wells and tunnels, sometimes pumped by hand
or by wind, as in the earlier surface wells, but more often pumped from deej)
wells by gasoline or electric-driven engines, the latter draining lower .'subter-
ranean levels.
•This chapter deals only with the Water, Light and Power for the Claremont and Pomona region.
136 HISTORY AND HIOGRAPHY
THE OLD SETTLEMENT WATER
At first, of course, the Indians and the ]\Iexican settlers depended entirely
upon the springs and streams by which their rancherias and haciendas were
naturally and necessarily built. Thus we find the Spanish settlement at the San
Jose Hills beside the Palomares cienegas and San Jose creek, the earlier Vejar
(later the Phillips) settlement and Spadra beside the springs and Arroyo Pedre-
goso and the San Jose Creek, and the Indian rancherias at the Martin and other
cienegas. The normal rainfall usually sufficed in the lower parts of the Valley
for pasturage for wide-ranging herds ; also in the same regions for grain and
some fruits. But for most fruits, notably for the citrus industry, for gardens
and alfalfa, and especially for the domestic use of growing cities, artificial sup-
plies, development and conservation were imperative. The first movement in
this direction was early in 1875, when Lugarda Palomares, wife of Pancho, Cyrus
Burdick and P. C. Tonner bought of Concepcion Palomares, wife of the grantee,
"all the rights to the waters not heretofore granted,* arising on or flowing through
the portion of the Rancho de San Jose" described in particular and including mo.st
of the cienega land around the base of the hills "together with the exclusive right
to increase the amount of said water," only excluding a certain spring belonging
to Francisco Palomares and his mother, and water to irrigate 100 acres of their
land. This water right was secured not only for use on their own properties, but
to supply the tract which they were subdividing and placing on the market. In
April of this year the new company, called by every one "the company with the
long name," bought this water right of the Palomares, Burdick, Tonner Company,
with the exception of water sufficient for some fifty acres reserved especially
to Burdick and Tonner. This reservation and that specified in the conveyances
to Lopez and to Tomas and Francisco Palomares, before mentioned, constituted
what was known as the "Old Settlement \\'ater." All the sale of land in the
Burdick Addition carried with it proportionate shares in the "Old Settlement
Water." Further rights of developing water on the Tomas Palomares pro]5erty
were purchased in IMarch. 1877, by owners in the tract.
Except for these reservations the Los Angeles Immigration and Land Coop-
erative .Association secured from Francisco and Lugarda Palomares. from Cyrus
Burdick and P. C. Tonner all their water rights, and rights of development, and
the right to "convey the water over the lands of the Rancho San Jose." trans-
ferring these water interests then to a subsidiary corporation called the Pomona
Water Company (not the Pomona Land and Water Company"). ^Ir. Smith says
that this company sunk a few shallow seven-inch wells at the head of the San
Jose Creek, forty or fifty feet deep, dug an open cut in the cienega, and conveyed
the water by open ditch to a reservoir in the center of Holt Avenue, a little east
of San Antonio Avenue. There was at the time some controversy as to the owner-
ship of this water as between the Immigration and Water Companies on the one
part and the successors in interest of the Palomares family, who had acquired
and were developing other tracts of land on the other part. The few hundred
acres sold by the Immigration Company were ill-supplied, and the few trees
planted suflfered and mostly died, though a few orange trees survived both drought
and frost, and lines of eucalyptus on Ellen and one or two other streets were
•In March, 1869, Concepcion Palomares, in deeding fifty acres to Jose Lopez, eiglity-eight to Tomas
Palomares and 188 acres to Francisco Palompres, had also conveyed to each "right of water in the proportion
that he is entitled, having (so many) acres."
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 137
tided over and grew to a great height before they gave way to more intensive
cultivation.
As stated in the chapter, "Beginnings of Pomona," the private surface wells
were utterly inadequate.
CANYON WATER
When the Water Company failed and was sold out by the sheriit in 1878,
their water rights, partly through P. C. Tonner, came into the hands of Louis
Phillips, together with a large area of land which reverted to him. These were
later purchased, directly or through Mills and \\'icks, by the Pomona Land and
Water Company after their organization in 1882, as previously explained. But
the Old Settlement and other waters of the San Jose Hills were only a part of
the supply acquired by the new Land and Water Company, ^^'hile greatly in-
creasing this source of supply, they turned their attention also to the waters of
San Antonio Canyon.
Several references have been made to the open ditch which ran from the
mouth of the canyon to the upper line of what was later the Loop and ^leserve
Tract. This ditch, about seven miles long, was dug by Indians for Ygnacio
Palomares and his co-grantees to bring the water to the old San .Antonio vineyard
— "Huerta de San Antonio." They claimed half the stream ; but this claim was
denied, openly by other property owners to the east, who disputed their title,
secretly by others who tapped the ditch along its course and led the water away
for their own use, and especially in a most practical way by the alders and other
vegetation along the bank, by evaporation and by the seepage of the gravelly
soil which claimed the lion's share. As to the title, the right of the Palomares
family and their associates to half the water, as claimed by reason of their
Spanish grants, as well as of continuous possession for fifteen years, was estab-
lished by a judgment of the District Court in May, 1871. This right was reaf-
firmed by an agreement between the Pomona Land and Water Company and the
San Antonio \\'ater Company. As to the theft and waste, this problem also
was efTectively solved by the same company. When ]\Iessrs. C. T. JNlills of
Oakland and M. L. Wicks of Los Angeles, the organizers of the Pomona Land
and Water Company, purchased of Messrs. Loop and Meserve 700 or 800 acres
of their tract, they also contracted for important rights in the waters of San
Antonio, which Messrs. Loop and Meserve had purchased in their entirety from
the original grantees. At this time water amounting, to an inch to ten acres was
regarded as ample for the development of orchard property. But the Land and
Water Company agreed with Loop and ^Meserve to deliver to them water amount-
ing to an inch to every eight acres, laying a pipe line all the way from the canyon
for this purpose and keeping it in repair for ten years ; in consideration for which
the Land and W"ater Company were to have full title to all these water rights in
the canyon in excess of the inch per eight acres delivered to the Loop and Meserve
Tract. The construction of this line of sixteen-inch concrete pipe was a big
undertaking, but it was completed in about a year at a cost of $63,000. In this
way all the lands of the Loop and Meserve Tract were provided with a good,
permanent .supply of water, and in addition some 500 acres of land above the
artesian belt were brought under water, including the North Palomares Tract
and the Richards orange lands.
In 1885 a dam was built by Charles French for the Pomona Land and
Water Company in the canyon for the measurement of the -vater and for equal
138 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
division between Pomona and Ontario. In 1890, miles of wooden flume by
which the water was carried to the intake of the cement ditch from farther up
the canyon, were washed out, and were replaced by the company with more cement
pipe, at a further cost of some $10,000.
The disposal of the surplus water which flows from the canyon in the winter,
and at times of heavy rain, is of great importance and is discussed later in this
chapter under "Conservation."
ARTESIAN WELLS
The first artesian wells "that successfully developed flows of good commer-
cial quantity," as Mr. Smith conservatively states, were those which Capt. A. J.
Hutchinson and Francisco Palomares, as equal partners, bored during the years
1877 and 1878 near the north edge of the Palomares cienega, two on Palomares'
land and two on that of Captain Hutchinson, at the bend in Garey Avenue oppo-
site the hospital. Mention has already been made of Captain Hutchinson, the
Englishman who "was different" from other folks, with his garden surrounded
by a board fence, his tobacco and his pigs, his fine horses and his Chinese cook.
We have also remarked that his well-borers Virere Engineer "Bill" Mulholland
and Constable Blanker. Three of the four wells came in strong, the first at a
depth of 285 feet. The success of Captain Hutchinson and Francisco Palomares
in their venture encouraged others to invest more heavily in the same enterprise.
"The ne.\t ten years," says Mr. Smith, "was an era of great development ; capital
flowed into water development in bonanza streams." The leaders in this develop-
ment were the Land and Water Company, who, besides developing and conserv-
ing the supplies from the Palomares cienega and from the canyon as described
above, began also that extensive "campaign of artesian water development main-
tained throughout the eighties that saw during this period seventy-five artesian
wells drilled in the Palomares, Martin and Del Monte cienegas, and over forty-
three miles of pipe laid down, and later, up to 1914, put down forty-seven addi-
tional wells, making a total of 141 wells drilled, which with the cost of distrib-
uting pipe systems, called for a cash outlay of $190,323.79." A single item in this
development was the reservoir east of town on Holt Avenue, built in 1884, with
a capacity of 6,000,000 gallons.
To distribute water for domestic use throughout the city the new company
laid a complete system of iron pipe, furnishing an ample supply of water under
good pressure to all the settled portions of the city. This was also done in Clare-
mont. To handle the business of distribution two municipal companies were
organized — the Pomona City Water Works, covering the territory in Pomona, and
the Union Water Company, covering the town of Claremont.
"For the purpose of continuously distributing and controlling the irrigating
water, the Land and Water Company organized four semi-independent corpora-
tions, namely: The Irrigation Company of Pomona, which supplied the lands
through the southern and middle section of the Pomona territory to the amount
of about 2,500 acres ; the Palomares Irrigation Company, which supplied about 600
acres lying north of the lands covered by the Irrigation Company's system; the
Del Monte Irrigation Company, which was to supply about 3,000 acres still
farther north; and the Canyon Water Company, which was intended to supply
the lands in the North Palomares Tract and portions of the Loop and Meserve
Tract. To these several corporations the Land and ^^'ater Company transferred
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 139
certain wells and other sources of water supply, together with interests in pipe
systems by means of which water could be conveyed from the wells to the lands
to be irrigated therefrom ; and as portions of these lands were sold by the com-
pany, shares of stock in the several irrigation companies were transferred and
issued to the land purchaser, so that ultimately the control of the water supply
became vested entirely in the owners of the lands irrigated from that particular
source.
"The canyon water used to supply a greater portion of the Loop and Meserve
tract was merged by the owners of the land and water rights into what is now
known as the Canyon Water Company, and this company now manages the dis-
tribution of the greater part of the San Antonio Canyon waters, the original
Canyon Water Company organized by the Pomona Land and Water Company
having ceased its activities, and another corporation known as the North Palo-
mares Irrigation Company having taken over the distribution of irrigating water
to the lands in the North Palomares Tract, and on certain other adjacent lands."
Li its conduct of an enterprise of such magnitude and power the Land and
Water Company and its subsidiary companies have been governed by certain princi-
ples : the preservation of the integrity of the water supply which naturally belongs
to a given section ; a control of water development which will guarantee clear, un-
conflicting rights and title to certain and adequate supply, not in any given year or
years but indefinitely : yet such private ownership and mutual direction as is con-
sistent with the larger protective principles stated.
Li the meantime others were boring wells on the Loop and Meserve Tract
farther east. The first well was sunk by Samuel B. Kingsley in 1883 on lot 27 of
this tract, owned by Robert Cathcart. Water from this well was led to the
"Kingsley Tract" of 300 acres for domestic use. In 1886 Richard Gird secured
the right to develop water on the Cathcart and Camp lots and on that which C. C.
Johnson had bought from Lopez west of Towne Avenue and north of the San
Bernardino road. On the latter he sunk three wells producing over fifty inches,
and on the former sixteen or seventeen more, yielding at the time 120 inches.
Messrs. Cathcart and Camp received half of the water developed, according to
their contract with Gird ; the other half, together with the water from the Johnson
wells, went to Chino and furnished the chief supply for the domestic water
system of the town and for irrigation on the Chino ranch. It is stated that "his
expenditures for development of water in this district and the pipe line to Chino
cost over $70,000."
At the time when Fred J. Smith bought his El Verde ranch of H. K. \\'.
Bent, between Towne and San Antonio avenues and south of San Bernardino, he
had wished rather to purchase Block 2>2 just north of this, rightly forecasting that
it was in the artesian belt. He now efifected an agreement with C. C. Johnson
and with J\Ir. Hixon, who had bought the block with development rights, for
the drilling of a well on this block, just south of the north line. This yielded a
good flow at only 180 feet. •
With their half of the water flowing from the Gird wells on Blocks 26 and
27, J. B. Camp and Robert Cathcart combined with F. J. Smith and organized
the Citizens \\'ater Company. They then obtained a franchise from the city
and installed a complete system of piping for the delivery of domestic water
throughout the city, paralleling lines of the Land and Water Company, and
providing the town with a competing water supply. With the steady growth of
the community, the supply did not greatly exceed the consumption and the rates
1-10 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
were low. As IMr. Smith says, "It is interesting to note in this connection that
for seven years the two domestic water companies supplied the city of Pomona
with water at one-third of the rates prevailing in Southern California cities,
donating to them in this way about $100,000; both companies finally selling their
pipe lines to the incorporators of the Consolidated Water Company."
Still another group of artesian wells was drilled by John E. Packard on the
Dunne Tract, from which he obtained about sixty inches of water. From this
source he supplied the subdivision of his eighty-acre vineyard tract with domestic
water, and also his 450-acre orange grove with water for irrigation.
TUNNEL?
Thus far we have considered the sources of water in the canyon stream, in
flowing cienegas, and in artesian wells. There remains the development of water
by tunnels. Last in our consideration, it is not last in importance, nor in point
of" time, for the tunnels east of Indian Hill were opened in the early eighties and
furnish a large part of Pomona's domestic water supply.
The man who began the development of water from this source and who
remained until his death an active leader in the water activities of the Valley
was Peter Fleming. Being identified especially with the earlier days of Clare-
mont, fuller reference is made to him in that connection. Some time after he
had moved from Spadra to his place east of Indian Hill called Sycamore Ranch,
and while conducting successfully his bee ranch there, Mr. Fleming became
interested in the problem of water development, and decided to run a tunnel
northward into the bed of the wash which here rises rapidly. He bought the
water rights on the Kessler place to the east and began work. Many regarded
the venture a foolish one. But at length a good flow of water was developed
which now supplies over 400 acres of citrus fruit orchards. In combination with
J. A. Packard on Section Three and Colonel Roher on Section Two, the Syca-
more Water Development Company was formed to handle this water. Later
there was a reorganization, James Becket joining Fleming, and landowners who
had acquired water interests from the Sycamore Company forming the Mountain
View Water Company. Fleming and Becket proposed to furnish water for the
town of Glendora, and bonds were voted tx) buy the water, but through a tech-
nicality the bonds were invalidated and the project failed.
The next chapter in the story of water development is on the Consolidated
Water Company, but being quite recent it may be briefly told. Without entering
into the circumstances of its formation, it may be said that J. T. Brady and G. A.
Lathrop joined Fleming and Becket in organizing the Consolidated Water Com-
pany. Licorporating the first of August, 1896, with a capitalization generously in
excess of the valuation of the properties which they proposed to absorb, they
issued bonds and bought out both the Citizens Water Company and the Pomona
City Water Works, absorbing also the holdings of Fleming and Becket. Peter
Fleming was made superintendent of the company and so continued as long as
he lived. This company has since extended its tunnel east of Indian Hill, 5,000
feet in length, and reaching a depth of 110 feet below the surface at its upper
end, giving a 175-inch supply from this alone.
"The Consolidated Water Company," says Mr. Smith, "now has water
resources of 450 inches, sufficient for a population of 20,000 people, and a dis-
tributing system of seventy miles of pipe." He also records that "Another tunnel
HISTORY AND RIOGRAPHY 141
enterprise was constructed at a cost of $55,000 by Josiah Alkire, and developed
sixty inches of water. This cuts the southwest wall of the Palomares cienega
dvke on the Kenoak Tract, the water being used for many years as an additional
sui:>p!y for the Packard orange grove tract."
CONSERVATION
Notwithstanding that it follows long after the main period of this history,
the story of water development in the east valley may very properly be rounded
out by the section from ]\lr. Smith's "Coming of the Water," which is reproduced
in toto :
"The heavy draught of all these wells and tunnels, together with others not
named, on the cienegas and underground waters of the district, so lowered the
water plane in the early nineties that pumps had to be installed. A cycle of dry
years between 1895-6 and 1904-5 emphasized the fact that we were drawing on
our water capita] and that something must be done to even up the account.
"There was but one method of redeeming the situation.
"Tentative experiments as early as 1895 had shown that the flood waters in
winter spread above the tiumels north of Claremont had brought beneficial results,
but no systematic work was done until 1905, when much larger amounts of flood
water were diverted and arrangements made to establish more definite spreading
areas. Larger ditches were constructed, but no permanent work of any kind
was undertaken.
"Encroachments that were being made on the basin led to the formation of
the Pomona Valley Protective Association in 1908. This is a voluntary associ-
ation composed of mutual water companies and individuals, together with two
public utility corporations representing 1,800 miner's inches out of a possible 2,600.
It was organized for the purpose of preventing encroachments on the water supply
and conserving all the flood waters of the canyon tributary to the underground
waters of the district. It has been a pioneer in Southern California in spreading
flood waters on the gravel cones below canyon mouths, and if not the largest
factor in water development in the Pomona Valley, it has greatly enlarged and
extended the results of development along other lines, and proved of immense
value in conserving the flood waters, placing them where they would become
gradually available where needed on the lands below. The association acquired
title to 650 acres of waste land on which 10,000 to 15,000 inches can be taken in
ditches along the crest of the ridges, from which the water is fanned out over
the brush-covered surface, sinking so rapidly that on good spreading land an
acre will absorb 100 inches of constant flow.
"The benefits that have followed s]5reading operations can best be under-
stood when it is remembered that for thirteen years prior to 1917 the INIartin
and Del Monte cienegas had not flowed. Conservation in 1904-5 and 1906
brought them back, and in the winter of 1907-8 they flowed 335 inches. The
Martin cienega continued to flow until 1912, when pumping was again resumed
and continued until 1915, and today there is 225 inches flowing from the IMartin
cienega wells. Again, in 1914, by spreading operations, the water plane was
raised in the territory above Claremont an average of about forty feet. From
February to June in 1915 it was raised still higher, and for about 100 days an
average of about 2,000 inches was spread, or 4,800,000 inch hours that would
142 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
have gone to waste if it had not been diverted and spread upon the gravels near
the mouth of the canyon.
"In 1916 the actual conservation work averaged 3,000 inches for a like period,
or 7,200,000 inch hours, worth to the community, at one cent per inch an hour,
$72,000, and a total value for the years 1914-15-16 would aggregate more thar.
$170,000 in water alone, not considering the reduction in cost of producing on
account of increased flow from tunnels and artesian wells and reduced lift on
account of the water plane being higher.
"In 1875 the combined water resources of the Valley would not have sustained
400 acres of citrus fruits ; today over 8,500 acres largely devoted to citrus fruits
draw a sufficient supply from the water developed and conserved on this side of
the San Antonio wash. The cienega wells are flowing, the water plane is high,
and the groves can face the future with confidence that in the annual draught on
the water they are not overdrawing their capital, and that they stand prepared to
meet a long dry spell if it should come again. Truly it has been a period of won-
derful and intelligent development that has made the future of the Pomona Vallev
full of promise, and has placed this \'alley in the forefront of all citrus fruit-
growing sections of the State."
ELECTRIC LIGHT AND POWER
Two of the large public utility enterprises which began in the last century
are those of the gas and the electrical companies, the former organized in 1887,
and the latter in the early nineties. Before the days of the Southern California
Edison Company, a company was formed to transform the water power in San
Antonio Canyon into electric current of high voltage and transmit this to the
Valley for use in lighting and power. The idea of transmission of power over
so great a distance was new in this country, and was conceived by C. G. Baldwin,
then president of Pomona College. Through his energy the San Antonio Lighl
and Power Company was organized, with a capital of $75,000, and the plant
established. Much pioneer work had to be done. A long tunnel was run through
"Hogsback," and high voltage lines were strung to Pomona. At first the current
was used mainly for electric lights in Pomona and Claremont. Much of this first
work has been abandoned or replaced as the science of electrical engineering has
advanced, and the first company was taken over by others : siill it was a bold and
valuable piece of pioneer engineering, the first really long-distance transmission
of power in this country and one of the first in the world.
The history of the later electric companies, especially of the Southern Cali-
fornia Edison Company, v.-hich now supplies the Valley with electric light and
power, is well known.
The growth in both these industries has been enormous. When the Gas
Company was first organized in 1887, it laid pipes for local distribution through
the business part of the town only. Mr. Albert Dole, long president of the com-
pany and interested in the enterprise from his first coming, says that when he came,
in 1893, they were manufacturing about 20,000 cubic feet a day. For some years
the business was taken over by the Edison Company ; but in 1916 gas and elec-
tricity were again separated with the advent of the Southern Counties Gas Com-
pany. The production of gas has increased from 250,000 feet at that time to the
present output of 2,600,000 feet daily in the "Pomona district," which includes
also San Dimas, La Verne, Claremont, Upland, Ontario, Chino, Covina. Glendora
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 143
and Azusa, besides an average of 600,000 feet which is sent to San Bernardino
County.
A larger and more recent history should narrate more fully the beginning
and remarkable growth through many vicissitudes, of the Home Telephone Com-
pany, organized about 1903, and becoming quickly an indispensable public utility,
with an unusually large proportion of the population in this region enrolled as
subscribers. In all its history, Mr. D. S. Parker, now superintendent, has been
the most active defender of the company's interests and so of the public.
CHAPTER SEVEN
INDUSTRIES OF THE VALLEY
Spadra, Puexte axd the Grain Country — Spadra after th,e Railway^
James M. Fryer. F. M. Slaughter and Senator Currier— Vineyard and
Orchard— \'iTicuLTURE— Deciduous Fruits — Olive Culture— Oranges
and Lemons — Cooperative Marketing — Business and Manufacture —
Pomona Manufacturing Company — Business — Banks.
While Pomona was booming, and the newcomers were developing water and
laying the foundations of the citrus industry, the south country kept steadilv on
producing the great staples, grain and hay and live stock, as it had been doin"
for two generations, and for which its bottom lands, near to the underlying watt-t
strata, were especially adapted. This is true of all the land near the southern
hills, and the large feed marts of Hicklin and Graber and Smith, of Wright and
of Hinman, have been supplied from the broad alfalfa and grain fields south of
Pomona ; yet the towns of Puente and Spadra lead in this their largest production.
SPADRA, PUENTE AND THE GRAIN COUNTRY
The fertile fields to the west of the San Jose Hills and stretching northward
from the Puente Hills — Las Lomas de la Puente — have been, since the first crops
harvested by the Workmans and Rowlands, the great granary of this region.
When the Southern Pacific Railroad came out and built its station, a large ware-
house was erected and a little hamlet grew up at this point. Then as the early
eighties brought new people and new activity all about, and the district bade fair
to become a populous one, a real townsite was projected. Two men, Mr. H. E.
Pomeroy and ]\Ir. G. W". Stimson, in 1885, purchased 236 acres from the Rowland
Ranch, north of the Southern Pacific Railroad and east of the Azusa Road, and
organized the Puente Townsite Company, the directors of the incorporation in-
cluding, besides these men, Albert and W^illiam R. Rowland and A. Amar. Sub-
dividing about fifty acres, they laid pipes for the distribution of water from the
San Jose Creek. There was then a population in the district of about four hun-
dred. In the store of Unruh and Carroll the post office was located, with H. P.
Carroll as postmaster. Other stores were those of J. Bellomini, and Grimaud &
Reaumbau. A fine hotel was built called the Hotel Rowland, whose outlook over
the Valley and toward the mountains was unsurpassed. Tributary to this center,
at least in part, was a large territory, including the 25,000 acres of the Rowland
estate and 24,000 more which Lucky Baldwin had secured when he purchased the
Workman interests. Besides the E. J. Baldwin warehouse of 140,000 sacks
capacity, there was the F. J. Gilmore warehouse holding 120,000 sacks; on the
pastures were 30.000 head of sheep of Lucky Baldwin, and other thousands on
the broad lands of Francisco Grazide. The produce shipped from the Puente
Station in 1886 amounted to 126 carloads of wheat, seventj'-eight of barley and
hay, besides quantities of potatoes, wool and wine. In addition to this were
146 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
smaller quantities of oil and oranges, for a few orchards had been planted, and
the first of the oil wells which have so enriched this region had been bored.
Hitherto we have followed the history of Spadra down to the coming of
the Southern Pacific Railroad, noting the chief events which marked its progress —
the arrival of Ricardo Yejar, one of the grantees under the ^Mexican Government,
the foreclosure by Schlesinger and Tischler, the acquisition of half the rancho by
Louis Phillips, and the beginnings of the village with the coming of the Rubottom
and Fryer families.
The completion of the railroad to Spadra and the arrival of the first train
were memorable events in the Valley, and many drove in to witness it from all
the country around, some of whom had never before seen a locomotive. It was
the meeting of the railway and the stage, literally and figuratively. Stages con-
tinued to run between Spadra and San Bernardino. On the very day when the
first train came, J. J. Reynolds (so it is reported) driver of the eastern stage
coach, stepping into the railway coach — a small, bare car with seats along tlie
sides — thrilled the passengers and others with the account of his trip, in which
he had barely escaped from the attack of highwaymen.
The railway provided, of course, an easier market for the grain and hay,
but Nadeau's stages still continued to carry quantities of freight, and his cara-
vansary in Los Angeles, which occupied the block between Fort (Broadway) and
Spring streets on First, with the adobe on the corner and the board fence all
about, was still a depot for many travelers.
As the terminus of the railway for two years, Spadra was also an important
depot, the most important station between Los Angeles (or perhaps El ]\lonte)
and San Bernardino. The new townsite of Pomona was a standing joke in this
terminal city. It was called generally "Monkeytown," and a certain lady is now
often "joshed" because of an incident which occurred during the first boom of
1876. A young man who had been working for the railroad was about to leave
for the East, and came to settle with this young woman, whom he owed about
five dollars for washing which she had done for him. But he had very little
money, and what he had he needed for the journey. So he urged her to accept
in payment a deed for two lots in the new townsite of Pomona. Reluctantly
she was consenting, when her father interposed, "\^'hat do you want of those
lots? They aren't worth the paper and print of the deed. Besides you'll always
have to be paying taxes on them." So she refused to take for her five-dollar
washing bill a deed to two of the lots on which the Consolidated Railway Station
of Pomona now stands! Even so good an authority as Lippincott's Gazetteer,
as late as in the early nineties, defined Pomona as a small village two miles east
of Spadra.
With the railway came new settlers and new activity. ]^Ir. A. B. Caldwell
bought out Long and Swift, who had for a long time kept the store and saloon
opposite Rubottom's, and the cutting and shooting which had been so common
here passed into story. Here one of the Lillys, a quiet Southerner, soon after his
coming to Spadra had killed Ben Standifer when the latter, at some fancied insult,
had called for an apology with a cut of a whip. Here the poor old Englishman.
Furness, had drunk himself to death, only. wishing to live as long as his last legacy
of a thousand dollars held out. Here acquaintances of Long, knowing of liis
superstition and troubled conscience for having assisted Furness in the fulfilment
of his wish, as they sometimes charged him, would enjoy his startled look and
pale face when, someone having rolled a ball or stone over the floor of the back
HISTUKY Ai\U BIOGRAPHY 147
room in the evening, they would whisper, "Hark, what was that?" "It must be
old Furness stumbling about." Mr. Caldwell was soon appointed postmaster and
served until his place was taken by Mr. James M. Fryer.
After Charles Blake had died, George Egan bought a place opposite the
Fryers and built his larger store, a part of which, as we have seen, was moved
later to Pomona. About the time George Egan moved his store to Pomona,
another family moved from Pomona to Spadra. Robert Arnett, a Southern gen-
tleman who had come across the plains to California in 1853, and had engaged in
farming and teaching in the northern part of the state, had been for a time farm-
ing on land which he rented from Palomares and Vejar. But in 1874 he came
with his family to Spadra and identified himself with this town. He soon bought
fifty acres of land and became one of the producers in the \'alley of hay and
grain and stock. Two of his daughters married sons of the pioneer, Richard C.
Fryer. Ella was married to Henry Fryer, who later moved to Pomona, atid
Isabel was the loved and respected wife of James M. Fryer.
Though not a newcomer but the son of an old-timer, James M. Fryer was
a powerful factor in the new life of the town, as indeed he has always been. On
his ranch, which has increased from fifty to over a hundred acres, he has also
added to the products of Spadra quantities of grain and hay, and later a consider-
able output of oranges and walnuts. But his chief contribution and service to
the town and Valley have been as a leader in its civic, intellectual and spiritual
life. An efficient postmaster for nearly two decades, a devoted member and
director of the school district for over forty years, from its organization tmtil,
a short time ago, his son, Roy Fryer, was elected in his stead, and chairman of
the board of trustees in the Baptist Church since its present organization, he has
accomplished a work and enjoyed a reputation which are rare indeed, in this or
any place.
There were others, of course, who came to Spadra in the seventies and
eighties and contributed to its progress, but of whom we can not tell here. Some
were residents of Spadra for a longer or shorter time and then moved away, like
A. H. Tufts who came in 1873 and has since been engaged successfully in the
real estate and insurance business in Pomona, or like Peter Fleming, who was
later identified with Claremont and Pomona, as told in other chapters.
There are two other men, whose names are especially associated with Spadra
and the grain lands near the Southern Hills, but whose range of activity and
influence has been far more than local. The first is Hon. Fenton M. Slaughter,
who came to California from Virginia with the "forty-niners," and made his "pile"
in the gold mines. He lived for a time in San Gabriel, but moved in the later
sixties to his ranch near Chino. He was one of Fremont's men for a time, so it
is said ; and it is reported that Fremont's band of picked men were all required
to pass a certain test. Choosing a comrade for the test, he held a four-inch shingle
in his hand while his comrade fired a bullet through it at a range of sixty yards,
and then they exchanged places and he shot at the shingle in his comrade's hand.
At any rate it was not a difficult feat for Slaughter, who was still a good shot
when old and feeble. A gold watch and chain, the gift of Colonel Fremont,
were worn by Mr. Slaughter with special pride. On his ranch east of the Chino
he was engaged largely in raising grain and stock. A familiar figure at Spadra,
at the Spanish settlement and even in Los Angeles, he was a friend of all the
old settlers and Mexicans, known and liked by every one for his geniality and
his happy way of spinning yarns. He married the Senorita Dolores, a daughter
148 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
of Francisco Alvarado, as noted elsewhere, and a daughter of his is the wife of
Lew Meredith, the foreman of WilHam R. Rowland's ranch at Puente. His
election as a representative to the state legislature from San Bernardino County
was a recognition of his standing and influence in the region.
The other figure of more than local interest is Senator A. T. Currier. His
large ranch of 2,-100 acres is second only to the lands of Louis Phillips in its pro-
duction of grain and citrus fruits, of cattle and other products. Born in Maine
nearly eighty years ago, he has been for fifty years a prominent figure not only
in Spadra but in the county. His ranch, located on the fertile lands bordering
the San Jose Creek east of Spadra, has yielded abundant crops and has fed and
bred the finest stock in return for his careful attention. His marriage to "Aunt
Sue," the widow of James Rubottom, who came to El Monte as Susan Glenn in the
pioneer days, has been mentioned before, as well as the universal affection in
which she is held by all who have known her. In Pomona as well as in Spadra
he has exerted a strong influence, assisting materially in many important enter-
prises, and especially as a director in the First National Bank and a trustee in
the Baptist Church. After holding various offices in town and county, his public
service was crowned, though not completed, in his election to the state senate.
.Vlways well and vigorous, he has led a busy life directing the aflfairs of his ranch
and looking after investments in Pomona and Los Angeles. That in which he
takes the greatest satisfaction is probably the Los Angeles Farmers Mutual Lisur-
ance Company, which he helped to organize twenty years ago and has directed
with signal success.
VINEYARD AND ORCHARD
Southern California is the natural abode of viticulture and horticulture. Soil
and climate and water are all that could be desired. But man must contribute
his share in labor and attention, for the highest development in these arts. In
the early days nature alone, with a minimum of assistance from man. yielded her
increase in flocks and herds and feed and grain. These staple products, as we
have seen, are still a large factor in the country's wealth. But the whole Valley
has been transformed as vineyard and orchard have covered a large part of its
surface. Demanding less water and cultivation than some other fruits, and more
resistant than some to extremes of weather, the grape was the first to receive
large attention, and the \'alley promised well to fulfill its part in making the
Southwest the rival of the Mediterranean countries, whose mountain slopes and
highland plateaus, clothed with leagues upon leagues of vineyard, furnish the wine
and grapes of the world. Now viticulture in Southern California is fast becom-
ing a lost art. Deciduous fruits were next to receive attention on a large scale.
Hundreds of acres of deciduous fruits of all kinds have been set out in the Valley,
and the growing of these fruits is firmly established as a permanent and profitable
industry, notwithstanding many acres of trees have been grubbed out to make
place for citrus fruits. Gradually for a time, rapidly of late, the citrus fruits
liave crowded out the others, until now the orange and lemon dominate the field.
And this supremacy of the citrus fruits is in spite of the fact that they require
more than others the attention of the grower to supplement the gifts of nature,
in timely irrigation and cultivation, in fertilizing, in protection from harmful
disease and pest, as well as in successful marketing. The same intelligent pains
which are recjuired in the raising and marketing of citrus fruits, it may be re-
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 149
marked, have also been well rewarded when they have been given to producing an
extra choice article in any other kind of fruit, or of nut or berry.
In their home gardens the Mexican settlers had begun early to raise wine
grapes and fruits of every kind, and though only in a very small way, they
demonstrated the possibility of future development. Perhaps the first vineyard
in the Valley was the "Huerta de San Antonio" mentioned in the will of Ygnacio
Palomares, on what became the Loop place on Central Avenue west of Clare-
mont, and to which water was led in an open ditch from San Antonio Canyon.
When Messrs. Loop and Meserve bought their tract of 2,000 acres they set out
thousands of grapevines of many kinds, including raisin and table grapes, as
well as Alission and other wine grapes, importing choice varieties from abroad.
Practically all the earlier settlers in the Valley planted vineyards, amounting alto-
gether to hundreds of acres. Jn the early eighties the enterprise received fresh
impetus by the large plantings of Fred J. Smith on his El Verde ranch, of J. A.
Packard on his eighty acres further south, and a little later of Carlton Seaver
and George W. ]\IcClary on their quarter section north of Claremont.
The largest part of the acreage in vinej^ards was planted to Mission grapes,
a variety especially suitable for wine. To dispose of the product of this large
acreage of vines, large wineries were needed, with their great vats and presses
and storage cellars. The first winery was built in 1885 by Mr. Westphall and
Mr. G. Mirande, a man of long experience in the making of wine in Southern
France, who erected the large brick building opposite the Kerckhoff-Cuzner lumber
yards on Park Avenue and made about 6,000 gallons of wine the first season. In
the year 1885 more than 800 acres of vineyard were planted in the Pomona region,
and in the season 1886-1887 500,000 vines were set out. A writer on "Fertility
and Productiveness of the Soil," in 1885, stated that "next to the wine grape the
raisin is the most important product of the Valley."
In September, 1886, the Pomona Wine Company was organized with George
W. McClary as president and Fred J. Smith as secretary, and this company
bought out Westphall and increased the capacity of the winery. Believing that
the future of the industry was assured and unable to care for the increasing
product of the vineyards, Mr. J. A. Packard and his son, J. E. Packard, who were
the largest stockholders in the company, urged a still further expansion, and
experts in viticulture endorsed their judgment. Hence a large addition was built
and the cellars stored with wines maturing for future markets. Those were the
golden days, as it seemed, for growing grapes in this country, when in vintage
time the vineyards were full of workers gathering the clusters in loose boxes,
v/hen hundreds of wagons daily stood waiting at the winery to empty their loads
of grapes into the press, when later in the season the iron wagons slowly and
smokily made their way across the vineyards, leaving their trail of ash behind
as they burned the trimmings from the vines.
But while the wine press was flowing and the vats and cellars were filled
with California's choicest wines, gold was not flowing into the pockets of the
stockholders nor were the coffers of the company filling with coin. Tlie wine
market was most effectually controlled by the great dealers and speculators of the
northern and eastern capitals. Eventually the prices must fall to the basis of the
European markets, where after all the great supplies of the world are handled,
and where "all the world" drinks wine as we drink water. So the winery was
closed, and in time the vineyards were replaced with orchards.
150 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
In a few instances large quantities of grapes have been used in the manu-
facture of grape juice, and the El Verde grape juice was recognized in New
York, where it found a ready market, as the choicest in the world.
DECIDUOUS FRUITS AND WALNUTS
There was a time when it appeared as if the chief production of the Valley
was to be deciduous fruits of various kinds. The five and ten-acre tracts sur-
rounding Pomona were largely covered with apricots, peaches, pears and prunes.
The country was green in summer with their foliage, but brown and bare in
winter when the trees had shed their leaves. In the fall of the year acres of
ground were covered with trays of drying fruit, both in private orchards and on
land surrounding the canneries. Some of the fruit was canned, but more of it
was dried. There was much difference in the quality of the product, fruit which
was exposed to dust and insects as well as to all sorts of weather, and unbleached,
being quite poor ; while that of those who took much pains in the time and char-
acter of the exposure and in the bleaching was excellent. C. E. White and J. J.
White, the Dole brothers and the ]\Iuirs, A. G. Whiting, Frank Evans and \\'. T.
Martin were among the larger growers.
One year, about 1890, there was an unusually heavy crop of prunes, which
sold at an average of fifty dollars a ton — a fancy price in those days. However,
it proved to be a great misfortune, for there followed a large planting of prune
trees, ten and twenty acres at a time in a good many instances; but the market
would not take the fruit and many acres of trees were grubbed out after years
of loss.
But for the peculiar adaptability of the Valley for the higher-priced citrus
fruits, and the advanced methods of cooperation in their marketing, the deciduous
fruits might still be the leading horticultural product of the Valley. Even now
the application of the same principles, learned in citrus fruit growing, has stimu-
lated the growing of deciduous fruits so that it is likely to remain a most im-
portant second industry.
The development of walnut growing to an important place, second only to
that of citrus fruits in some parts of the A'alley is of more recent date.
OLIVE CULTURE
Like the holy land of Palestine in its location beside a western sea, like the
Italian and Algerian coasts in the dependence of its fertile soil upon the waters
from lofty mountain ranges towering behind, like Andalusian or Catalonian
Spain, or the Riviera, in its matchless climate, Southern California also resembles
all these lands which face the Mediterranean, in its horticultural pursuits. Here,
too, the vine, the orange, and especially the olive, find a natural home. While the
citrus fruits here have found a larger market and the olive has not received the
same fostering care, yet is this A'alley just as truly the home of the olive as of
the lemon and the orange, the grapefruit and the lime.
In writing of "Olive Culture"* over thirty years ago, Mr. C. F. Loop, than
whom there has been no better authority probably in this Valley, says:
"From the earliest days the olive has been invested with a peculiar interest.
Originating in the distant East where tradition locates that earthly paradise, the
* Article in Pomona Progress of March 5, 1887.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 151
Garden of Eden, it has remained there to sustain, satisfy and gladden successive
generations, and also been carried by man as something essential to his comfort
and pleasure, through all his wanderings and journeyings westward to even our
own fair land upon the shores of the western sea."
He writes of the prominence of the olive, and especially of olive oil, in
sacred writings, in the ceremonies of the Mosaic ritual, in the anointing of Hebrew
priests and kings, also in the literature of mythology. "Sacred to Minerva, it
was to the polished Greek of those early days an emblem of peace and chastity.
In the Olympic games, this was the highest prize with which to crown a victor
with glory and reverence." Some olive trees in the East have grown to a great
size, with a diameter of fifteen feet, and must be very old. ^^'riting of their
great age. Mr. Loop refers to a tree in the garden of the ^'atican said to be a
thousand years old.
In Italy, France and Spain 8,000,000 acres are devoted to olives ; and the tree
is highly prized by rich and poor alike. "The poor retain their trees if possible,"
says Mr. Loop, "when obliged to sell their homesteads."
The Mission fathers, as we know, planted the first olive trees in the Valley,
and the first Mexican settlers in this \'alley also set out a few trees in their gar-
dens. Here and there a little group or line of these trees still stands, spared from
the greedy axe by a rare veneration for its age and associations. There was one
such line of ancient trees on the Loop place where formerly was the "Huerta de
San Antonio." Another group still grew till recently, east of the old Palomares
house on the Meserve place. Next to these were the olive trees of the Burdick
place planted in the early seventies. But olive culture on a considerable scale was
introduced, as has been said before, by Rev. C. F. Loop. In 1876 he planted some
well-rooted cuttings of the "Mission" variety, "giving them all necessary care
and attention." In 1884 he gathered his first full crop. In the meantime he had
made a special study of curing and marketing them, had begun a nursery of young
trees, with new varieties which he brought from the Mediterranean, as well as
with the old Mission stock. Led by his enthusiasm, as well as by the undoubted
excellence of his olive products, many were induced to set out olive groves. John
Calkins and James L. Howland were the leaders in the new industry. It was the
center of the world for olive cuttings, in the growing of which Calkins' nursery
took the lead. On his seventy acres, south of the Meserve place, in the Loop and
Meserve Tract, "Larry" Howland set out twenty acres to olive trees and started
thousands of trees from cuttings in his nursery which for a time was the largest
in the San Jose \'alley. In the second season, 1886-1887, he sold 5,000 olive trees.
In all this he was aided by Mr. Loop, from whom he secured chiefly his stock and
his knowledge as well as his inspiration. Up to this time there had been no manu-
facture of oil in this region, the cured olive being the only product, and the curing
was usually by the simple process of long soaking of the cut olives in water fre-
quently changed till the bitterness was removed, after which they were kept in
salt water. ]\Ir. Howland also marketed large quantities, but cured by the lye
process instead of with fresh water, and from fruit allowed to color, as the custom
now ii, instead of from fruit picked green as in Europe. His best product, how-
ever, and that in which he took the greatest pains was olive oil. For its manufac-
ture he built a small factory. Through Mr. Loop he imported experienced men
from Italy, experts in the approved processes of oil production, and followed well-
established modern methods of bottling and marketing his product. It is no exag-
geration to say that there was no better olive oil in the country than the Howland
152 HISTORY AXD BIOGRAPHY
oil, and perhaps it had no superior in the world. But it could not be sold in the
world markets at the price of the Mediterranean oil, nor would people pay a price
which would justify the manufacture of so fine a product here. The enterprise
was finally abandoned, and again the manufacture of a choice product of the
Valley, which, like the El \'erde grape juice, had made a place for itself as the
peer of any in the Eastern markets, was discontinued because too good to compete
with other articles made where the cost of production was less. Many acres of
olive trees have been removed to make room for orange and lemon trees, from
which there is a larger and surer return, by reason of the assured market for the
fruit. And yet a large acreage remains and the demand for the well-cured olives
steadily grows stronger, while the price advances.
The first orange orchard in Southern California, set out by Mission fathers
near the San Gabriel Alission nearly 150 years ago, and surrounded with an
adobe wall, guarded by a padlocked gate, has been described in a previous chap-
ter; also the first orchard in the San Jose \'alley, planted fifty years ago by Cyrus
Burdick at the Spanish Settlement near the San Jose Hills. Five years later
other orchards were set out by Frank Loney, R. F. House and P. C. Tonner, by
others west of Pomona townsite, and by Loop and Meserve on their tract. Some
of the groves in the townsite died for lack of v/ater. But with the development
of water by the Land and Water Company and others, in 1882 and the years
immediately following, many ten and twenty-acre groves were set out, and some
larger ones. Among the larger orchards were those of M. Baldridge, who set
out 30,000 trees in 1887, of A. T. Currier, and the Alvarado and Palomares
orchards, greatly increased by the Nicholses after their purchase of these groves.
C. E. White and F. P. Firey were among the first, if not the first, to set out the
navel orange, whose propagation, especially in Riverside, was an important factor
in "booming" Southern California.
For many years the largest orange grove in the world was that of Seth
Richards, a wealthy resident of Oakland who bought over 303 acres in 1883 and
set it out, largely to navel oranges.
At this time a number of other varieties of oranges were shown in the
market, at the exhibits and in the nurseries. Reputable firms sold quantities of
Australian navels, which later had to be dug out or rebudded. But the Washing-
ton navel soon took its leading place, and other varieties gradually disappeared
from the market, except the A^alencias, which became the favorite among the
later ripening varieties.
In the years from 1882 to nearly 1890, vineyards and deciduous orchards
were more than holding their own with the orange groves, and that with land
at $150 an acre and grapes bringing twenty dollars a ton and prunes two cents
a pound. The cost of clearing and setting out ten acres of orange trees, and of
watering and caring for them for five years was then about $3,500, reckoning the
land at $150 an acre. To a writer in Rural California that year, $250 an acre
for orange land seemed "enormous," but the profits were shown to justify that
price provided one was successful in marketing the fruit. In 1886 and 1887 more
than 70,000 orange and lemon trees were set out, and people began to take out
grape vines and apricot and peach trees to plant citrus fruits in their stead.
But the foundations of the great industry, now so well stabilized, had yet
to be laid. It was not enough to raise quantities of the finest oranges ; there mu.st
be a certain and satisfactory market for the fruit. While the output was com-
paratively small, buyers paid good prices for the fruit in the orchards, usually
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 153
buying the fruit on the trees. As the orchards increased and thousands of trees
came into bearing, the buyers organized, and a few large packing houses con-
trolled the whole market. They would only buy on consignment, and the ranchers
were at their mercy. Year after year the account at the end of the season would
show a balance in favor of the packers. The growers realized that they must also
organize and throw off the yoke of the packing house combination. In December,
1885, the Orange Growers Protective Union of Southern California was orga-
nized, C. F. Loop of Pomona, J. de Barth Shorb of Los Angeles and George H.
Fullerton of Riverside being among the directors. The name "Protective Union"
well indicates its purpose.
But neither this nor various other organizations formed later succeeded in
securing a sure and profitable sale for citrus fruits. Mr. P. J. Dreher in his
"Early History of Cooperative Marketing of Citrus Fruits," explains why they
failed. It was "because they employed the same local commission brokers to
handle the crop ; in fact saved themselves the trouble of dealing with the indi-
vidual grower, the organization doing this, then turning over the product to the
packer and shipper without solicitation from the individual." Not until 1893
was a way found to break away from tliis vicious system. In February of this
year orange growers near Claremont organized a union to market their fruit
through an executive committee of their own. Its officers were P. J. Dreher,
president ; H. H. \\'heeler, secretary ; and George F. Ferris, treasurer. Agents
were secured in the East, who sold the fruit at auction, or directly to the trade;
and shipments were also made for export to England. Mr. Dreher says in his
"History of Cooperative ^Marketing," "The history of the present system of mar-
keting citrus fruits by cooperative growers' associations must therefore begin
with the season 1892-1893 (one year before the Exchange was organized) at
Claremont, Cal. Here the first cooperative organization for direct marketing,
'The Claremont California Fruit Growers Association' was organized, and
handled the crop of its eleven members, which consisted of twenty-one cars that
season."
The example of the Claremont Association served as the stimulus and model
for other such organizations, and, more important still, for a union of such asso-
ciations in the Exchange, for coopcrafior in the direct marketing of fruit. In
fact, cooperation has been the keynote of the wonderful success which has
attended the whole movement, — cooperation first in each association, and then the
cooperation of the associations in the Exchange. Preliminary meetings of grow-
ers in various places resulted in two general meetings in the summer of 18'^3. At
the first of these meetings, held in the Chamber of Commerce rooms in Los
Angeles, a committee was appointed to formulate plans for the organization of
all citrus fruit growers in Southern California, of which committee W. .A.. Spald-
ing of Los .Angeles was chairman and P. J. Dreher of Pomona, secretary. .\t the
second meeting, held in June at Pomona, the report of this committee was pre-
sented and adopted. This report is the magna charta of economic liberty for all
who are related to this, which is the greatest and most representative industry of
the Southwest. Moreover, it is a remarkable illustration of the application of the
principle of cooperation intelligently to the advantage both of the producer popu-
lation and of the consumer population. The importance of this movement to the
prosperity of Southern California cannot be overestimated.
The relation of the Claremont organization to the general movement is thus
stated by Mr. Dreher in his history already quoted: "This direct system of mar-
134 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
keting, first adopted by the Claremont California Fruit Growers Association, was
adopted by the committee that laid the foundation for the Exchange. It has since
been adopted by all shippers ; none have improved upon or changed the methods
then laid down, except in the case of the Exchange, which employed salaried
agents, and has added such other developments as the enlarged business demands
and requires. It controls sixty-seven per cent, of the citrus crop of California,
and is recognized as the leading successful cooperative organization of the
United States."
The details of the plan of cooperation adopted by this meeting of orange
growers in June, 1893, and executed in the organizations which followed, are too
well known to require elaboration here ; they are all given in the various reports
of the Exchange.
The Pomona Fruit Exchange was incorporated in August, with .\. ^^'. Xesbit,
C. F. Loop, D. C. Teague. E. C. Kimball. J. L. :\Ieans, Calvin Esterly, F. C.
Meredith, J. D. Cason, W. H. Schureman, G. P. Robinson and Peter Fleming as
directors. Judge Franklin Fdades and W. A. Lewis attended to the details of
incorporation. According to the plan other associations were formed — the A. C. G.
Citrus Association for the Azusa-Covina-Glendora district, and the Ontario Fruit
Exchange for the Ontario-Upland-Cucamonga district.
Then followed the unifying of the associations, when representatives of all
the local associations met in Los Angeles and effected the organization of an
"Exchange," adopting twenty-four rules governing this organization. The incor-
poration was dated October 26, 1893. Its name was the "San Antonio Fruit
Exchange." Its members were the four associations mentioned — the Claremont
California Fruit Growers Association, the Pomona Fruit Exchange, the Ontario
Fruit Exchange and the A. C. G. Citrus Association. Changes have since occurred
in the lines of division. Instead of the Claremont Fruit Growers Association
there are six separate organizations — ^the San Dimas Orange Growers Associa-
tion, the San Dimas Lemon Growers Association, the La Verne Orange and
Lemon Growers Association, the College Heights Orange and Lemon Growers
Association, the EI Camino Citrus Association, and the Claremont Citrus Asso-
ciation, which replaced the Indian Hill Citrus Association. The A. C. G. x'\ssocia-
tion and the Ontario Fruit Exchange withdrew to join other exchanges; while
the Southern California Fruit Exchange Board, later the California Fruit Growers
Exchange, was formed with representatives from each of the exchanges to cen-
tralize and unify the whole business.
Mr. P. J. Dreher, the president of the first association, formed at Claremont
in 1893, has been for more than twenty-five years the leader of the exchange
movement in this district, being secretary and manager of the San Antonio Ex-
change during most of this time, and a director of the Southern California and
State Exchanges from the time of their organization. The increase in the amount
of fruit handled by the exchange in this district during Mr. Dreher's term of
service, from the 6,300 boxes shipped by the Claremont Fruit Growers Associa-
tion in 1892-1893 to the nearly 2,000,000 boxes handled by the San .Antonio
Exchange alone in the season 1916-1917, is a striking indication of the wonderful
growth of this industry in the Valley.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 155
BUSINESS AND MANUFACTURE
Turning from agriculture to other industries in Pomona, one enters the town
and considers its business and its manufactures. As is well known, the paramount
industry of the Valley is fruit growing. It is not a manufacturing center in any
sense; yet it is not entirely devoid of manufacturing enterprises. Various lines of
business have carried on such work of construction as they required and could do
at home ; wagon builders and wheelwrights, shoemakers, tailors, plumbers and tin
workers, lumber mills and rugmakers have engaged in the usual home manufac-
tures. But the essential industries of the Valley have developed several larger
enterprises. Out of the large demand for pipes and tanks and roofing has grown
up the Caldwell Galvanized Iron Works, which was begun by B. F. Caldwell in a
small way about 1890. Instead of the two 'small lumber yards and one planing
mill in 1887, there are now three large lumber yards and three planing mills.
Whyte's Brick Yard, which began almost before the town did, now turns out
25,000 bricks a day.
The early factories for drying and marketing deciduous fruits are at present
replaced by two large canning establishments, handling four or five million quart
cans of deciduous fruits and tomatoes per season. A still larger enterprise is that
of the ice factories built in connection with the large packing houses for the icing
and precooling of citrus fruits.
The automobile has introduced a volume of business in repairs and minor
construction which is almost incredible. If brought together in one factory it
would cover many acres of ground, employing hundreds of mechanics in Pomona
alone.
The largest single establishment is the Pomona ]\Ianufacturing Company.
This company was organized in 1902 by Elmer E. Izer, S. M. Fulton and George
W. Ogle, Avho were joined early in 1903 by Grant Pitzer. Beginning in a small
way in a hay barn, which had been used as an old pipe workshop, the business has
grown to be the one manufacturing concern of really large proportions in the
Valley. Its large Pomona Duplex pumps are now sold in a dozen States. From its
founding until his death, the genius of the company was Elmer E. Izer. While
making a specialty of pumps for oil wells and irrigating systems, the company
has a large foundry and machine shop, and does all kinds of work in iron and
brass and other metals, employing over a hundred men and running night and day.
Coming from the manufactures still farther into the heart of the town, one
finds the business of "the street" advancing steadily from 1887 to the present
time, though not quite with even pace, for there have been times of depression
and times of quickening. Especially following the year of the great boom and
reaching a crisis in 1893, Pomona felt keenly the tide of depression which rolled
over the whole country. But fortunately, it suffered far less than many places.
This is readily accounted for in several ways — by the substantial character of its
growth, the relatively small inflation of prices and the actual values involved in the
real estate transactions of the boom, by the quiet, holding-on faith of its leading
citizens, and by the great stabilizing power of a few strong institutions. It would
far outrun the scope of this narrative to relate the development of the many busi-
ness concerns whose combined movement makes up so large a part of the vital
progress of the community. From a street (hardly more) of scarce a hundred
stores and places of business of all kinds, has grown a compact city, with miles
of business blocks, including one or two modern office buildings, like the Invest-
156 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
ment Building, in which the Chamber of Commerce is housed, and the Fruit Ex-
change, and where a number of leading professional men have their offices.
The progress of the town is well reflected in the activities of such concerns
as the Building and Loan Association, and especially it is most faithfully indicated
in the development of its banks. The two building and loan companies have aided
many in the building of homes, and provided many more with safe investment.
The older of these companies, the Mutual Building and Loan Association, was
organized in 1892 with assets of less than $4,000. Its resources now are $2,000,000.
The Home Builders Association, though founded fifteen years later, in 1908,
lias made a remarkable growth in its nearly twelve years of business.
The first banks in the Valley were organized in the fall of 1883, in the midst
of the city's most rapid growth. The Pomona Bank was incorporated September
13. with H. A. Palmer, president, aiid F. L. Palmer, treasurer. Mr. R. S. Day,
formerly of Oakland, was cashier, and Capt. George Mitchell, a retired navy
officer, was for a time its teller. This bank was quartered in the Palmer Building,
just erected, where Zilles' store is now located. This is one of the few concerns in
Pomona which was obliged to close in the dark days following the boom.
The Pomona \'alley Bank was organized in October — the 26th, to be exact —
and its officers were J. H. Smith, president, J. E. AlcComas, vice-president, and
Dr. Thomas Coates. cashier. Their first place of business was in the old Ruth
Block, one of the first brick buildings in town, built by Rev. P. S. Ruth at the
corner of Third and Main. Here also was the post office while Mr. Ruth was
postmaster. Later the bank erected its own building at the northeast corner of
Second and Main. It was during its early days in the Ruth Block that the Firey-
Coates incident occurred which is told in another chapter. In April, 1885. when
Dr. Coates retired as cashier, Mr. Carlton Seaver took his place, and the following
year succeeded to the presidency, thus beginning his long term of service in the
banking and business affairs of the Valley. At the same time Stoddard Jess
became cashier, beginning then his remarkable career in which he rose to recogni-
tion as one of the leading bankers not only in Los Angeles, but in the corntry.
The Jesses, Stoddard and his father, George, though conservative business
men. brought new life to the bank, and in June, 1886, it was reorganized as the
First National Bank of Pomona. Mr. Carlton Seaver was president. Dr. Coates,
vice-president, and Stoddard Jess, cashier ; its directors included also J. E. Mc-
Comas. George H. Bonebrake and George Jess. Whether it is considered as the
successor of the Pomona Valley Bank, or from its reorganization as the First
National, it is the oldest banking establishment in the \'alley, and one of the oldest
as well as one of the strongest in the Southwest. Since 1889 it has occupied its
present quarters in its own pressed brick building at the northwest corner of
Second and Main streets. \'arious changes have occurred, of course, in its
officers and directors. Stoddard Jess removed to Los Angeles, and Jay Spence,
who followed him, as did also John Law and C. E. Walker, who bought out Mr.
Seaver's interests. Mr. Charles M. Stone, president of the bank since 1915, be-
came cashier in January, 1904, having come to Pomona from Burlington, \'t.,
with the Pomona Land and Water Company, in 1887. Senator Currier, who has
served longest on the board of directors, was chosen a director in January, 1898.
With all the changes in its personnel, its guiding principles have remained un-
changed ; these are best expressed in the three words, strength, security and serv-
ice. Its strength may be judged from its increase from a capital of $50,000 at
first to a capital and surplus of $400,000 now, and from two facts — that it has
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 157
never failed to pay dividends, formerly semi-annual, now c|uarterly, and that it
has never lowered its dividends; both remarkable, if not unique, records. Its
security was notably witnessed by its ability to stem the tide of adversity which
came with the panic of 1893, when so many institutions went to the wall. Racked
by the New York banks, it was able not only to weather the storm itself, but to
carry through many other concerns dependent upon it. Of its service to the
people, a large number of the leading enterprises of the Valley — packing liouses,
precooling plants, business blocks, manufacturing and business firms, institutions
of all sorts — can testify, and to its indispensable aid in launching their business
or in tiding over seasons of waiting or of crisis. Without borrowed capital sup-
plied by bankers who not only are conservative and discriminating, but have faith
in the Valley and its essential industries, neither the individual growers nor the
great fruit associations could tide over the "oiTf" years when drought or frost cut
off returns.
Such is the story of the First National Bank, told in some detail not because
it is the only bank, or unique in the character of its business, but because it is the
oldest and largest and to a considerable extent typical of the growth and service
which have characterized all the banks of the Valley.
The People's Piank was organized in 1887, and occupied the new block erected
.nt the time by C. E. White, a leader in the enterprise, at the corner of Second and
Thomas streets. The Dole brothers of Bangor, Maine, who came to California
that year, were large stockholders, William P.. Dole being president of the bank
and John H. Dole, cashier. In 1901 the People's Bank was merged with the Na-
tional Bank of Pomona, its name being c'nanged later to the .American N;itional
Bank of Pomona. At the time of the merger of the People's I'.ank with the
National, Charles M. Stone, who had been cashier of the People's Bank since the
death of John H. Dole, went to the First National, of which he later became
cashier and president as related, and John Storrs became cashier of the National,
later the .American National.
The Savings Bank of Pomona was first organized in Jidy, 1904, as the Sav-
ings Bank and Trust Company, changing to its present name in 1914. The found-
ers of the bank included L. T. Gillette, president; E. Hinman, vice-president;
Frank C. Eells, secretary and cashier ; and W. L. Wright, now president of the
bank. With a transfer of stock in 1910, William Benesh became president and
C. D. Baker, cashier, the latter succeeded in 1915 by A. B. Endicott. The growth
of the bank is indicated by its resources, which from $84,000 in 1905 increased
to $363,000 in 1915, and to $730,000 at the beginning of 1920.
Pomona's fourth bank, the State Bank of Pomona, was incorporated in
]\Iarcli. 1906, by Peter Ruth, E. R. and S. E. Yundt, A. C. Abbott, A. N. Moly-
neaux, J. W. Fulton, C. B. Roberts and John R. Mathews. In 1909 A. C. Abbott
was elected president and J. A. Gallup, vice-president. In 1910 a branch of the
bank was opened at La \'erne, with H. J. Vaniman in charge. Its business has
grown steadily from resources of $100,000 in 1907, to $1,273,000 at the present
time.
CHAPTER EIGHT
SOCIAL, INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL LIFE
OF POMONA
Educatiok — Pomona Schools from 1875 — Higher Education — Churches and
Religious Life — Early Conditions — Catholic, Baptist, Episcopal,
Methodist, Christian. Presbyterian and Congregational Churches —
Fraternities — A^Ewspapers — Pomona Times — Pomona Progress — The
Review and Other Papers — Public Library — Social Life in Pomona.
EDUCATION
From the time of the first pioneers in the \'alley, Pomona has not lacked
those wlio were keenl)' interested in the education of her children, and willing to
devote time and thought to its prosecution. The organization of the Palomares
school district, the opening of the first school in the adobe house in the Spanish
Settlement, and the erratic wanderings of the first building and its teachers, have
been described in the fourth chapter, the building of the Central School House and
the beginning of the Pomona school system in chapter five, and a reference to the
Spadra school was made in the last chapter. We may now consider further the
Pomona schools after 1875.
Mr. Coleman, the first principal in the Central School House, was obliged to
resign within the year on account of his health, and the board secured, as principal
of the school, Mr. Dwight N. Burritt, a native of Auburn, N. Y., and a graduate
of the University of jMichigan. He was also a good teacher and did much to
build up the school, though in the midst of hard times, remaining in charge until
1882, when he turned his attention to fruit growing. Soon after he came Mr.
Burritt had bought six acres on Holt Avenue near Gibbs, and a year or two later
had added six more adjoining. He was a trustee in the Methodist Church from
the time of its organization, in 1877, till 1886. Following Mrs. Emma Loughrey
McComas as assistant was Miss Anna Hoyt, who became Mrs. Hiram McComas,
and Miss Nannie Strauss. Both the rooms on the main floor of the building
were used instead of only one, as during the first year. The trustees of the dis-
trict, in locating the Central building at Holt and Ellen fnow Park) avenues, had
purchased three acres of land, which in those days was regarded as ample room,
and had planted a large number of flowering shrubs and trees — pepper, acacia,
cypress and rubber trees. These trees, whose grateful shade has been enjoyed
by so many, were already making the grounds attractive. Among the children
who attended the school during these first years were Dave Reed and his sister
Mattie, who was later an assistant with Professor Little ; Peter Ruth, whose father,
Theodore, was merchant, postmaster and express agent, among other offices, and
whose grandfather. Rev. P. S. Ruth, was the pioneer Episcopal rector ; Herman
and Charles Conner, the latter a physician later in Pomona ; Frank Eno, now a
professor in an Eastern college, whose parents came to Pomona in 1875, and the
160 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Burdick children — Laura, now living with lier aunt, Mrs. Lucretia Burns, in Los
Angeles, Anna, whose husband, J. X. Teague, was a well-known pioneer in San
Dimas and Pomona, and is now a prominent agriculturist in Los Angeles, as men-
tioned elsewhere, and Lucretia (Mrs. F. P. Brackett), who has collaborated with
the author in writing this story.
Another, who is well remembered as a teacher with Mr. Burritt following
Anna Hoyt and Nannie Strauss, was Ada Connor, now Mrs. Frances Ada Patten,
of Los Angeles, who taught here from 1879 to 1881. Born of a family of pio-
neers who came to California in 1857 and to Los Angeles in 1870, she proved an
excellent teacher, and is remembered with affection and respect by all who knew
her as their teacher. Charles M. Patten, wdiom she married January 1, 1883,
came to Pomona on the day of the first auction sale of lots in the townsite, as one
of the train crew.
The summer of 1882 saw a complete change in the teaching force. Mr.
Burritt resigned after serving four years, and Prof. F. E. Little became principal,
with ?ilattie Reed assistant. At this time there were only thirty-six pupils alto-
gether. One of Professor Little's devices to improve the standard of the school
was the publication in the local paper of a report of attendance, deportment and
scholarship. The list of names from one of these reports may be of interest
(the figures are considerately withheld ) : Lucretia Burdick, Mabel Garland.
Grace Smith, Lizzie Ruth, Alice Armstrong, Fred and George Holt, Elmo and
Bessie JMeserve, Mollie Goodhue, Brunner, Daniel and \\'illie Halliday, and John
Loop. This is the full list of students then in the grammar school. In 1884
the growth was such as to require the upper story. The census this year showed
4A6 children of school age. In 1884-1885 three new buildings had to be built, and
$10,000 was voted for this purpose and for an addition to the Central building.
In the Kingsley Tract a one-room building was erected, a two-room building in the
north, or Palomares, district, and a two-room building in the south district. Mrs.
Brink was principal of the Sixth Street school for a long time, and Miss Harriet
Palmer began her long service here at that time.
After the city was incorporated the first school board to be elected under the
new charter met and organized January 10, 1885. Mr. C. Howe was president and
R. A. Allen secretary, the other members being F. D. Joy, J. A. Driffil and O. J.
Newman. At the end of the school year, in 1888, Professor Little resigned and
Mr. F. A. Molyneaux was engaged in his place. From such beginnings the
Pomona schools have grown to a system of a dozen large schools with more than
a hundred teachers and over 2,800 pupils in attendance.
The public schools of the foothill towns are mentioned in their appropriate
places.
Besides its public school system, Pomona has had a number of private
schools. The Pomona Business College, founded in 1900 by Mr. Daniel Brehaut,
has furnished hundreds of young people practical training for business positions
in this and other places. More than three-fourths of the business houses in this
Valley have been provided with graduates from this college.
The Academy of Holy Names is a select school which was founded primarily
to .serve the families of the Catholic Church, but a much larger constituency than
this testifies to the value of its service. When the Academy was established, in
1898, its building was dedicated with special ceremony by the late- Bishop Mont-
gomery. The first Lady Superior, Sister Mary Celestine, was followed by Sister
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 161
Mary Rose, Sister Mary Benedicta and Sister Mary Olier in turn, Sister Olier
being the present incumbent. Besides the regular courses of primary, grammar
and high school, its music department is of high rank and well patronized, more
than a hundred students altogether being in attendance.
The people of the Valley have always manifested a keen interest in higher
education. This is demonstrated first, of course, in the excellence of its high
school. It has also appeared in its support of college and university. A consid-
erable number of students have always attended the large universities, California
and Stanford in the North. The denominational colleges of the Methodist, Bap-
tist and Presbyterian Churches all have their followings. Some were interested
in 1884 in the movement of the Presbyterians to establish a "Sierra Madre Col-
lege" at Pasadena, and later in the founding of Occidental. In 1885 and 1886 a
good many of the thinking people of the Valley, regardless of denomination,
shared in the discussion and organization of the Baptist College, feeling the need
of a Christian college of high standard nearer home. This attitude toward higher
education found its largest fruition for this section in Pomona College, whose
story is briefly told in another chapter. The work of La Verne College is also
mentioned elsewhere.
CHURCHES AND RELIGIOUS LIFE IN POMONA
In its church life Pomona has not been unlike many other communities whose
people are, in large proportion, intelligent. God-fearing people, recognizing at
least the supreme value of the church as a factor in civilization and in the good
order and clean atmosphere of the town.
As in the average city of this type, the leading denominations of the country
have organizations and church buildings. Unlike many cities of its size in this
and other states, its church life has been generous and genuine, involving a good
proportion of the population and sincere in its expression. Here, again, the high
class of people who compose so large a part of its population makes for this
result, and in turn attracts ever to itself others of like spirit, thus determining
still more and strengthening the better characteristics of the community.
But this high standard has not always characterized the place. While it has
not been without its churches and their following from the first, yet the early
days of the town were very dififerent from the latter days. The atmosphere of
the place was more that of the saloon than of the church, and the fierce struggle
between the elements of evil and license which dominated the old town and
the elements of decency and progress which now control was the most momentous
and significant movement in all Pomona's history. While the churches took a
vigorous and vital part in this struggle, the account is reserved for another chap-
ter, as a part of '"Pomona's Municipal Life," rather than as a part of its church
work.
A visitor to Pomona in the late seventies or early eighties would have found
it much easier to locate a social gathering at one of the dozen or so drinking
places on a Sunday morning than to find a meeting of church people for worship.
This is well illustrated by a story whicli Colonel Firey tells of his own experience,
when visiting the town with Prof. W. T.'Tibbs, shortly after their arrival in Cali-
fornia. Mr. Tibbs was a minister of the Christian Church, a man of culture and
refinement, yet full of humor. The friendship, begun by a chance acquaintance
as train companions, and renewed by an accidental meeting in the Los Angeles
162 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
post office, led them to drive out together to Pomona. Dissatisfied with Los
Angeles and San Diego, after considerable wandering about. Colonel Firey said
to Mr. Tibbs one day, "What was that place we liked so much as we came into
Southern California on the train?" "Let me think," said Tibbs: "wasn't it asso-
ciated with fruits? Yes, it was called Pomona." "Well, let's go out there." So
they came to Pomona.
One evening they were looking for a prayer meeting which they had been told
was held by the Baptists on Thursday evening. Hearing some singing in the
second story of JNIother King's Hotel, they went into the saloon on the lower floor
to make inquiry. "What will you have?" the barkeeper asked, "and was doubtless
staggered at the order — "Where is the Baptist prayer meeting?" "Don't know;
some sort of meeting upstairs." So they went up and walked in, to find not a
Baptist prayer meeting, but a Good Templars Lodge in session !
Meeting Senator McComas at Brown's Hotel, Mr. Tibbs inquired if there
were any Campbellites in the place. Senator McComas could have told him all
about the IMethodists, and doubtless did, being a leading member in that church
himself, but he was not so well posted in regard to the Disciples of Christ. He
knew of one "Christian.'' however, a INIr. James, who was then at work on a
building for j\Ir. Kirkland, the Methodist minister, the house which, by the way.
is generally known as the Ayer house, and which was occupied a little later by
Pomona College, in the first term after its organization by the Congregationalists.
Senator McComas took them around and introduced Mister Tibbs to Mr. James.
"Are you a Campbellite ?" asked Mr. Tibbs. With a queer look on his face, Mr.
James replied soberly, "A Christian, sir. a Christian." "Where do you meet on
Lord's day?" Then Mr. James learned that Tibbs was also a "Christian.'' The
following Sunday they went with Mr. James to a second-story room in the build-
ing where Joe Wright had his office, a wretched place, in which, nevertlieless. the
little handful of Christians met and observed the Lord's Supper every Lord's day.
Calling upon Professor Tibbs to speak, they at once discovered his calling and his
ability, and although he was seeking rest after a breakdown from strenuous work
in the East, he was persuaded to accept the pastorate, which he filled so well until
compelled to retire.
One is reminded here of the story of the woman who was visiting friends in
the South and who started out one Sabbath morning to find a church of the
Disciples, in which she might worship with others of her own faith. She inquired
the way of an old colored woman : "Auntie, can you tell me where the Christian
Church is?" Quickly she replied. "Why. bless yo' soul, honey, dey's all Christian
churches 'bout heah. 'cept de little ol' Cam-ellite Church round de co'nah."
To enter into the details of the life of the churches, to give in any fulness
an account of their origin and growth, would be to picture vividly the outward
and organized expression of the best ambitions and thought of the people, the
most vital, doubtless, of all the town's activities. In such a story the generosity
and sacrifice not only of a majority of its leading citizens, but also of the larger
part of "the people," must needs have a place. Here especially it would be invid-
ious to attempt to recognize peculiar merit, or to single out individuals for marked
preeminence. Only in the simplest outlines can one sketch the beginnings and
outstanding features or events in the church history of the place.
The church whose ministrations to the people of the \'alley began with the
earliest residents, the Me.xican grantees and. their families, and has continued un-
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 163
broken to the present time, is the Roman Catholic Church, as has l)een narrated
somewhat fully in earlier chapters.
As stated before, when Senor Ricardo Vejar moved to \\'alnut, he built there
a commodious chapel, where Catholic services were held, wdiich were attended by
the people of the Spanish Settlement. Padres Philipe, Amable and Heima were
among the missionaries of the Church who visited this cliapel ; also Bishop Diego
Garcia at one time. After the beginnings of the town it was still regarded as a
mission field and so was served by missionaries of the church or from the church
at San Gabriel. Father Joaquin Bot, who became pastor of the San Gabriel Mis-
sion in 1808, is especially remembered both by Catholics and by non-Catholics
during the seventies. In 1876 the parish of San Jose ( St. Joseph ) was established ;
but it was not until the general awakening of 1883-1886 that the church had a
regular pastor and building in Pomona.
The first church to be established in the \'alley as an organic unit was the
Baptist Church at Spadra, which was founded, as we have said in the story of this
town, in 1871. The Rev. R. C. Fryer, who organized the church, was its pastor
for nearly a dozen years, when he was followed by Dr. J. B. Tombes. Services
were held for a dozen years in the Spadra school house, until in 1883 the church
joined the Baptists in Pomona to establish a single church in this place.
To the Methodists must be given the credit of organizing the first church in
Pomona. In February, 1876, the Reverend Dr. M. M. Bovard conducted a service
in the railway station, and this was followed occasionally by others as a part of
the Los Nietos circuit. In the summer of 1877, probably in INIay. an organization
was effected under the direcxujn of Dr. A. M. Hough, then presiding elder. The
first trustees of the church were J. E. ^IcComas, D. N. Burritt, G. \'. D. Brand,
C. W. Twiss and H. Eno, and these men, with their families, constituted its charter
membership. The building which they erected in the following months was the
first church building in Pomona, and cost less than $500, the land being rented at
first from J. E. ]\IcComas, who afterwards gave it to the church. With the pres-
tige of a new town, Pomona became the center of a new circuit including Azusa,
Duarte, Cucamonga and Los Xietos, with A. B. \\'ashburn at first in charge. Rev.
J. D. Crum, the next pastor, was followed in 1882 by R. ^I. Kirkland, during
whose pastorate the second church edifice was built, and Pomona was made "an
independent charge." During the rapid growth of the town the church also in-
creased rapidly under F. D. Mather and W. \\^ Bailey, and a third new building
became necessary. This was erected in 1888-1889, while J. W. Phelps was pastor,
on the same site as the first two, and has served the church well ever since, though
with numerous additions and improvements. In the long line of good men who
iiave followed in this pastorate were Dr. J. H. White, for four years president of
the L'niversity of Southern California, and Dr. A. C. Williams, formerly of Bur-
lington, Iowa, who had also had charge of large churches at St. Louis, Kansas
City. Lincoln, Xebr., Minneapolis and the Simpson Church in Los Angeles. Out
of these activities have grown the two great churches which represent the ]\Ieth-
odist denomination in Pomona, the First Methodist Church at the old site on
Third and Main, and the Trinity ^lethodist, which organized and built its new
edifice at Pearl and Gibbs streets in 1908. This, however, is too recent to belong
to an early history.
Episcopal services were held i;i the \'alley as early as 1874, at the home oi
Rev. C. F. Loop, shortly after his purchase in the Loop and Meserve Tract. Be-
ginning in 1876, services were conducted by Rev. P. S. Ruth, whom we have also
164 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
mentioned before as an influential pioneer, meeting first in an old building at the
corner of Third and Main streets, and then in Mr. Ruth's house, till the first
church building was put up, early in January, 1879. In May of the next year the
rite of confirmation was first administered by Bishop Kip. The work of both Mr.
Loop and Mr. Ruth was largely a labor of love, Mr. Loop having a larger field of
missionary work, and horticultural interests of his own, and Mr. Ruth being en-
gaged in various other pursuits in the town, especially in business and farming.
At seventy-two years of age, after having ministered to the little group for eight
years, he gave over the work to a younger man. \\'hen Rev. J- D- H. Browne
took charge of the Mission in 1884, during the boom days, the membership rapidly
increased, and a new building became necessary. At the laying of the corner-stone
in February. 1885, both ^Ir. Loop and Mr. Ruth took part, as well as Mr. Browne.
Opened in September of this year, it has served, with the material improvements
added from time to time, as the home of St. Paul's Episcopal Church almost
thirty-five years.
The period from 1883 to 1886 and a little later was one of much activity in
church afifairs as well as in everything else. Real estate was booming ; newcomers
were arriving every day ; new houses were going up and business blocks as well.
With all this material prosperity, the increasing population demanded new churches
as well as better quarters for the old.
The Baptists in Pomona by this time outnumbered those in the little church'
i;t Spadra, and the Baptist Association urged that they unite in a single church in
Pomona. This was accomplished in October, 1883, and Rev. Mr. Latourette,
missionafy of the Association, acted as the pastor until Rev. J. F. Moody became
pastor, in August, 1884. In September they dedicated the new church building at
Fourth and Ellen streets, having met till then in an old house on Fourth Street.
Here the church worshipped until it moved into its large, modern edifice at the
corner of Holt and Garey avenues, in 1911. After forty years two of the charter
members of the church at Spadra, Mr. James 'M. Fryer and Senator Currier, are
still active members of the church.
The early life of the Catholic Church in the \'alley came to maturity and
found at last a home of its own in 1885, when, under the direction of Father Bot
and Father P. J. Fisher, an organization was effected and money raised for a
building. This church, completed before the end of the same year, has been the
parish home and center for the Catholics not only of Pomona, but of the whole
Y'alley. The present church was built in 1909 by Father Xunan. who came in 1902.
Late in 1882 a Holiness Band was formed, which in 1884 was organized as a
church, its first leaders being L. Parker and G. V. D. Brand, who had been one of
the organizers of the Methodist Church.
In 1883 the Presbyterian Church began, and in 1884 the Christian and Uni-
versalist Churches. The latter church was organized by G. H. Deere of Riverside,
who also dedicated its building in 1886, its first preacher being Rev. C. A- Miles.
The Christian Church, which had been meeting with Dr. Kendricks as
preacher, was fairly launched in April, 1884, by Prof. W. T. Tibbs (whose arrival
in Pomona with Colonel Firey has been mentioned), and before the end of the
year they were worshiping in their first building, on the corner of Gordon and
Center streets. After the five-year pastorate of Mr. Tibbs, the one which made
the greatest impression upon the church and town in the earlier days was that
of Dr. F. M. Dowling, who served the church for eight years. It was during his
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 165
pastorate in 1892 that the second building was erected, whicli was used until the
large new church was built.
Both Presbyterians and Congregationalists were anxious in 1883 to have, a
church of their own. Together they had numbers and means to establish a
church, but neither group thought it advisable to organize a separate church by
themselves. The Congregationalists had the larger numbers, and the Presbyterians
the larger means. It was therefore agreed between them that they should work
together to build a Presbyterian Church first in Pomona and a Congregational
Church in Ontario, until in either town another church should be required. Rev.
Oliver C. Weller was pastor during the first year, from its organization in May,
and was followed by L. P. Crawford, Dr. J. Rice Bowman and Dr. J. A. Gordon,
who was later a professor in Occidental College. Rev. Dr. B. B. Bonham was a
member of the church from its founding until his death, and Rev. C. T. Mills,
already mentioned at some length in connection with the Pomona Land and Water
Company, gave the church the lot for its building, which was erected in 1885.
Among the other charter members. Elders Elias Finck, Henry Curtis and Cassius
C. Johnson will be especially remembered. From the first fourteen its membership
grew to about 400 in 1900.
In the meantime the Congregationalists, who were worshiping with the Pres-
byterians, had so increased in number as to justify the forming of a church of
their own, according to the previous agreement. So, in May, 1887, they organized
a church with thirty-six members, called the Pilgrim Congregational Church. This
also grew to have a membership of over 400, when, in 1902, Dr. Lucien H. Frary
closed his long pastorate of nearly fifteen years.
Perhaps the most important fact in the early history of Pilgrim Clunxh is
that it was the alma mater of two other institutions — the Claremont Church and
Pomona College. This was due very largely to the influence of Dr. C. B. Sumner,
the "father of the college." who was also the first pastor of Pilgrim Church. As a
home missionary for the church in Southern California, Doctor Sumner had only
consented to the organization of the church at Pomona after he had become con-
vinced of its imperative need, and also, almost at the same time, of the ideal
character of the location for a college of high standard, both intellectually and
spiritually. Under his leadership the church became self-supporting within four
months, and the people were making heroic efforts to start the college. Before
the end of the first year they surrendered Doctor Sumner to the more important
and more strenuous labor of launching the college. Though now serving a con-
stituency which includes the whole Southwest and is unlimited by denomination,
yet Pomona College was born of Pilgrim Church. From the day when Doctor
Sumner first presented the subject in one of his first sermons to the church (meet-
ing then in the Opera House before its own building was finished), this body was
most helpful, in great loyalty and sacrifice. After the organization of the board
of trustees of Pomona College, and before its formal opening at the beginning of
the academic year 1888-1889, it became important to carry on classes for a group
of students completing their preparation for college, and Prof. F. P. Brackett was
asked to take charge of this work. These classes met during the first half of
the year, 1888, in the chapel of Pilgrim Church, and some of these students formed
the nucleus of the first graduating class. The beginnings of the college are
sketched more fully in the story of Claremont, told in the last chapter.
The old Opera House at the corner of Third and Thomas streets was used
for meetings by the Unitarians after the Congregationalists moved into their
166 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
chapel, diagonally across the road. Rev. O. Clute was their minister from the
organization in 1888 until he became president of the State Agricultural College
of Michigan, in the summer of 1889. Then for a time funds and membership
fell off and the services were discontinued. They were resumed, however, in 1890,
with the Rev. E. C. L. Brown as preacher, and still in the Opera Hou=e. In 1893
a new building was erected and dedicated in May, under the pastorate of Ulysses
G. B. Pierce, later chaplain in the United States Senate.
In the years since the period covered by this sketch, the church life of the
community has developed with the growth of the city. Xew churches have been
formed, notably the Christian Science Church, whose earnest following has been
drawn largely from the older churches of the city. But this development of
church life appears not so much in a larger number of churches as in greatly in-
creased membership, in a larger range of usefulness, and in beautiful church build-
ings, more worthy of the forms of worship and more adequate to the increased
activity of the modern church. These more stately edifices, like the higher type
of homes in which the people live, reflect the larger life and the better circum-
stances which prosperity has brought.
Throughout the history of the town the relations between the various churches
have been unusually harmonious. By union services, by joint campaigns, by mu-
tual understandings, tacit and expressed, a cordial fellowship has been mamtained
between leaders and people as well.
FRATERNITIES
A writer having affiliation with one or more of the great fraternities might
very properly devote much attention to the history of these orders, which fill so
large a place in the life of their members and of the city. It must suffice, how-
ever, in the present circumstances to refer very briefly to the beginnings of the
older fraternities as recorded in other histories. Thus it is stated : that the Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows was organized ^lay 30, 1876, with H. Eno, J- E.
McComas, George C. Egan and Louis Phillips as officers, meeting in the new Cen-
tral School House ; this following an earlier organization in Spadra, in which Cyrus
Burdick was also an officer : that a lodge of the Free and Accepted JNIasons was
formed January 25. 1878, W. T. Martin, L. D. Conner, J. H. Egan, T. I^Iercer,
J. B. Parker, Charles Weile, J. Schlesinger, J. J. Jester and John White being
installed as officers, the ceremony of installation conducted by R. C. Fryer, past
master of the Lexington Lodge at El Monte ; and that the Aetna Lodge of the
Knights of Pythias was organized August 30, 1884, with twenty-five charter mem-
bers, including the officers, E. A. de Camp, R. N. Loucks and F. C. Schumacher.
In the summer of 1886 a military company was organized, with about sixty
men. P. S. Dorney first, and then A. T. Palmer was elected Captain, and H. E.
Stoddard and C. I. Lorbeer, Lieutenants. In October, 1887, they were mustered
in as members of the State Militia. The old Opera House, where the Investment
Building now stands, was the company's headquarters until it burned, in December,
1895, when they began to plan for an armory, which was later erected with the aid
of the ^lutual Building and Loan Association. Much of the money for equipment,
and then for building the armory, was raised by dramatic performances, which
were always notable events. In promoting these, as in other affairs related to the
company, Frank W. Balfour was especially active. A large number of the able-
bodied young men of Pomona have served in its Company D, Seventh Regiment,
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 167
N. G. C, and a good many of its officers have been promoted to higher positions.
Among these are Maj. T. A. Driffil, Col. W. G. Schreiber, Col. W. O. Welcli and
Col. H. L. Duffy.
During the captaincy of Terrel B. Thomas many of the company volunteered
for service in the Spanish-American \\'ar. Again, at the time of the earthquake
at San Francisco, the company did valiant service under Capt. W. E. Stevens.
The scope of this history does not include the noble service and sacrifice of
Pomona's sons in the recent ^^'orld War.
NEWSPAPERS
Of the six or seven newspapers now published in the A'alley, the Pomona
Progress has the longest unbroken record, dating from January, 1885, but the
Bulletin is the true successor of the Pomona Times, which was first published in
October, 1882.
It is said* that a paper called The Nezc Era was published before this, but
its description as a paper gotten out by the Pomona Land Company and edited
by its secretary, L. M. Holt, also applies to the A''c"zc' Italy, which has been
described at some length in the chapter on the "Beginnings of Pomona." Failure
to find any copies of The Neii' Bra has raised the question whether they were not
one and the same paper. At any rate, such a paper, issued for a brief time by a
real estate corporation and published in Los Angeles, can hardly be regarded as a
real newspaper of the A^alley.
Hence it is probably true that "the newspaper history of Pomona begins in
1882, when \\'. D. IMorton and H. N. Short moved a small and very crude printing
plant from Santa Ana into this settlement and began publication of the Pomona
Times. October 7, 1882."
The paper has had a checkered career from the first. A year and a half later,
April 5, 1884, it combined with the Pomona Courier, which had been established
by John H. Lee in December, 1883. It was then called the Times-Courier, and
was edited jointly by ]\Iorton and Lee, Mr. Short having withdrawn. The first
editorial of the joint publication says : "The Pomona Times and the Pomona
Courier have clasped hands across the bloody chasm, and this week appear as one
journal." In November, 1885, W. D. Morton retired and Charles E. Sumner
bought out his interest, the paper continuing with Lee and Sumner, publishers, and
C. E. Sumner, editor. This arrangement continued until 1888, when }ilr. Sumner
sold his half in»the paper to William E. Ward. In the meantime both the Times-
Courier and the Progress had undertaken the publication of a daily edition. The
former intended to surprise its rival in the publication of the first daily paper, but
the Progress heard of it in time to get out one also the very same day. The
Times-Courier claimed to have won the contest, however, by appearing two hours
earlier than the Progress! The next important change in its career is described
in the article referred to above, as follows: "Pomona was at this time in the
throes of a revolution over the banishment of the saloon. The temperance people
wanted a newspaper advocate of their cause. Neither the Times-Courier nor the
Progress up to this date had come out in opposition to the liquor traffic, notwith-
standing the city had voted "dry.' .-\fter consultation with Mr. Lee, the senior
member of the Times-Courier firm, and gaining his consent to their plans, the
* In an "Outline of the Ne>
168 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
anti-saloon people finally induced Gen. John Wasson, at that time editor of the
Chino Champion, to buy Mr. Ward's interest in the Times-Courier. At this time
the saloon and the anti-saloon elements were about evenly divided. It was a haz-
ardous undertaking to endeavor to change public opinion in favor of the complete
banishment of the saloon ; and while success finally crowned the efforts of the
temperance people, the result was a death blow to the Times. A boycott was
started and the Times lost half of its subscribers and fully a third of its advertis-
ing patronage in three months. It was never afterward able to recover its old-
tiriie financial prestige." General Wasson continued as editor for some years,
but Mr. Lee sold out, and his interest was held in turn by \\'illard Goodwin, C. B.
Messenger, C. B. Roberts and H. H. Kinney. Then, after the death of General
Wasson, the paper returned to the weekly form. Since its recent purchase by the
brothers, E. E. and W. M. King, the name has been changed to the Bulletin; it
has again become a daily paper and is infused with new life.
The record of the Pomona Progress is not so varied. Its essential character,
like its name — conservative-progressive — has been unchanged from the first, and
its publication has been uninterrupted, while its proprietors and editors have been
at times succeeded by others. ]\Ir. Edward E. Stowell was its first editor and
publisher, and then, after his death, from March, 1888, Messrs. H. G. Tinsley and
C. I. Lorbeer. About the first of August, 1891, when General Wasson entered
upon his campaign as editor of the Times-Courier, Mr. S. jSI. Haskell came on
the staff of the Progress, being for two or three years associated with Mr. Tinsley,
and then buying out his interest.
Mr. Haskell's direction of the Progress was the longest of any until the
present management, and his character and ideals were firmly impressed upon
the paper. During his administration in 1898, the Daily Progress was perma-
nently established, the former daily, like that of the Times, having been discon-
tinued with the depression following the boom. In February, 1905, Captain
Stevens and Almon T. Richardson, the present owners, bought the paper and plant
of Mr. Haskell, and have edited it together ever since. Already their control of
almost fifteen years has outrun that of any others. Of the steady growth of the
Progress during their control, and of its present character and influence, it would
be superfluous to write.
Mr. H. G. Tinsley may well be called "the veteran newspaper man" in the
Valley, for of those who are still in "the harness" here, Mr. Tinsley's work in the
Valley began first. Stowell and Lorbeer and Wasson have passed on, but Lee
and Sumner and Haskell are engaged in other work, the last two. in Los Angeles.
Mr. Tinsley, after retiring from the Progress, was engaged in other work till
1904, when he purchased the Pomona Reviezv, which he has edited since that
time. The Rci'iciv was the successor, under A. M. Dunn, in 1900, of the Saturday
Beacon, which Ben Havner started in 1895.
Other papers there have been in Pomona, but usually short-lived or merged
in older publications. The Pomona Rustler, published in 1884 by Charles Buck,
and the Pomona Register, begun in 1888 by John Symes, also the Pomona Tele-
gram, in 1886, were all bought and absorbed by the Progress.
Of the local papers of Claremont, La \'erne and San Dimas. mention is made
in the story of these towns.
One can hardly rate too highly the value of Pomona's papers to the people
of the Valley. In their primary function as purveyors of news they have been
diligent and faithful ; as vehicles of expression for the people they have usually
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 169
been open to all reasonable requests ; as leaders in radical movements for the
advancement of the community their policies have differed, ranging from indif-
ference or studied non-committal at times, to a strong and persuasive campaign
for shaping and guiding public opinion, or even to the most vigorous and fearless
espousal of an unpopular cause.
Rut whatever their confessed policy, and whether designedly or not, the
newspapers also serve another and most desirable end. They furnish a detailed
history of the region, or at least a mass of data, with much of color and prejudice,
to be sure, invaluable to any writer of history. The almost unbroken file of the
Progress, which that paper has had the wisdom to preserve, is of priceless worth
to the town. Annual numbers, like the Pictorial Annual for 1886 of the Pomona
Times-Courier, for instance, with their carefully prepared reviews, should be pre-
served with especial care.
The "Pomona \"alley Historical Collection," in the Pomona Library, which
has been formed for the preservation of all such material, deserves the interest
and support of all people and institutions in the Valley.
POMONA PUBLIC LIBRARY
The Pomona Public Library, as a municipal institution, dates from June,
1890, when a board of trustees appointed by the city council officially organized
and took possession of a collection of books and other property which had been
acquired with great pains by a group of interested individuals. The real begin-
ning of the library was the organization of the Pomona Public Library and Floral
Association, in May, 1887. Its first officers were Mrs. E. P. Bartlett, president;
Mrs. U. E. Strong and Mrs. M. Kirkland, vice-presidents ; Mrs. R. N. Loucks,
secretary, and Mrs. H. J. St. John, treasurer. They opened rooms in the Ruth
Block, and Mrs Bartlett, who was the untiring leader and inspiration of the whole
movement, was appointed librarian. Money was raised by contributions and mem-
bership fees, but especially by flower festivals, which usually provided $400 or
$500 annually for the purchase of books.
In June. 1889, the association offered to give the library to the city, but
Pomona was not ready yet to undertake its support. The city agreed, however,
to pay for rent and gas in the new quarters to which the library was moved in
the First National Bank Building, then just completed. By the terms of the
agreement the offer of the library to the city was open for a year. At the expira-
tion of this time the library was formally accepted by the city. The first board of
trustees, appointed by the city council, was composed -of the following men: Rev.
C. F. Loop, Dr. C. \\'. Brown, J. H. Dole, C. I. Lorbeer and F. J. Smith.
Two events of special consequence have marked new periods of advance in
the history of the library. The first event was the gift to the city of the "Goddess
Pomona," a marble statue presented by Mr. Loop. While traveling with his
family abroad j\lr. Loop saw the original of this statue in the Uffizi Gallery at
Florence, and was at once impressed with its beauty and with its symbolic worth
to his own city in California. Upon inquiry he found that it was a classic work
of art which had only recently been unearthed, though probably centuries old, and
he arranged for the sculpture of a replica by the Italian artist,' Antonio Fri!li. It
was the presentation of this beautiful statue and the evident necessity of housing it
properly that led to the first arrangement with the city and the removal to the
170 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
suite of rooms in the First National Bank Building. Here a special room was pro-
vided for it, the furnishings also given by Mrs. Loop.
The second event of special importance in the library development was the
building of the new Carnegie Library. The first building was begun in 1902 and
completed in 1903, and when this became inadequate an addition was built, in
1912 to 1913. The story of the efforts to secure these buildings, the meeting of
the conditions, the drawing up of the plans, cannot be told here ; but too much
credit cannot be given to those, especially to Arthur ]\I. Dole, by whom it was
accomplished.
Pomona has been peculiarly fortunate in its librarians, I\Iiss IMabel Prentiss
and Aliss S. M. Jacobus. The latter, since her coming in 190.^, has been not only
a most efficient librarian, but a generous servant of the people in many ways.
SOCIAL LIFE IN POMONA
The social activities of a city center for the most part in its churches and its
fraternities and clubs. Apart from these, or to some extent overlapping these, are
other associations which more or less regularly bring people together in a social
way. Even to enumerate all these in a work like this would be impossible. Some-
times it has been a school district, or the people of a neighborhood like the Kings-
ley Tract ; sometimes the people from an Eastern city or state have formed a
somewhat homogeneous colony, like the lowans, or the people from Missouri, or
the Burlington, \'ermonters. The Grand Army Post and the National Guard in
the days of Balfour, and Driffil and Thomas were especially conspicuous with
notable dramatic performances. In the days of the boom the Hotel Palomares
was a favorite center.
The Choral L^nion. organized in 1888 and directed for some years by Pro-
fessor Brackett of the College, brought together the singers from all the churches
of the \'alley and gave opera and concert performances at certain times.
To a remarkable extent the social life of the town has found expression in
manifold kinds of practical service rather than in pure social enjoyment. This
has been true in all sorts of occasions for the raising of money for a thousand and
one useful ends, like the flower festivals already mentioned, or in all the beautiful
work of the Fruit and Flower Mission of earlier days, and, of course, more
recently in the magnificent service of the Red Cross. It has been true also in the
clubs for intellectual development and culture, especially in the women's clubs.
After the churches, the schools and the papers, perhaps no influence has been more
potent in Pomona than that of its women's clubs. Not only in the social life, but
in literary, dramatic, economic and political matters, the women in these organ-
ized groups have distinctly raised the standards of living, besides accomplishing
numerous specific and desirable objects. The first of these clubs was called the
Pomona Woman's Club, and was organized in 1892. But the organization and
activities of the other strong clubs which have been formed in later years lie out-
side the scope of this history.
Of untold blessing to the whole A'alley, as well as to Pomona itself, is the
new Pomona \'alley Hospital, built in 1914 through the diligent efforts of Dr.
Swindt and Dr. Kelly, ably seconded by other Pomona physicians, as well as by
Dr. Thomas of Claremont, Dr. Brown of San Dimas and Dr. Hubbell of La \'^erne.
CHAPTER NINE
POMONA'S MUNICIPAL LIFE
Incorporation and Liquor Fight — Before Incorporatiox — The Great
Issue — Druxkexxess — The Conflict — Chinese Problem — Other Prob-
lems AND Contests — The ]\Iurchison Letter — -JMunicipal Solidarity.
Under the county government before the city was incorporated, the laws
were not severe nor rigorously enforced. The district was "a law unto itself,"
or one might say that a kind of low license prevailed. Constables of the town-
ship were responsible for its good order, and cases were tried before justices of
the peace. Rarely did a case come before the county courts or a county sheriff
arrest a notorious offender.
In its first issue of October 7, 1882, the Pomona Times includes in its list
of county officers, J. B. Parker as justice of the peace for Pomona, and Joe
Wright for Spadra ; also \\'. H. H. Scott as constable for Pomona and D. R. Lilly
for Spadra. W. T. ^lartin, often mentioned in this history, is also well remem-
bered as justice of the peace for years in the early days, and many interesting
stories are told of the "good old days" when Toots Martin held court.
INCORPORATION AND LIQUOR FIGHT
There was repeated agitation for incorporation, beginning long before it was
accomplished. In January, 1884, Len Claiborne and others urged the matter, and
the Courier published the charter for a municipal corporation of the sixth class
according to the laws of the State. In December, 1886, another agitation resulted
in a mass meeting at which J. E. McComas presided and J. R. Garthside was clerk.
Len Claiborne brought in a petition for incorporation, to which he had secured
forty-two signatures. Mr. Aston and Mr. \\'eile, among others, spoke in its favor,
saying that sanitary conditions demanded it, and proposing to include a consider-
able part of the Pomona Tract surrounding the Townsite proper. P. C. Tonner
was rather noncommittal: if a majority of the citizens in the 640 acres of the
Townsite wanted it, all right ; but the neighboring tract should not be compelled to
come in, nor should the saloons have to bear the burden ! Already the problem
of the saloons is involved in the question of incorporation. H. A. Palmer spoke
at length in favor of the fifth-class municipality instead of the sixth, but pointed
out that a population of over 3,000 was required, and that it would therefore be
better to wait. The outcome of the meeting was that a motion that it was "for
the best interests of Pomona to incorporate" was lost.
In ?\Iarch, 1887, another movement led by Attorney Claiborne culminated in
an election. The limits proposed were White Avenue, Alvarado Street, Towne
and Crow (later Grand) avenues. The proposition was opposed by such men as
Judge Firey, Armour and French, who believed the area proposed was too small.
They favored incorporation, but "wanted it right." In the election there were 72
votes for incorporation and 110 against it.
Toward the end of the year 1887 everyone wanted incorporation, but there
was still a sharp conflict between opposing forces. Xow, however, the battle
172 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
front was changed as tlie new issue became clearer. On one side were the saloon
element and those who were in favor of an open town ; on the other side were the
anti-saloon forces and those who were determined to establish a better order. A
few citizens of highest character were conscientiously opposed to the restrictions
proposed by the anti-saloon party, and failed to apprehend the magnitude of the
issue. High license had not been a success, and the real question was whether the
incorporation should permit drunkenness and license of every sort to continue,
or whether it should be in such form as to forbid these evils and to encourage the
coming of a better class of citizens who would build up a clean, progressive city.
It is doubtless well now to forget the names of the leaders of the saloon
forces ; and just because they so highly deserve recognition no attempt will be
made to list the leaders on the other side, since any such enumeration must neces-
sarily omit some tmknown to the writer who were just as worthy of mention. The
churches and most of the women, of course, were arrayed against the saloon ; and
we have already referred to the way in which General Wasson, editor of the
Times, championed their cause, and at what cost. But there were two attorneys
whose relations to the struggle were such that they cannot escape the historian's
notice. One of these was P. C. Tonner, whose character and habits have been
portrayed at some length. In this portrayal and in the anecdotes concerning Con-
stable Slanker, some idea has also been conveyed of the conditions existing in the
town. Before the boom in 1882, when the population numbered about 500, there
were fourteen or fifteen saloons, or one to every thirty-five people. That would
be a saloon for every seven families ( !) according to the usual reckoning; and if
it be contended that there was then a large population of men without families, it
is also true that there was a large share of the population with families of a dozen
or more. Women avoided the streets downtown, because of the offensive sights —
kegs of liquor on the sidewalks, men standing on the corners and spitting tobacco
juice on the walks, others staggering along half drunk and perhaps accosting
familiarly any passing lady; others sometimes lying dead drunk in the gutter.
When the men working for Fleming and Becket in digging the tunnel north of
town were discharged on Saturday night, they would make directly for the saloons
in Pomona ; and it was necessary Monday morning for someone to "round them
up" like cattle and haul them back to their jobs before the work could go on.
Sometimes in a wave of indignation a group of citizens would take matters into
their own hands, as when the editor of one of the papers and a few others turned
the fire hose on a house of low reputation and drove the notorious offenders out of
town ! This condition was greatly improved as the town grew, from 1882 to 1887,
and especially in 1887. We have seen that Constable Slanker was elected to that
office at the beginning of this year, as Senator ]\IcComas urged, "to clean up the
town." And though he had made great progress, by the honest enforcement of
such laws as were in force, yet the conditions were deplorable, though not so
public.
The other attorney, so conspicuous in the struggle, was Charles E. Sumner,
who had been living a hermit's life in Live Oak Canyon on account of his health,
and who now came down from his retreat like another David against the Goliath
of the Philistines. In the end Tonner and Sumner were both elected on a com-
mittee to draw up the articles of incorporation for the city. Both were keen
attorneys and the result might easily have been a compromise, but the extreme
terms of Attorney Sumner were at last adopted by popular vote, and the first and
most important victory was won for good order. But a long contest followed
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 173
in the enforcement of the new liquor laws. Sumner was elected city attorney for
this purpose and gave his wliole time to the struggle. The laws which he had
framed himself were well calculated to accomplish the desired end. One clause
prohibited visiting a saloon. Some startling arrests were made and there was
furious indignation, but the cases were tried and convictions followed. One man
was tried for visiting a saloon, before a judge who was himself in the saloon at
the time ! Altogether eighteen cases were tried under this ordinance while Attor-
ney Sumner was in office, and convictions were secured in every case. IMoreover,
the Supreme Court sustained all the cases carried to it.
Other able men succeeded Attorney Sumner in the city office, who also won
important battles for the city. Among those who have served in this capacity
were Robert Loucks, Edward J. Fleming, J. Joos and C. W. Guerin, whose ten
years now in the office are sufficient evidence of his ability.
THE CHINESE PROBLEM
In 1885 and 1886 the town of Pomona was much excited over the presence
in its midst of the "heathen Chinee." For there was a "Chinese \"illage" then
between First and Second streets and extending east from Garey Avenue — a
series of cheap one-story shacks — and there was much complaint because of the
filth around the village. There were items in the papers about it, and occasionally
an editorial. Toots Martin one day advertised an "Anti-Chinese Garden," with
the injunction "Patronize our own people and have done, once and for all with the
heathen." Whether the agitation would have been created if there had not been
a general movement against the Chinese throughout the state is doubtful. But in
the month of March, 1886, there was organized "The Pomona Branch of the Non-
partisan Anti-Chinese League." The Progress came out with a boycott editorial,
advising against a wholesale simultaneous boycott as likely to precipitate war
and impossible of success, "but a carefully considered and systematized attempt
applied to one business after another * * * may win." "John Must Go" is the
heading of the article in the next issue reporting the proceedings of the second
meeting of the Non-partisan League. At this meeting Toots IMartin was in the
chair and C. L Lorbeer presented the report of the executive committee. This
contained four recommendations, requesting the people : first, to withdraw patron-
age from Chinese laborers and merchants ; second, to patronize the two American
laundries : third, to replace Chinese labor by white ; and fourth, to discriminate
in favor of American goods when purchasing. Ln the course of the discussion
which followed, Mr. Eno spoke for the Chinese. He thought it wasn't good and
Christian-like to boycott them. What would become of the 200,000 Chinese in
the state if this plan were carried out? What of the merchants? Should they be
allowed to starve? And Air. Aston, the undertaker, replied: "I have been here
for thirty years [not quite] and I have always boycotted the Chinese [doubtless]
because I knew them to be a damage to the morals of the country as well as a
blight upon its material well doing [ !] The Chinese are a growing plague-spot
upon the future of our children, and a constant and growing menace to the labor-
ing masses. * * * I would refuse a Chinaman employment, [yes] but were he
hungry I'd feed him[?] ; were he sick Fd nurse him [fancy!] ; were he dead I'd
bury him!" [verily he would]. Followed then Mr. Hicklin, the liveryman, who
declared that those who oppose the boycott only whimper, and whine, and dodge,
and squirm, but they have no case. "Let the people stand together and hj-pocrisy
174 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
must stand aside." So the boycott was put in operation and "John" was so hard
hit that he did have to go. In course of time the httle chister of old houses with
the picturesque (though quite untidy) fronts with the red and gold paper name
plates, inscribed in big Chinese hieroglyphics, were deserted, and then they were
all removed.
The unreasoning prejudice against Orientals as a class had its own way in
F'omona. as it would in many quarters toda}-. Few seemed to have learned to
discriminate between the Chinese merchant or laundryman or vegetable man who
is always honest and reliable, on the one hand, and the Japanese speculator who
corners the vegetables of a State and destroys enough of the crop to maintain his
high prices, or who illegally acquires great tracts of land, who can not be trusted
either in private or in public affairs. Shall we ever learn that corrective legisla-
tion should be directed against the evil itself, directly, and not in sweeping evic-
tion of a race. How easily the uncleanliness of the lower Chinese classes is regu-
lated and their faithful service to the people retained! The more flagrant and
national crimes of the Japanese must also be met by direct legislation, by far
more strict and universal immigration laws, by immediate and severe punishment
of offenders and by many individual deportations, rather than by unwarranted
discrimination against a proud nation as a whole.
One important result of the Chinese agitation was the incorporation of the
Pomona Steam Laundry, with J. B. Camp as president and C. I. Lorbeer, secre-
tary. The latter raised a large part of the capital stock by solicitation.
OTHER PROBLEMS AND CONTESTS
Not all of Pomona's "scraps" have been intra-mural. She has shared more
or less in contests of county and State, as in the movement in 1885 for a division
of the State (though by no means unanimously), and in the later struggle to form
a new county, to be called San Antonio County and to include the portion of Los
.\ngeles County from Azusa eastward, and the portion of San Bernardino County
from Cucamonga westward. This movement also, though possessing more of
merit and winning a larger following, was by no means unanimous. There have
been battles also, almost literally, between the city and great corporations demand-
ing entrance with unwarranted rights. There was the fight against the Sunset
Telephone Company which undertook to erect its poles without a franchise and
was only prevented by the actual fighting off of its laborers. City Attorney Loucks
himself chopping down one of the poles. Combining with Los Angeles and Pasa-
dena, the case was carried to the Superior Court and won.
Within the memory of many was the plucky fight in defense of the Salt
Lake Railway's right of way, when the Southern Pacific attempted to defeat
them by interfering with their laying of track and running a train over the road
in specified time. The mayor. W. H. Poston. himself drove about the town
sending men to the scene with shovels and hoes ; and the foreman of the Southern
Pacific gang was spirited away in a wagon till the work was done and the fran-
chise secured.
Probably no event has given Pomona and a Pomona citizen the notoriety
that came with the publication of the "Alurchison Letter" and the disclosure that
its author was a Pomona man. The letter, it will be recalled, was a decoy letter
written to Lord Sackville-West, British Ambassador in the United States, from
a son of British parentage, asking for advice in his exercise of the newly acquired
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 175
right of franchise. When the Murchison letter and tlie Sackville-W'est reply were
published they created a profound sensation, not only in California but throughout
this country and England. The author of the letter was known at first to only
3 select few, including Attorneys P. C. Tonner and W. A* Bell, Judge W. F.
Fitzgerald, of the Republican State Executive Committee for Southern California,
and Colonel Otis of the Los Angeles Times. It was to have been a secret until
the day of President Harrison's inauguration, but some one "let the cat out of the
bag," and George Osgoodby of Pomona was revealed as the real and only writer
of the "JMurchison Letter."
In November, 1910, after much careful study and discussion, a Board of
Freeholders was elected to prepare a new charter for the city, and in March, 1911,
this charter was approved by the State Legislature.
Pomona has had a series of devoted and efficient mayors. The last during its
existence as a mirnicipality of the sixth class was Colonel F. P. Firey, under whose
administration the fine new city hall was erected. Air. Lee R. May, the first
mayor under the new charter, served till 1913, when he was succeeded by Alayor
\\'. A. A'andegrift, recently re-elected after six years of faithful service.
It is significant that the election of city officers in Pomona has rarely followed
party lines. Mayors Firey, Poston and \'andegrift, and Attorney Guerin. have
all been Democrats.' when the number of registered Democrats was only about
600. All were nominated and chosen for merit, regardless of party affiliation.
During the early nineties Pomona was represented in the Senate of the
state. In 1889 Mr. J. E. McComas, who had been identified with the best life and
growth of the city from its beginning, was elected on the Republican ticket, and
served for four years as senator for this district.
In the thirty-two years since its incorporation, the municipality of Pomona
has developed a strong corporate entitv and consciousness. It has had its nps
and downs, its periods of inactivity, as in the days of depression following the
boom, and its periods of advance, as in the prosperous years ; but on the whole it
has a record of which the city may be proud.
CHAPTER TEN
THE FOOTHILL CITIES ALONG THE SANTA FE
Coming op the Santa Fe — Railroad Activities — Boom of New Tovvnsites — -
Effect of Santa Fe on Southern Pacific and Pomona — North Po-
mona— La Verne, Lordsuurg and La Verne College — San Dimas — Mud
Springs — Canyon Settlers — The Teagues — Mound City Land and
Water Association — San Jose Ranch Company — \\'ater Companies
and Litigation — Citrus Industry — Grovx'Th cf San Dimas — Charter
Oak — Claremont and Pomona College — The Boom and Its Collapse —
Indians and Wilds of the Desert — Toots Martin — Peter Fleming —
Beginnings of Pomona College — Claremont Business and Citrus
Fruits — School and Church.
The upper part of the San Jose Valley, from the north lines of the Rancho
San Jose to the foothills, has been later in its development than the country
farther south. Except for the settlement at Mud Springs, and a few scattered
ranchers and bee men at the canyon mouths, this development began with the
coming of the Santa Fe Railway. This event may be said to mark the division
between the prehistoric and historic age of the foothill towns. Eastward from
the moist lands of iNIud Springs to Cucamonga, the whole upper country, includ-
ing the sites of Claremont, Upland and La Verne, was formerly known as the
desert. Over it herds of wild antelope roamed, in the sage brush and cactus.
THE COMING OF THE SANTA FE
Rumors of the coming of another transcontinental railway line were heard
as early as 1875, but it was not until 1885 that these rumors had any basis in fact.
On the first of January, 1885, it was reported that an official of the Atlantic and
Pacific Railway was visiting Los Angeles in the interests of terminal connections
for that road, and the prediction was made that trains would be running from
Pasadena to San Bernardino by January 1, 1886. Would the road come by way
of Pomona, or what route would it follow? At this time there were three railway
systems which were evidently working to establish overland connections, the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, the Atlantic and Pacific, and the California
Southern. But the public was informed repeatedly that they were not the same
road at all, though some of the same stockholders were in each. It was necessary
then for people coming to Pomona by the Santa Fe and Union Pacific to come
first to Los Angeles and pay local fare from there to Pomona via the Southern
Pacific.
The California Southern had built its line from Colton to San Diego and
was running trains (by a contract with the Southern Pacific) from San Diego
via Oceanside, Murrietta, Perris and Colton to Pomona and Los Angeles, and
also over the Cajon Pass to connect with the Atlantic and Pacific at Barstow.
178 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
In October of 1885 its construction crew drove the last spike, which estabhshed
connection directl}' with the East.
Arrangements were made by which Santa Fe trains from the East came from
Colton to Los Angeles over the tracks of the Southern Pacific Railway. This
arrangement continued for a year and a half and nothing was heard of the direct
line for some time. The first of January, 1886, came and the first of January,
1887, but no railway. However, in November and December, 1886, surveying
parties were noted running lines west from the San Gabriel and past !\Iud Springs.
By the first week in January, construction forces of the "Los Angeles and San
Gabriel Valley Railroad" had crossed the San Gabriel wash and were pushing
toward ]Mud Springs. At the same time a gang of men were working westward
from San Bernardino for the California Southern. During January and February,
the coming railway was the most absorbing topic of conversation. It was defi-
nitely announced that the A. T. and S. F. Company had purchased the San Gabriel
Valley Railway. A gap of only thirty-five miles remained. \\'hat would be its
path across the Valley? Then came the representatives of the railroad to arrange
terms for the right of way.
In February, 1887, about a dozen officials of the Los .Angeles and San Gabriel
\''alley Railroad, in Judge Firey's oflice, met about twenty interested landowners,
and separate agreements were drawn up granting right of way, with certain
provisos as to the location of stations and stopping of trains. Ten acres at North
Pomona were deeded by E. D. Rice, George Parsons and A. R. ]\Ieserve. It had
not been decided whether the station should be called North Pomona or Palo-
mares or Palermo. C. F. Loop and others deeded a one-hundred-foot right of
way through the proposed town of Claremont. and passenger and freight stations
were located on the east and west of Alexander Avenue. Others deeded the right
of way east through Mud Springs.
A boom of new townsites along the right of way followed at once as a
matter of course. In Alarch there was a special excursion to Azusa, which was
for the moment the terminus of the San Gabriel Valley road. The Slausons,
J. S. and J., officers of the new Azusa Land and Water Company, were in the
party. Here, at the time of the auction sale, people stood in line all night to get
a good choice of lots, and some paid fifty dollars for place in the line.
The new town of San Dimas was launched with much success by the San Jose
Land Company, organized by ]\I. L. ^^'icks, and including thirty or forty others,
among them a railway official whose inside knowledge was valuable. The lands
offered for sale by the company included not only the town of San Dimas, but
all of the San Jose Addition, which was subdivided into twenty-acre lots.
The boom sale was typical. The only building in sight was the boom hotel
built by the company. Brass bands accompanied the excursionists and there was
much excitement. One eager buyer who had selected a lot from the map went
to the spot to see what it looked like before making his purchase, only to find,
when he returned to the auctioneer, that the lot had been sold. Alore eager than
ever then, he bought another on faith, and went afterward to look at it. This he
found in a deep gully. "Well," he said, "I shall not have to do any excavating."
On the old homestead of W. N. Davis, south of Glendora, a new town, called
Alosta, was laid out by George E. Gard and D. W. Field, and lots amounting' to
$30,000 were sold at auction.
Claremont, which seems to have been also "on the inside," canle first among
the towns farther east in its incorporation, advertising and auction sale. This is
HISTORY AXD BIOGRAPHY 179
easily understood when one notes, in the list of the members of th.e company
organized to promote the town, the names of F. S. Reigart of Topeka, and
William Dunn, general agent of the California Southern Railroad. This com-
pany was incorporated January 20. 1887, under the name of the Pacific Land
Improvement Company. It included also E. F. Kingman and George H. Fuller-
ton of Riverside, the latter president of the company. The auction sale of Clare-
mont lots was held April 14, after a month of judicious advertising. In May, on
the 25th, was the opening sale of lots at Lordsburg, and a week later that of
Palomares, as North Pomona was then called. Wholesale advertising preceded
each public sale. The local and city papers published long articles and columns
of announcements about the new towns and their auction sales. "Claremont the
Pjeautiful" became a by-word; one article said, "There is no doubt but that every
lot will be readily sold. Before the railroad connects with Los Angeles. Claremont
will be a good-size town, with post, express, telephone, telegraph, hotel and news-
paper offices, stores and residences." The clear mountain view, the artesian water
already flowing in the town, and the attractions of the canyon and mountains all
were lauded to the skies.
Attractions of the Palomares townsite were that two street railways would
soon connect it with Pomona. Messrs. Firey, French and Company had a franchise
for a line up Garey Avenue, and Packard and White had one up San Antonio
Avenue. Meserve and Rice advertised "No chenanekin ("sic), no pool, no fixed
price list."
The Claremont sale was really a remarkable success, due chiefly to the genial
manner and good tactics of Frank ]\filler, whose preliminary campaign as general
agent of the company had prepared the way, and of Col. W. H. Holabirc', who
conducted the sale. Workmen were actually engaged in laying railway track
'hrough the town while the sale was in progress.
At the great pageant in 1913, celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of
Pomona College, the scenes of this sale were re-enacted, Colonel Holabird himself
taking his old part.
The sale at Lordsburg was also "an immense success." Three brass bands
conducted as many excursion parties to the place. Twenty-five hundred people
were present and lots amounting to $200,000 were sold. One purchaser, Herman
Silver, gave $14,000 for Block 71, but the sales averaged from $250 to $500
each. At the Palomares auction a week later, the sale realized somewhat less
than $30,000.
Before considering these new towns more in detail the influence of the new
railroad upon Pomona and upon the Southern Pacific may be noted. The con-
trast between the policies of the two roads was striking. Before the advent of
the Santa Fe there was only one local train a day to Los Angeles, and that a pas-
senger car on a local freight. One would leave Pomona at about eight o'clock in
the morning and arrive about noon. Returning, one might take an overland
freight at sundown and reach Pomona about two o'colck in the night. As one
old-timer said, "The policy of the old road was 'the public be damned' : the policy
of the new road was to cater to the public in every way." This resulted in a
marked improvement in the service of the Southern Pacific also. When it was
evident that the Santa Fe would pass north of the city a movement was started
at once to make connections with it. Colonel Firey, Charles French and others
formed a company and built the line to Palomares (North Pomona) by way of
180 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Garey and Orange Grove avenues. This was completed and a "dummy" was
running over the road soon after the railroad was finished.
NORTH POMONA
Of the four Santa Fe towns within the region covered in this history, the one
nearest to Pomona was perhaps least likely, on account of its location, to become
a large place, although just as highly favored by Nature as the others. The most
attractive feature given the town by its promoters, the name of Palomares. has
been changed to the uninteresting designation of North Pomona. Essentially a
citrus growing district its chief buildings are the packing houses of the Indian
Hill Citrus Association. A number of comfortable residences have been built
among the orange groves. Its chief distinction is in the great Richards Orange
Orchard, for a long time the largest orange grove in the world.
LA VERNE, LORDSBURG AND LA VERNE COLLEGE
Since the town of Lordsburg has combined with the town of La A'erne and
taken the name of La Verne City, it may be forgotten that they were formerly
two distinct towns. Lying to the north of the City of Lordsburg, and the town-
sites of Palomares and North Palomares, La Verne extended from Claremont on
the east to San Dimas on the west, the line of division being the old Dalton parti-
tion line, which is now the eastern line of B. A. Woodford's Valencia grove.
Northward the district reaches over the mountains and is co-terminal with the
county. The town itself was located on the highlands below the foothills which
divide the San Dimas and San Gabriel basin on the west from the San Antonio
and Santa Ana basin on the east. In their choice of soil and climate and view,
the settlers of La Verne made no mistake ; in all these it is unexcelled. Only the
location of the railway caused other towns, no more favored otherwise, to out-
strip this one in population. And one of the preliminary surveys for the Santa
Fe did pass through its center. A fine class of people composed its founders,
among whom were L. H. Bixby, Solomon Gates, Dr. H. A. Reid and M. L.
Douglas. A newspaper called the La Verne Nezvs was started in 1888, published
by John Symes and edited by Dr. H.A. Reid. JMr. Frank AMieeler was one of
La Verne's most earnest backers, and though his residence is now in Claremont,
he is still lo_val to the many superlative merits of La A'erne.
More than once the place seemed likely to die for want of water. At times
orange growers had to haul water in wagons for their trees, and the sources of
supply were as remote as San Dimas and San Antonio canyons. La A'erne men
were interested in boring for water on Indian Hill. Of the eighteen-year contest
with San Dimas over its canyon supply, one writer said, "The case has finally
been settled amicably to all parties. San Dimas and La A^erne both get the canyon
water in winter, when neither of them want it, and both districts go without it
in the summer time, when there is no water in the canyon, and when it is most
needed." The same writer gives this account of the origin of the La A'erne Land
and Water Company: "Many ranchers in La Verne * * * would be hauling
water to their trees in tank-wagons today but for the magnanimity of R. A.
AA'allace, who in 1899 owned a choice orange and lemon grove of twenty acres.
AA'allace bought fifteen acres of unimproved land, put down a well to a depth of
310 feet, by way of an experiment, and was surprised to find, when tested, that
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 181
he pumped over forty inches of water. This was more than he needed. He
could have sold it at a fancy price. Instead of this, however, he called his friends
and neighbors together and gave them the fifteen acres and the well at exact cost to
him. Thus La Verne Land and Water Company was formed, all the stockholders
being ranchers of the community. Only recently this company has been reorgan-
ized as the La Verne Water Company, combining with it the Live Oak Water
Company, Mesa Land and Water Company, and La Verne Heights Water Com-
pany, with F. R. Curtis as president, and R. L. Davis, secretary."
It is only within a few years, that Lordsburg, like St. Petersburg, dropped
its "burg" and, uniting with its neighbor and rival to the north, adopted its more
euphonious and attractive name of La Verne City. It was first named Lordsburg
because it was Lord's burg. A Mr. I. W. Lord bought the property of Col.
George Heath and others north of the Mud Springs Road, and organized a com-
pany to promote the new town. It was at this time that J. W. Sallee sold his
ranch for some $50,000, a fabulous sum to one who had never seen so much
money in all his life. After this he was often seen about town, very much "stuck
up," in an ill-fitting suit of clothes and a stove-pipe hat. The town was laid out
with broad streets bordered with eucalyptus trees, and a number of buildings were
put up, especially a large hotel building, the biggest of all the string of "boom"
hotels that marked the young towns on the new road.
Soon, however, came the bursting of the boom and all development ceased.
There remained, of course, the Mexican ranchers on their large estates south
and west of the townsite, the Vejars and Yorbas, the Sotos and Carrions. To
the north of the town proper and in La Verne a considerable acreage had been
planted to citrus fruits, and ranchers had established their homes. Notable among
these ranches was the Evergreen Ranch of 160 acres, purchased of the Sotos in
1884 by J. A. Packard of Chicago, who acquired a fortune in the manufacture
of "Frazer's Axle Grease," bought the ranch, built a fine residence and developed
a place often visited because of its beauty. Mr. Packard's example has been
followed by others, especially in recent years, so that the place is known for its
fine groves and its foothill homes.
■Besides the citrus groves to the north and cattle and grain ranches to the
south, there was yet another element which helped to keep the town alive, during
the slump in real estate and other activities which followed the boom. The huge
caravansary built by Lord's company, after standing empty for some years,
attracted a group of the Church of the Brethren, or Dunkers, sometimes called
Dunkards, who saw in it an ideal center for a colony. In 1891 the building and
grounds were purchased by a company of these men, consisting of David and
Henry Kuns, Samuel Overholtzer and Daniel Houser, who became the trustees
of the Lordsburg College. This name was changed to La Verne College later,
when Lordsburg became La A'erne City. The importance of this institution lies
in the fact that it is the only college of the Church of the Brethren west of
McPherson, Kans. Organized at first by its trustees as a stock company, the
property was formally taken over by the Church of the Brethren in 1908. From
the first the Kunses were the mainstay of the College, giving lavishly of their
means and time and counsel. The first president was Dr. S. F. Garst, who served
from 1891 to 1893. Others who have followed were E. A. :Miner, 1893-1899;
W. I. T. Hoover, 1899-1901; ^^^ C. Hanawalt, 1902-1908; W. F. England,
1908-1912; J. P. Dickey, 1912-1913; Edward Frantz, 1913-1915; and Dr. S. J.
Miller, the present incumbent. From its founding until 1912 the work was chiefly
182 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
of academic grade, but in 1912 Dr. W. I. T. Hoover reorganized the work and
established the collegiate course leading to the Bachelor of Arts degree.
Another institution financed by H. L. Kuns is the David and Margaret Home
for Children. The La Verne Hotel building, erected as a boom hotel, has thus
been transformed into a valuable and useful institution.
The La Verne Leader, formerly the Lordsburg-La Verne Leader, first' ap-
peared May 12, 1910. W. A. Adams was its first publisher and editor. Other
papers had had only a very brief or spasmodic existence before this time, among
then the La Verne Nezcs, mentioned above, and the Lordsburg Siinbcani, which
appeared in 1899 : but the Leader has grown steadily from its first appearance
into an established place. John M. Reed and H. H. Webb followed Adams in the
conduct of the paper. Then came the "leadership" of William H. Greene from
1912 until recently (1918) Ulrich Knoch, a well-known publisher of Los Angeles,
has taken it over.
The change of name from Lordsburg to La A^erne City was accomplished in
August, 1917, there being practically no opposition to the change. The occasion
was celebrated with a public wedding in which "]\Iiss Lordsburg" was wedded to
"Mr. La Verne," with appropriate ceremonies, a banquet and much festivity.
SAN DIIVIAS
In the "prehistoric" days of San Dimas, there was no town of this name, but
from the very first of this story much has been said of "Mud Springs," as one
of the stations on the Overland Stage route, where horses were watered atid fed
between El Monte and Cucamonga. There was not even a settlement here in those
days, only a house or two and some barns where ^Ir. Clancy lived in charge of the
station. The place was called Mud Springs because of a number of springs or
cienegas, two large ones especially, which made the whole region marshy. Teams
could not drive across it, and if one got stuck in the mud or turf a whole acre
-would shake with his struggles. When the Santa Fe Railway was built across
the cienega, north of the old road, it was necessary to drive piling deep down
and plentifully to secure a solid road bed. The name "Mud Springs" is retained
as a station of the Pacific Electric Railway.
The canyon north of i\Iud Springs was early called San Dimas. Its name,
according to Ramon Vejar, originated in this curiously trivial circumstance.
When Ygnacio Palomares first pastured his herds in this part of the country, he
built a rude corral up in the canyon in which to keep some of his cattle at times.
But it was far from their hacienda and the Indians would run them off again
and again, until he gave it up in disgust and called the canyon "San Dimas," after
the one who was crucified with Christ and repented before his death on the cross,
because, forsooth, he also repented of having chosen this as a place of refuge for
his stock! Sometime in the later si.xties, as has been noticed, the Cunninghams
"took up" a quarter section of government land, including a part of San Dimas
Canyon, and the family lived here for a number of years. Between the Cun-
ninghams and the north line of Dalton's, or San Jose Addition, was the ranch of
Cyrus Burdick, also referred to earlier, where is now the C. C. Warren place.
Here in San Dimas Canyon lived also Henry Dalton himself, where in his
later years he found himself bereft of friends and fortune, worsted at last through
interminable litigation. As some one has said, "He was always lawing," And
so in 1884 he lived in a little shack, with his Mexican wife, cultivating a little
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 183
patch of potatoes, and almost or quite forgotten by the world which was formerly
so ready to give him respect. Thus he was found one day by Mr. Fred J. Smith,
who had a letter of introduction to him, at the time of his coming to Southern
California, from one who had been a partner of Dalton in his better days and
still supposed him to be a man of large means and influence. They had been
together in mining and other ventures in South America, and had 'each cleared
up $200,000, so it is said. "He is a fine fellow," the partner said, "who owns
great tracts of land ; but he has one failing — his fondness for lawsuits." So this
was the end of one who had owned a third of the San Jose Rancho, all of the
Azusa, and the San Francisquito ranches, many thousands of acres, including
some of what is now the highest priced farming land in the world.
Well known among the first settlers in this vicinity were the Martins, W. C.
and W. T., who were also pioneers in El Alonte. In 1869, Toots Martin (\V. T.)
came with his family to the mouth of San Dimas Canyon, east of the Cunning-
hams, to engage in farming and keeping of bees, which he did for two years,
when he moved to the east of Indian Hill, as we shall see later. In the following
year, 1872, his father, Wm. C. Martin, or Uncle Billy, sold out his hotel at El
Monte and purchased a homesteader's claim to 160 acres on the highlands and
foothills at the mouth of the canyon. For fifteen years he lived here on his foot-
hill ranch, farming and raising bees, until in 1887 he sold the property to the San
Jose Land and Water Company and moved to Pomona. Though at some distance
from other people, he was a well-known and influential man, "straight and gen-
erous to a fault" as a neighbor said.
Of those who came to the San Dimas region in the early days and have made
it their home, some of them to the present time, the Teague families are the
oldest. ]\Ir. C. P. Teague came with others of the INIound City Land and Water
Association, which bought the Dalton interests in Azusa and in the San Jose
Rancho and its additions. In October, 1878, Jasper N. Teague, his son, came as a
surveyor for this company, and having the power of attorney in all aflfairs pertain-
ing to the company for his father, who did not settle here till later. At this time
there was not a house within miles of Mud Springs ; nothing except the chimney
of an old house, probably the Clancy house, which had been the station for the
stages when they ran by way of Mud Springs. Against this old chimney, not
far from one of the larger springs, the Teagues built their house, when J. N.
Teague had been joined by his brother, David C. Teague. Above the barn which
they also built was another spring. The affairs of the Mound Citv company did
not prosper and the Teagues turned their attention to raising grain. Begmning
the first of January, 1879, they plowed a thousand acres and planted it to grain.
But the crop was a failure, returning only four sacks of grain to the acre. The
supply of water was very meager, only a miner's inch of water from the canyon
for 7,000 acres of land. This was supplemented with a little from the San
Gabriel, but the head was too small and Duarte, farther west, had it two days in
the week first. On the east bank of the cienega they had sunk a well which
yielded a ten-inch flow at first, but in the dry years this gave out. The abandoned
shaft of this first well may still be seen. They raised some sheep and cattle also,
but under great odds. All the stock had to be driven to the stream on the Carrion
place when the water in the cienegas was low. L^ndaunted they planted again
the next season and were rejoicing in a luxuriant crop of grain, tall and heavy —
as fine a stand of grain as could be grown — when again they were disappointed.
The spring was unusually wet. and week followed week with practically no sun-
184 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
shine at all. In four days they lost it all. So for nearly three years there seemed
nothing but hard luck and misfortune. And the end was not yet. Before the
third crop was harvested the Mound City company failed and the property
passed into the hands of J. S. Slauson of Los Angeles, who held mortgages
against the company and finally foreclosed, bidding in all its holdings at the face
of the mortgage. The Teagues lost what they had put into the company and
most of the land which they were purchasing. They were obliged to move, but
were allowed to move their buildings, and got something for the crop. Still the
Teagues were not defeated. The father, C. P. Teague, had joined his sons in
1881, and Harvey and Robert, two other brothers, had also come. Buying and
leasing more land, they pitched in harder than ever and began to get ahead.
At one time they had leased 7,000 acres, including all of the San Jose Addition.
The elder Teague was peculiarly fortunate in locating wells, seeming to sense in
some way the underground streams of water. After a time the interests of the
family in the Addition were given over largely to the two brothers, J. N. and
D. C. Teague. In 1887 the two divided their interests here, the latter remaining
in San Dimas, while the former moved to Pomona. J. N. Teague had married
Anna, the second daughter of Cyras Burdick, and for a dozen years or more
the family lived in their attractive home on Park Avenue. During this time he
was busy with many interests — raising grain, threshing, growing citrus fruits and
contracting, always directing large gangs of men and buying and selling property.
He was a "live wire" and an influential man in the city, until his removal to Los
Angeles. Since then, by his tremendous energy, his intelligent management and
good judgment he has become one of the largest growers of vegetables in the
Southwest, handling large contracts for the government, and an expert in agri-
culture and soils.
After the father, C. P. Teague, had been here for a time, he returned to
their home in the North, to sell their old ranch. While there the mother died and
the father came back to ]\Iud Springs. There were also four daughters. On his
return C. P. Teague with his son, Robert, leased several thousand acres of what
became La ^'erne for farming and grazing, building about a quarter of a mile up
the road from Mud Springs, near the present Santa Fe crossing. David C. and
Robert M. Teague, the oldest and youngest sons, are still living in San Dimas,
the former a little east of the old place, and the latter by his nursery in the heart
of the town.
Turning our attention now to another early settler in San Dimas, one
who came to the region shortly after J- N. and D. C. Teague and has remained
until the present time is Eli W. Schuler. He is thus also one of San Dimas' oldest
living residents. Still vigorous in body and keen of mind, he recalls with much
satisfaction the times of forty years ago. His family had come to California in
1864. After a visit to the \"aliey in 1879 he decided to come here to live. His
mother had come from Iowa on account of asthma, and had bought a land claim
of John Paine. From a recital of his own recollections one gathers an interesting
impression of the surroundings of that time. For, as he says, he knew all the
old-timers intimately^he Cunninghams, the Martins, the Burdicks and the
Teagues, who came about the same time. He was a "partner of Colonel Heath in
the haypress." He worked during harvest for "Chino Phillips." For some time
he assisted Hancock, the surveyor, and has since been valuable to other surveyors
in locating old corners and tracing out old lines. He had a high respect for
Hancock who surveyed the county "when it was sectionized by the Government,
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 185
after the Treaty of God-a-loop (Guadalupe)" and of whom he says: "He knowed
how to run a straight hue, and he knowed how to measure one, if he hadn't as
much education as some." From his contact with surveyors he has a most com-
mendable and somewhat rare respect for corner stakes and landmarks of every
sort. "Me and Tonner had many a scrap with folks who would tamper with the
corners and move stakes over to suit their own convenience." And he had a good
word for Tonner. "He always got the lion's share, but he had awfully good
traits and he had an awfully nice woman in Mrs. Tonner. Tonner thought the
JNIexicans as good as any. Once there was a raffle and voting for the prettiest
girl in the Valley. "Mother King's' daughter was getting a large share of the votes,
when Tonner came in, asked how many she had and how many votes there were.
Then he said, 'Put up your money, Schuler ; no use to throw it away. I don't like
to see this business so one-sided,' and cast a majority vote for a pretty Alexican
girl."
Schuler was deputy sheriff under Hamner, Cline and others, and knew Billy
Rowland well, though he did not serve under him. "I was always a Republican."
he says. "They tried to raise me a Democrat, but I was spoiled in the makin'."
But he claims a good friend in the stanch Democrat, F. M. Slaughter, of whom
he tells many stories. "Slaughter was a good story teller — told them well and
liked to. After the emigrants came from the East he would tell a lot of harrowing
stories about the Indians, as people were sitting on the porch in front of his home
at Rincon, and then, as some harmless Indian came up, he would shout, 'Indians,
by G — , Schuler, Indians,' and pretend to be terribly scared, while the visitors
ran to hide, really frightened." Schuler's own stories of crossing the plains were
blood-curdling enough. A hundred men, he says, were necessary as guards for
the train, and these men must be able to hit a mark, three bullets out of five, at
sixty yards. Of Mrs. John Brown, who was in the party, he says, "Braver woman
never lived ; I saw her kill three Indians." There wa's great danger of stampeding
the cattle, and this was done not only by the Indians but by Mormons who often
incited them to mischief. "The Mormons in them days," he says, "were regular
Bull-she-vys." When Mr. Schuler came to Mud Springs he "farmed.'' One sea-
son he had 1,000 sacks of barley, 6,000 sacks of wheat, which he sold at fifty
and sixty cents a hundred, and 300 tons of hay, which he was to sell at $9.50 a
ton, but he says, "The fellow busted on me, and I only got two dollars a ton."
Mr. Schuler has acquired considerable property during his long residence here
and is still a hard-working citizen, whose place could not easily be filled.
^\'hile this story does not include the history of Glendora, Charter Oak and
Covina, a brief reference may here be made to some things of interest in the
country south and west of San Dimas. In 1880 a considerable amount of land
called the Covina Tract, was purchased by two brothers from Costa Rica, by the
name of Badillo, who made payments on the purchase in part with money bor-
rowed through Hollenbeck of the First National Bank of Los Angeles. Though
industrious and making various improvements, they were unable to complete their
payments. The times were inauspicious and it became necessary for the bank
to foreclose. This would have left the Badillos penniless, and one of them left
precipitately, but the other won the admiration of Mr. Hollenbeck, who, it is said,
liad been a poor boy and left Missouri with only three dollars in his pocket. More-
over, Mr. Hollenbeck had lived in Costa Rica, and had acquired some money
raising coft'ee there, so was especially interested in Badillo and deeded to him a
186 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
nundred acres of the property, on a part of which the city of Covina has arisen
since.
To trace the title to the lands of San Dimas in the "prehistoric" days, one
must go back again to the Mexican grants of 1837 and the following years. It
will be recalled that Don Luis Arenas received a grant from the Mexican gov-
ernment of an undivided third interest in the Rancho San Jose and in the San
Jose Addition, also full title to the Azusa Rancho, north of Puente and adjoining
the San Jose Addition on the west. All this property Arenas sold to Henry
Dalton, and the sale was confirmed December 24, 1844, by Manuel Requena, first
constitutional alcalde, and endorsed by Jose Antonio Carillo, Pio Pico and Andres
Pico, "Commandantes of Squadron," and commissioners appointed for this service.
In June, 1866, Dalton deeded to one Francois L. A. Pioche for $5,000 an undi-
vided half of his interest in the San Jose Rancho, and three years later, for
$10,000 he gave the same Francois L. A. Pioche a mortgage for these four
ranches: "the Azusa Rancho, containing one square league, the Rancho San Jose
Addition, containing one square league, the Rancho San Francisquito, containing
two square leagues, and the Rancho San Jose." For several years the mortgage
was renewed for decreasing amounts, his wife, Guadalupe Zamorano de Dalton
then signing the mortgage with him. Then Pioche died and in May, 1874, his
executors served notice of action to foreclose. On October 1, 1874, Dalton bor-
rowed $20,000 of the Los Angeles County Bank, which had recently organized
with J. S. Slauson and J. M. Griffith among its incorporators. The mortgage
given on this date to the bank, covering all his interest in the four ranchos, and
the previous mortgages to Pioche, were the sources of endless litigation between
the bank and the Pioche heirs on the one hand and the Daltons, or Lewis Wolf skill,
their attorney, on the other. Mr. Wolfskill did his best to save his client, and for
a time 500 acres in the Azusa Rancho were reserved for a homestead.
On January 27, 1877, l^ie Probate Court record shows that Wolfskill took
over from the Pioche heirs all of Dalton's indebtedness to them, his mortgages
and titles involved, giving them $40,000 therefor, $5,000 in cash and the balance
in notes secured by mortgage to all the Azusa and San Jose ranchos (except the
500-acre homestead), Dalton having deeded his attorney everything. In the midst
of this little tangle the Mound City Land and Water Association came on the stage.
This company was incorporated July 25, 1878, with a capital stock of $200,000.
James B. and David H. Seawell, Thomas H. Hudson, W. A. Spurlock, George
W. jMorgan and Lewis Wolfskill were the larger stockholders. These were
joined two months later by J. N. Teague and his father, and by James H. and
Wm. T. Clark. On this date an agreement was secured by Seawell and others
as individuals, with Wolfskill and the Daltons to convey to them all the Rancho
Azusa, all right and title in the Rancho San Jose and its Addition and all water,
water rights and franchises pertaining to these properties (which included some
rights in the San Gabriel River). The consideration was $140,000. of which
$10,000 was paid down, $25,000 was due in sixty days and the balance in two
annual payments. All these interests were made over by these individuals to the
Mound City Land and Water Association, October 2, 1878. At the same time
they gave Wolfskill a mortgage on the whole property for the sum of $105,000,
given in the form of two equal notes, on each of which he paid down $31,000,
the mortgage being at once assigned to the Farmers and Merchants Bank. Now
appears the ghost. Six months later the Los Angeles County Bank brought suit
against the Daltons, Wolfskill and fifty(!) other defendants enumerated indi-
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 187
vidually and as corporations, asking judgment for over $22,000. After many
summons and demurrers the specter of the mortgage becomes very real in the
person of the sheriff, who is ordered to sell the property at auction.
By this time claims were allowed of over $60,000, and the sheriff's sale in
June, 1880, realized $55,000, of which the Los Angeles County Bank took $25,000
and the executors of Pioche, by S. L. Theller, Gustave Tonchard and Gustave
Dussol, took $30,000. Numerous other sheriff sales followed as other claims were
presented and allowed. In the next five years the four great ranches of thousands
of acres were tossed back and forth like a basketball, or as in a game of battledore
and shuttlecock, deed after deed was made out for the whole property, and
mortgages were assigned and reassigned, with amounts at issue running from
$1,000 to $100,000. Wolfskin to Cardwcll, Daltons and Wolf skill to the Los
Angeles County Bank, Wolfskill to Sabichi, Dalton to Sabichi, the Pioche execu-
tors to J. ^Nlora Moss, and then to ]\Iartz and Martz, everybody by the sheriff to
the Los Angeles County Bank, et cetera ad infinitum ! But as early as April,
1880, the JNIound City Land and Water Association deeded its entire interest in
the four ranchos to J. S. Slauson, and in the end everybody else had done the
same thing, the last transfer being that of Widney and Smith and the Los Angeles
County Bank, on April 15, 1887. By this time Henry Dalton, his creditor Francois
L. A. Pioche, his attorney, Lewis Wolfskill, (his Mexican wife, Guadalupe, too,
doubtless) and the other principals, were all dead, the first boom and its conse-
quent depression were past, and another company was coming upon the stage
with a new and bigger boom.
\\'hen it became evident that the new railway was to run through the A'alley
;iorth of the San Jose hills, M. L. Wicks, who had been associated with C. T.
Mills in organizing the Pomona Land and Water Company, now formed a new
company, including in it one or two officials of the Santa Fe Railroad and several
who had been interested in the Mound City Association. The largest stockholders
were "SI. L. Wicks, George W. Hughes, R. F. Lotspeich and F. Sabichi, but more
than thirty others were included, exclusive of some whom Wicks represented as
trustee ; and the holdings ran from three shares to seven hundred. The capital
stock of 3,000 one-hundred-dollar shares was all subscribed. This company was
incorporated February 28, 1887, as the San Jose Ranch Company, and in the next
two months received from J. S. Slauson (and nominally from others) title to all
the Dalton interests and the Mound City Association interests in the two ranches
known as the Rancho San Jose and the Rancho San Jose Addition. The consid-
eration in the Slauson deal was $150,000, for half of which he took a promissory
note for $75,000, receiving a mortgage on the whole property, but agreeing to
release from its lien blocks of land as sold, under certain conditions. It was stipu-
lated that the Teague brothers were not to be disturbed in their lease of the land
during the current season. The company also bought of Louis Phillips 665^'^
acres at the northwest corner of his half of the San Jose Rancho. Thus the new
company acquired possession of a large part of the land north of the San Jose
hills from La Verne to Glendora and the Azusa ditch, and including a pai t of wdiat
is now Covina, being the whole of the San Jose Addition and all of the Dalton
section in the San Jose Rancho — nearly 8000 acres.
The San Jose Ranch Company assumed for itself the name of the rancho,
though operating on the Addition and edge of the rancho itself, as did also the
water company soon to be mentioned, but it gave to the town the name of the
canyon, San Dimas, which has been explained.
188 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
In San Dimas, as elsewhere, the development of water has been a vital prob-
lem. The purchase of the San Jose Addition and a part of the rancho itself by
the San Jose Ranch Company carried with it the rights in all the water on the
land (and under it) besides certain claims to water in the San Dimas and San
Gabriel canyons. The supply from the "mud springs" was quite inadequate, as
the Teagues had learned, so the company drilled wells around the cienega and
secured a good flow at first. But in time this died down, and they tunneled under-
neath, so as to tap the wells some forty feet underground and thus obtained a
permanent supply.
While the San Jose Ranch Company was developing water in the A'alley
another company, called the San Jose Land and Water Company, was formed to
handle the water at the mouth of the San Dimas Canyon. Securing a quantity of
land they incorporated in May, 1887, with Col. T. W^ Brooks and M. G. Rogers
of Pomona, and C. M. Wells of Los Angeles, as officers. The Colonel was an
interesting character because of his rugged figure and ways and his varied career
as miner and soldier, serving under General Crook in the war against the Sioux.
The land purchased by this company included the 160 acres of Uncle Billy Martin,
the 160 acres of J. B. Chappel to the west, and another 160 acres on the east.
Some of this was good bottom land, some waste, and some mesa. Altogether it
gave them command of a large supply of water, which they began to develop at
once, running a tunnel and making some improvements.
But the San Jose Land and Water Company immediately came into conflict
with the San Jose Ranch Company, which disputed their claims to the canyon
water. Then began a series of lawsuits which stopped the work in the canyon,
and which became one of the most complex and hotly disputed water contests
in the history of water development. The firm of Wells and Dunnigan led the
battle for the Land and Water Company. C. M. Wells was a courteous little
gentleman, who was for a time president of the Los Angeles Chamber of Com-
merce, but Dunnigan was a vigorous, combative attorney. Over a score of suits
were fought over the water rights in San Dimas Canyon, and some of these were
carried to the Supreme Court. During a large part of this time Dunnigan was
in actual possession of the canyon, but unable to do much work. Like the Kilkenny
cats, tied together by their tails, they fought till only the tails remained. In the
meantime M. L. Wicks, who was the capitalist of the Ranch Company — a visionary
too, but not a "scrapper" — grew weary of the contest, and gave up his interest in
the canyon to develop the water in the cienega. Thirty-three inches were secured
here. But a number of the people who wanted more water and less litigation
combined to employ E. J. Fleming as attorney, to look after their interests.
Largely as a result of their pressure, the San Jose Ranch Company offered them
all their holdings — land, water rights and pipes, representing perhaps $?0.000 — but
no deal was effected, and a group consisting of the Johnstones, C. B. Sumner and
others, purchased their water rights and pipe lines, but not their land. This group
organized the San Dimas Irrigation Company. Later there was a settlement of
the various claims in a decision handed down by Judge Lucien Shaw. Those
adjudicated to have prior rights in the cienega water formed the Cienega ^^'ater
Company. There was also the Artesian Belt Water Company, formed by W. A.
Johnstone, William Bowring and A. B. Smith to take over and develop the water
first struck in a well drilled by J. O. Enell on the edge of the San Dim.as wash.
Eventually these various companies have combined to form the San Dimas
Water Company, which was organized in 1911. Both William Bowring and
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 189
W. A. Johnstone have been actively interested parties in the water developments
of the San Dimas region, and are recognized by every one as authorities in regard
to water in this region, each having served in every capacity from zanjero to
president, and that over a period of years covering the whole history of the
town.
The first citrus orchard in San Dimas or La Verne was the fifteen-acre grove
set (Hit by D. C. and C. P. Teague in 1886, who now began to turn their attention
from grain farming on a large scale to fruit growing. The youngest son of the
family, R. M. Teague, in 1889 bought 10,000 young trees and began his nursery
business, which now reaches out all over the country, and even abroad. But it
has had its ups and downs. Twice it has been almost "down and out." In the
early nineties the output had reached 250,000 trees, when overproduction and the
panic caused a drop in the market and half the stock was sold out at figures that
left the proprietor $50,000 in debt. Then prices rose again to seventy-five cents
and one dollar a tree and remained for six years, when the sale of trees reached
350,000, in 1913, more than half of them going to the San Joaquin \^alley. Other
ventures have cost him dearly, but the Teagues were always indomitable, and
"R. M." has pluckily risen to the top again in a conservative nursery of large
variet}' and proportions.
The citrus industry is almost the only one in San Dimas. Why should there
be any other? It is in the very heart of the citrus belt. In fact it is doubtful
if there is anywhere in the world a spot more favored by nature for raising lemons
and oranges — so free from frost and other damaging conditions. And so gener-
ally has this become recognized that the available land has practically all been set
out by growers ; prices of bearing groves mount higher and higher ; and the
canyons and coigns of vantage in the foothills above are becoming more and
more seized by retired men of means for beautiful residence places. The great
packing houses do an enormous business. In the San Dimas district are about
2,500 acres of citrus fruits, nearly 1,500 being in lemons. The San Dimas Lemon
Association in one season ships 850 carloads of lemons, including its branch house
at Glendora, 450 carloads being from the San Dimas district alone ; and this output
is steadily increasing, nearly a third having been added in five years.
In the development of this industry, in its organization and in the marketing
of the fruit, one of the most valuable men in the region has been Mr. Frank
Harwood, for twenty years manager of the association and then president from
that time to the present.
Upon this basic industry of citrus fruit growing there has grown up in San
Dimas a small modern city of unusual attraction.
For over seventeen years San Dimas has had its own local paper. The San
Dimas Eagle was launched by H. H. Kinney, for a time the proprietor of the
Pomona Times and now an attorney in Los Angeles. When the paper was bought
by Mr. C. L. Compton, the present proprietor, its name was changed to the San
Dimas Press.
San Dimas united with the La Verne and Lordsburg fnow La Verne City )
districts in the building and maintenance of the Bonita Union High School.
Organized in 1903, it has grown to a school of ten teachers and over a hundred
pupils. For a dozen years it has been under the able direction of Professor
Arthur Durward.
Few towns in Southern California have made such rapid and substantial
growth as San Dimas. In the period from 1894 to 1915 its assessment listing
190 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
increased from $13^,434 to $1.463,218 — more than tenfold. Xo one probably
has had a more vital part in this progress than Hon. \\'. A. Johnstone. Coming
here with his father's family in the early days of the town he has been identified
with nearly all its more important enterprises, especially in the water development
and in the bank, of which he has been president since its organization. His
election to the State Assembly was a just recognition of his worth not only to
the city of San Dimas but to the district.
CHARTER OAK
.\t the corner of the three ranches, the Puente, the San Jose and the San
Jose .\ddition. is the village of Charter Oak. The corner is that known as S. J.
No. 10, and was formerly marked by the Tinaja Oak. One would like to find
that this was the same as Charter Oak, but the fact is that the Tinaja Oak is
gone long since, and that the tree called Charter Oak is at some distance from
this corner, though both were in the r>. F. Allen forty acres constituting the
N.W. yi of the S.E. 14 of Sec. 8, T. 1 S., R. 0 W. The origin of this name is
happilv described by ^^"illiam Hoogendyk. a resident of the place, in the following
e-xcerpt :
"It was not until after ^Icxico had declared independence from Spair, that
the peaceful I\Iission, then grown to a large and prosperous community, began to
lose its peace and happiness. With the first breaking out of hostilities between
California and the United States, a prominent Mexican official, San Antonio, took
command of the Los Angeles volunteers to give battle to the Americans. The
battle of the San Gabriel River was disa.strous to the Americans. They fled from
the battlefield, losing their flag and some valuable papers. In the fall of the year
San Antonio, wishing to return to his home in Mexico, left Los Angeles in great
splendor, accompanied by a few soldiers. The captured flag and the papers were
entrusted to him to deliver safely to the Alexican .eovernme'it. It was a rainy
day when he left Los Angeles. They stopped at the San Gabriel ^Mission for
refreshments, and were here joined by two traders, and on the saddles of these
men were bags of gold received in exchange for various trinkets at the various
Missions. The rain increased, and the party which had intended to stop at
Cienega, which was only a watering place between Los Angeles and San Bernar-
dino, camped instead near some friendly Indians, under some oak trees about
twenty miles from Los Angeles. At the Mission a Spaniard who had been
unmercifully treated by the ]\Iexicans, seeing the cavalcade start, with revenge
in his heart carried the news to the Americans, who were camped a few miles
away. Eager to recapture the flag and the papers, the Americans started in pursuit,
and came upon San Antonio's party among the live oaks of the upper San Gabriel
Valley. Fearing an attack from unfriendly Indians, San Antonio and his party
pitched their camp some distance from the main traveled road. They buried
their gold, with the flag and the papers, near a large oak tree, for, should they
be surprised, the tree, by reason of its size, would serve as a mark to enable
any survivor to recover the treasure. Fires were built, and the clothing dried.
The evening meal was taken. With the coming of twilight was heard the clatter
of hoofs. Americans in pursuit, San Antonio climbed the big oak, while the
soldiers made ready for flight. Volley after volley was fired at the small party
of Americans. History has never told the story of the slaughter of the battle.
San Antonio remained in the tree all night, and two days after his departure he
HISTORY AND lUOGRAPHY 191
returned to Los Angeles, alone and in rags, with his feet bleeding, and almost
exhausted. No one has ever found the flag, the valuable papers, or the gold that
was cached by this great tree. An American officer and a troop of soldiers
returned to the spot several days later, still in pursuit of their flag and papers,
but the rain had made it impossible to find the cache. Holes were dug all around
the large tree without success. When the search was given up and they were
about to depart, the officer, giving a last look at the place, said : 'This indeed is
a replica of the old Charter Oak.' ]\Iany years have gone by since the historic
oak which held the beneficial charter has been blown down on the shores of
Connecticut. But the historic tree of the upper San Gabriel Valley still stands.
In its bark is cut the Sign of the Cross to commemorate the deed. In 1886
settlers bought the land in the vicinity and planted it to orange trees. The place
of this historic tree first belonged to Walter Allen, brother-in-law of William
Bowring, and neighbor of H. C. Mace, the only two remaining pioneers of this
section. It was the task of W. H. Collins, a later purchaser of the land, to level
the land of the many holes dug by the treasure-hunters around the tree.
"The Charter Oak of the Pacific Coast stands in the orange grove now owned
by R. H. Rowland, in a beautiful, prosperous community named Charter Oak.
This historic spot is midway between three prominent cities of the upper San
Gabriel \'alley. Three miles to the east we find the prosperous city of San
Dimas; three miles to the north the beautiful city of Glendora, while three miles
to the west the ever growing city of Covina. Thousands of acres around this
tree have been planted to trees bearing the golden fruit, and many who have
visited the upper San Gabriel Valley can truthfully say that the golden orange
gardens of Hesperides are reproduced on the shores of the Pacific."
CLAREMONT AND POMONA COLLEGE
Claremont was placed on the map by the Pacific Land Improvement Com-
pany, as already noted. The land which this company secured was chiefly a
part of the eighty acres of Andres Duarte, purchased of H. A. Palmer, 160 acres
in the west half of Section 10 owned by Charles French, and the land owned by
the Pomona Land and Water Company south of the upper line of the rancho
(which crosses the town as explained before) as far as Cucamonga Avenue.
The plot of the town was recorded in April, 1887, and included only that portion
which lay, north and south, between Tenth Street and Cucamonga Avenue and
between Alexander and Forest avenues, west and east, the last designation
being one of the original names, when Yale, Harvard, College, Dartmouth and
Princeton avenues were known by the more prosaic names of Tremont, Palmer,
Pearl, W^arren, Goddard and Forest. Most of these were for Eastern stock-
holders. Palmer Avenue was named for H. A. Palmer, who bought the Duarte
place, then held by Toots Martin, in 1883, and later moved his house from Pomona
to Claremont.
One of the company's advertising circulars says : "The name Claremont is
indicative of clear mountain air ; clear mountain water ; clear from malaria, frost,
fogs and most of 'the ills that flesh is heir to.' The site was chosen before any of
the adjoining places were dreamed of. We had the entire line to select from," for
the building of the railroad was then a secret known only to a few. This exquisite
place was chosen; first, because of the perfect altitude; second, because of the
unlimited supply of artesian water; third, because of the unsurpassed scenery
192 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
of mountain and valley: fourth, because of the giant live oaks and sycamores
that adorn its grounds, oaks that an English lord would give $10,000 an acre to
possess." Except for slight frost and fog, all this is true indeed, but the explana-
tion of the name Claremont may be enlarged. A number of Spanish names were
suggested by Mr. Palmer at the company's request and the one English name,
the latter being chosen because also one of the company had lived at Claremont,
New Hampshire.
Thus again the derivation of a town name is quite at variance with what is
generally supposed to have been, or what might have been expected. Claremont
was not named simply for its clearness or altitude, nor as it might properly have
been for some Spanish name suggestive of its origin; Pomona College is not an
agricultural school, though the name of the town Pomona was suggested by the
grangers. North Pomona or Pomona should have been Palomares ; El Monte
does not mean mountain, but thicket; nor is there any considerable bridge at
Puente as there is at El Monte; Spadra was not named for a spade, but for a
Spadra Bluffs in Arkansas; Chino has nothing to do with Chinamen, but with
curly leafed willows, chino meaning curly ; San Dimas was a name given in the
strange fashion recounted, not to the town first but to the canyon, its first designa-
tion being ]\Iud Springs, and then Mound City, there being doubtless no true
mound city anywhere about; and finally the most appropriate names of all are
not in use save as San Antonio is given to thg little hamlet at the canyon mouth,
and San Jose, the original name of the rancho, is retained simply for the "town-
ship," because another city in the State was already known as San Jose.
The town of Claremont was launched with a boom. On the day of the
auction hundreds of people drove up from Pomona and surrounding regions, and
excursionists from Riverside and Los Angeles. The band played and the com-
pany's agents pointed out the choice corners and the mountain view. Carpenters
were at work on the new railway station and a gang of men were laying track.
The crowd gathered about the front of the new store buildings across the park
from the station, and teams of all sorts were massed around, while Colonel Hola-
bird sold the lots, checking them off on the large map of "Claremont the Beauti-
ful," conspicuously posted in full view. More than 300 lots were bought, the
sales amounting to $85,000, and some lots were sold and resold the same day.
Choice corners went as high as $600 and $700. ]\Iany of the spectators came
from curiosity. One of these, a pioneer's daughter, sitting upon her horse as
the auction proceeded, wondered what madness could induce people to pay such
prices for lots in the desert. But later it was to be her home for a long term of
years ! Others went away disappointed because the prices were so high they
could not buy.
On high ground in the center of the townsite "Hotel Claremont" was hur-
ried to completion. Four or five small houses were built by the company, and
two or three better residences by Colonel Holabird and others. The schoolhouse
also was built about this time, located here by the earnest efforts of Colonel Hola-
bird and ]\Ir. Palmer, though serving for all the La Verne-Claremont district.
Then came the collapse of the boom and the town died. With one or two
exceptions the houses were all empty ; the big new hotel was tenanted only by
squirrels and bats. The graded streets w^re recarpeted with wild flowers, and sage
brush and yerba santa reclothed the face of the earth, hiding the unseemly erup-
tion of white corner stakes, and protecting with their green dress the naked isola-
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 193
tion of those live oaks which had been selected as sentinels to stand in the center
of certain streets.
The town had reverted to its ancient estate, when rattlesnakes and coyotes
were its chief inhabitants. And this "prehistoric" age has still more of interest
to many than the later times. For it was then a wild country in more senses than
one. Vegetable and animal life were wild indeed, and so was human life. Not
until 1880 or 1881 did the Indians leave their rancheria on the eastern edge of
Indian Hill, moving to San Diego and the mountains, at least a remnant of them,
after the majority had died of smallpox and had been buried there on the hillside.
Three times in a score of years this disease had decimated the camp as it had
other Indian settlements in the Valley. Along the San Gabriel River, hundreds
of the poor victims, suffering with the irritation and fever, would rush into the
stream and quickly die. In the seventies there were over two hundred Indians at
the rancheria on the east of Indian Hill.
Before their dispersion the Indians were a convenient source of labor for
settlers who used to drive up to the rancheria for them, as Kewen Dorsey says.
In those days he was living first with his grandfather. Uncle Billy Rubottom, at
the Rubottom Hotel in Spadra, and then at Mud Springs, where he was farming.
A half-brother of Kewen Dorsey by the name of Jeft' was living in 1880 in a little
house between Claremont and Cucamonga, where a curious incident occurred.
Two men came one day to the Rubottom house in Spadra to spend the night.
Before morning they got up and stole away, leaving a valise with sonie brick in
it, but stealing Jeff's overcoat and some blankets. In spite of the valise Uncle
Billy suspected trouble when he discovered that tlie men had gone. So he opened
the valise and found the bricks and soon missed the overcoat and blankets.
Angered more by the deception of the valise and its bricks than by the loss of
the clothing, he made up a little party who set out to chase the robbers. Following
them over the old San Bernardino Road, which ran by the south of Claremont
not far from Cucamonga Avenue, they finally caught the thieves on the Rains'
place at Cucamonga. And the pkmder, inckiding Jeff's overcoat, was found, by a
strange coincidence, hidden under Jeff's own house.
The "desert," between Mud Springs and Cucamonga, was the scene of manv
a savage chase and tragic finish in earlier days. Here John Rains, proprietor of
the Cucamonga Ranch, was murdered. The story of how he failed to return
from town one day, and his team was found tied by the Charter Oak, how the
Vigilantes hunted for days for the body and then found it by the buzzards circling
overhead, in a cactus patch where he had been dragged by a rope and horribly
mutilated — this story belongs perhaps more properly to Cucamonga. But this
purple desert was the stage, and the whole countryside was stirred by the tragedv,
so that a reward of $1,000 was put on the head of Juan Carillo, who was found
under incriminating circumstances at the rancho, and a few days later he was
.shot as he was driving along the road in the wash east of Claremont. Then began,
so it is said, the reign of terror created by Vasquez and his band, after Vasquez
had seen Carillo on his death bed and vowed vengeance on the Mgilantes and all
their supporters.
But the Claremont region was not entirely without human inhabitants, other
than bandits and Indians before the boom, even as far back as the seventies.
Here and there was the shack of a homesteader squatting on his quarter section
of wash. A half dozen nearly dead peach trees across from the eucalyptus grove
at the mouth of the San Antonio Canyon mark the spot where the Kincaids lived
194 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
in 1870 and raised choice fruit. Within the decade following Dr. Fairchild
started his house and walled garden between the canyon and Indian Hill. And
there were the bee men, especially Toots Martin and Peter Fleming. For Toots
Martin, who was among the first settlers in El Monte, in Spadra, in Pomona, and
in San Dimas, was also a pioneer, in fact the first to reside, in the region of
Claremont, after the early Mexican days. Coming to El Monte as a boy with
his father, in 1853, he had gone to school in Lexington, where his father. Uncle
Billy, was so prominent as a hotel man, school superintendent and supervisor, had
taught school in the old Mission district, and in 1865 had married Nancy M.
Thompson, daughter of C. C. Thompson, who had come to El Monte in 1852.
From 1869 to 1872 they had a bee ranch in San Dimas Canyon, north of Charles
Cunningham. And then father and son each filed on a quarter section of land.
The father, Uncle Billy Martin, had been getting out shakes with one McCarthy
in the Dalton canyons, and now took up the 160 acres, which he sold in 1887 to
the San Jose Land and Water Company. The son. Toots ^Martin, filed on 156
acres in section nine, which is west of Indian Hill Boulevard, and which lay just
north of the upper line of the San Jose Rancho. Here, on what was later known
as the Charlton place, he built his house about twenty-five yards west of the great
oak, which was a big tree then. Good water was found here at a depth of only
twenty-nine feet. There was then only one other building anywhere about, an old
adobe on what was later the H. A. Palmer place, El Alisal, now owned by Rev.
E. S. Young. Plere Andres Duarte had lived on eighty acres adjoining Martin's
place on the east, and had sold it to Black Wyatt, but \\'yatt had found it too
lonesome with so many Indians and so much hunting about, and turned it over
to Toots Martin, going to Los Nietos to live. "El Alisal" was named for the
willows which once grew abundantly in the ravine which crosses the place, although
the word aliso strictly means alder and not willow. A spring in the ravine was
noted as one of the best in the Valley. There was a legend of Andres Duarte
which Mr. Palmer told as follows : "There is a tradition that he was possessed
of considerable wealth, and that immediately upon the transfer of California to
the L^nited States he converted all his property into Spanish and Mexican coin
and ingots of gold and silver. This pile I have heard variously estimated at from
$60,000 to $80,000 Mexican of that date. After his death and many times sub-
sequently, efforts to uncover this buried treasure were made. As late as 1902-3
I was importuned by a Mexican claiming to belong to the Alvarados to permit
him to prospect for this cache, he claiming that a key or chart had recently come
into his possession, by which he could locate it. My recollection is that Martin
thought very lightly of the theory and, in my conversation with him regarding it,
laughed heartily. Nevertheless at least half a dozen INIexicans have applied to
me for permission to prospect the ground, and when I came to clearing up the
ground I found many holes and evidences of prospecting around almost every
old large tree on the place. So far as I know nothing was ever found." The
story is very likely a variant of the story of buried treasure related in the first
chapter.
jMartin's quarter section was a valuable piece of property, containing a
variety of soil, some good fruit land, some black land long used as a Chinese
garden, and also containing an abundance of water in the Martin cienegas. But
his chief occupation was that of raising bees, of which he had hundreds of hives.
Yet though he lived here for a dozen years or more, it had been in the allotment
of railroad land and he was most of the time in litigation over the title. Eventu-
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 195
ally Carlton Seaver and George McClary were able to secure a good title and
came into possession of the land. That to the east was secured by Charles French,
also a prominent business man in Pomona. It was during his residence in what
is now Claremont that Toots Martin was justice of the peace for the township,
and after his removal to Pomona, in 1884, that he served on the school board and
later as county supervisor.
At first Seaver and McClary bought the Martin tract together, but later they
divided the place, ]\IcClary taking the upper eighty and Seaver the lower. Mr.
McClary used to say, "Seaver was always a lucky dog. I said, 'Which half do
you want?' and he replied, T don't care,' so I took the north half. But it was the
south half which proved more valuable because of its water. After we had been
associated in banking for some time we drew lots in dividing up the stock, but
my stock was in concerns that failed. If Mr. Seaver were cast adrift in an
open boat on the Atlantic with no oars, he would land at Liverpool all right."
Yet everyone knows, ]\IcClary as well as others, that Mr. Seaver's success was
not due to his good luck.
Peter Fleming was another man who was engaged for a time in the ])ro-
(luction of honey in the fields near Indian Hill. Mr. Fleming had come to Cali-
fornia from Boston by the way of Panama in 1874, and had brought with him
good letters of introduction (among them one from Endicott, then secretary of
war) to Phineas Banning, the transportation king. Peter Fleming had been the
private secretary of Ethan Allen, grandson of the Ethan Allen of Revolutionary
fame. He was dressed in the usual mode of Boston gentlemen when he met
Phineas Banning at the wharf on arriving, the latter in blue flannel with pant legs
tucked in his boots-. Banning met him with the greeting, "Young man, the first
thing you do, take off that biled shirt and store clothes and get into blue jeans
and boots ; then you can be a man among men." And a man he proved to be in
full measure. After a year in Spadra, his partner absconded with all their
proceeds, and he moved to this place, which they called Sycamore Ranch, north-
east of Claremont and east of the Kessler place, which he afterward bought.
Leasing the land at first from Pancho Palomares, he started a bee ranch, beginning
with thirty stands. From this the business grew to a thousand stands, yielding an
income of $5,000 or $6,000 a year, with honey at only five cents a pound. Nine
carloads of honey were shipped one season to Liverpool. In this business Mr.
Fleming was assisted by his son, Edward J. Fleming, who was later city attornev
of Pomona, and is now a prominent lawyer in Los Angeles. Soon, however,
Mr. Fleming turned his attention to orange growing and especially to developing
water ; but the account of his important operations in tunneling for water and
in connection with the Sycamore Water Development Company, to whoin his
Claremont property was sold, and with the Consolidated Water Company of
which he was superintendent, has already been told. Mr. Fleming was long and
well known as a thoroughly reliable and successful business man, but his kindness
and helpfulness to those who were in trouble and his generosity to such worthy
causes as that of the Fruit and Flower Mission were not so generally known,
especially as he disliked any publicity in such matters.
Northwest of the present town, and looking down over the Scanlon ]\fesa,
Frank Evans, in 1873, squatted on his homestead where is now the Claremont
School for Boys.
Claremont has been referred to again and again as the desert, but few now
realize that for years the lower part of the town was wet and swampy, One
1% HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
could not go directly from the college to the station, but must make a wide detour
because of the marsh south of Third Street and west of College Avenue. Mr.
Biele's block between First and Second had to be drained with much underground
tile pipe. The Pomona Land and Water Company had already begun to develop
water below the railway line.
Pomona College
To return now to the Claremont of 1887 and 1888, the Pacific Land Improve-
ment Company found itself, not long after the sale, with a dead town on its
hands, a big hotel as empty as a bubble, and with a multitude of disappointed
customers, many of whom had still other payments to make on their unfortunate
purchases. Overwhelmed with obligations and fearful for the town as to which
they had hoped and promised so much, they searched earnestly for some way out
of their distress. A second auction sale in January, 1888, was much less successful
than the first. In this predicament their attention was turned to Pomona College
which, in the fall of 1888, was trying to raise money for its first building on
Scanlon Mesa at the mouth of Live Oak Canyon. The company offered the
college the hotel building and two or three hundred lots in the townsite, if the
college would move to Claremont permanently and at once with even one depart-
ment of its work. From this time on the fortunes and life of the town were so
inextricably interwoven with those of the college and the importance of the
college to the town has been such that the history of the town is largely the story
of the college. This is not the time nor the place in which to develop this history.
It has been written already by Dr. C. B. Sumner in his charming and faithful
story of the college.* Only the outlines of its earlier history can here be sketched.
For this purpose it is necessary to go back to the beginnings of the Pilgrim Con-
gregational Church in Pomona. Rev. C. B. Sumner, a home missionary of the
denomination for Arizona and New Mexico, who had come to Arizona and Cali-
fornia after successful school and church work in Massachusetts, on account of
his wife's health, had been persuaded to organize this church in Pomona. In the
midst of these beginnings, both pastor and church were peculiarly interested in the
movement of thoughtful people in this section, especially among the Congrega-
tional churches, to establish a college of high academic and Christian standards
in Southern California. After various conferences the General Association of
Congregational Churches of Southern California appointed an education com-
mittee with full powers and instructions to organize the college and to select
a location at once. Several generous offers of land and money were considered
by the committee — two propositions especially, one from Beaumont and one
from Lugonia ; but a more central spot was desired and the committee finally
accepted the offer made by Mr. H. A. Palmer, of eighty acres on Scanlon
Mesa, supplemented by forty acres adjoining, offered by two Boston ladies,
the Misses Wheeler, a wonderfully attractive site. A board of trustees was
appointed and Mr. Sumner was selected to take charge of "the organization
and the raising of money. For this he gave up the attractive new pastorate and
threw himself with characteristic energy into the stupendous task. The canvass
for funds began, and met with good response, considering the times, not only in
Congregational circles but also from others in Pomona who were interested in
higher education.
So far the movement had advanced, when in December, 1887, it was felt to
be important that academic work should be commenced at once, instead of waiting
- ^-The Story of Pomona Col!ege"^C. B. Sumner; published hy the Pilgrim Press.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 197
till the beginning of the school year in the following September. Accordingly Mr.
Sumner visited the AlcPherron Academy in Los Angeles and invited Prof. F. P.
Brackett, a recent graduate of Dartmouth, who was teaching there, to come to
Pomona and begin the work. With rare faith and prophetic vision, Mr. Sumner
told of the plans for the college and its possible future. The first of January,
1888, found a dozen pupils gathered with Professor Brackett in the chapel of
Pilgrim Church, which had been offered as a schoolroom. During the si.x
months following, this group of students, with a few additions, was prepared for
the formal opening of the college in the fall.
The formal opening occurred September 12, 1888, in a rented house, called
the Ayer cottage, at the corner of White Avenue and Fifth Street in Pomona.
The faculty consisted of Rev. E. C. Norton, a graduate of Amherst, who had been
for four years professor at Yankton College, and who was chosen as principal of
the preparatory department; Mrs. H. A. Storrs, wife of Engineer Storrs of
Pomona; Miss Edith Blades, daughter of Judge Franklin Blades, and later wife
of Mr. W. A. Lewis of Pomona ; and F. P. Brackett, whose students in Pilgrim
Chapel formed the nucleus of the first graduating class, and who had also had
two years' experience as principal of academies in New England. There were
also teachers of art and of music. No president was elected at first, but Professor
Norton presided over the internal affairs of the college and Air. C. B. Sumner, as
secretary and financial agent for the board of trustees, was in charge of all
outside matters.
The first board of trustees consisted of James T. Ford of San Bernardino,
H. K. W. Bent and D. D. Hill of Pasadena, A. J. Wells of Long Beach, J. K.
McLean and H. A. Palmer of Oakland, C. B. Sumner and C. B. Sheldon of
Pomona, Seth Richards of Boston, George W. Marston and James H. Harwood
of San Diego, Nathan \\". Blanchard of Santa Paula, Judge Anson Brunson of
IvOS Angeles, T. C. Hunt of Riverside, and Elwood Cooper of Santa Barbara.
Just two weeks after the opening day, the corner stone of a new building upon
the foothill site was laid, with impressive ceremony. It was to be made of brown
stone from Martin's quarry near by, but the building was never completed. It
was impossible to collect subscriptions or to raise additional funds in 1888, and
the offer of members of the Pacific Land Improvement Company, referred to
above, looked like a Godsend. In accepting the offer there was no thought at
the time of giving up permanently the plans for the college on Scanlon Mesa.
Only the Preparatory School was to be located at Claremont. But after the work
had been established here at Claremont, it became more and more evident that
any separation was impracticable, and the Mesa project, with its new town of
Piedmont, its foundations for a building, and all its expectations, was abandoned.
And eventually the preparatory work also was discontinued after the local high
school had become established. But all this occurred long after the removal to
Claremont. At that time the boom hotel, called Claremont Hall, was remarkably
well adapted to school use. The large halls on the lower floor were used as reci-
tation rooms, the dining hall and kitchens by the boarding department, two or
three members of the faculty and their families occupied suites of rooms, and
there were plenty left for the students, one section assigned to men and another
to women. And still there was room to spare! The name of Claremont Hall was
later changed to Sumner Hall in memory of Mrs. Mary Sumner, the devoted
198 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
wife of Doctor Sumner, who shared so largely in his labor and sacrifice for the
college.
A tower of strength to the college in the early days was Ivlr. Thomas Barrows,
who moved to Claremont with his family from his ranch in the Ojai \^alley. Two
of his children, David and Charlotte, were in the first graduating class ; his large
house was one of the first to be built in the town, and his time and strength and
counsel, as well as his property, were always at the service of the college.
Four teachers came to join the teaching force in the early years, who were
to remain on the faculty to the present time. The first of these was Miss Pliebe
Estelle Spalding, later Professor of English Literature, who came to Pomona
from Carleton College in the summer of 1889. A year later came Rev. D. H.
Colcord. a graduate of Amherst and of Andover Theological Seminary, who was
finally persuaded to surrender his pastorate at Monrovia for the teacher's toga, at
the head of the Latin Department. In 189Z Rev. A. D. Bissell and Professor
G. G. Hitchcock were added to the staff. The former, a graduate of Amherst and
of Yale Theological Seminary, came as Professor of German : the latter, a gradu-
ate of the University of Nebraska, came as Professor of Chemistry and Physics,
and later of Physics alone.
Two others should be named among those who helped to shape the early
course of the college as well as its later life. Professor Albert John Cook, who had
already gained an enviable reputation and many friends at ■Michigan Agricultural
College, his Alma ]\Iater, brought to Pomona a national prestige, and his helpful
influence was felt far beyond the college, especially among the farmer^ and horti-
culturists of the state, until, at the age of seventy, he accepted the post of State
Horticulturist. Professor George S. Sumner, son of Dr. C. B. Sumner, and a
member of the first graduating class in the college, returned after winning his
doctorate at Yale to teach in his .\lma Plater, and soon to establish himself not
only in his department of Economics, but as a strong leader in all the affairs of
the college.
While this force of teachers, with others who did not remain so long, were
moulding largely the internal life of the college, for it has always been peculiarly
democratic in its policy, the general administration of affairs was taken over, in
1890, by its first president. Dr. Cyrus G. Baldwin, a graduate of Oberlin and then
Professor of Latin in Ripon College. Plis coming marked a real advance in the
life of the institution, and indeed of the town. He was primarily a seeker after
men. First he sought the best men he could find for the faculty. Professors
Bissell, Hitchock and Cook, already mentioned, as well as Professor Frederick
Starr, later the noted anthropologist of Chicago, Professor Albert Shaw, Miss M.
E. Harris and Miss ]\Iary M. McLean (now Mrs. Richard Olney), lady princi-
pals, Miss Mary E. Allen, Professor and Mrs. Brannan and John Comfort Fill-
more, head of the School of ]\Iusic and an author of note in the musical world,
Mrs. Evangeline White Hardon, his niece, and also an instructor in voice here,
rare teachers all, and of the finest spirit, were selected by him. And he was a
seeker of men, too, in his relations with students, always striving to draw out the
best talent in each and develop that most effectively. Through his efforts some
increase was made in salaries. As the college entered technically upon its col-
legiate work, as distinct from academic or secondary, at a meeting of the trustees
held in the summer of 1890, Professor Norton and Professor Brackett were
officially elected to professorships, the former in Greek and the latter in Mathe-
matics. Other professorships followed. Through President Baldwin's influence
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 199
other families came to town. To the houses which Mr. Barrows and Professor
Brackett had built were now added those of President Baldwin (now Haddon
Hall), of Mrs. Jencks and Mrs. Tolman (north of Sixth on College), of Mrs.
Searle (only recently removed from east of Bridges Hall) ; and others still were
added because of the growth of the college. It was often said that President
Baldwin was a man of vision. This was true in a notable way in his espousal of
large material projects, sometimes too far ahead of the times. His proposed
electric road between Pomona and Claremont, which failed then of construction,
has since been realized. Plis transformation of. water power in San Antonio
Canyon into electricity and its transmission to the Valley, while unfortunate in
its financial issue, was a bold conception actually carried out, and is recognized in
the electrical world as the first long-distance transmission of electric power in this
country and one of the first three in the world. He was also a man of vision and
faith in the highest ideals in education, many of which have since been realized,
although he himself was unable to share in this issue because of financial distress
and, later, of physical disability.
It was during President Baldwin's administration that Holmes Ha'l was
built, as a memorial to Cyrus W. Holmes, Jr., by the gift of his wife and daughter,
parishioners and friends of Mr. Sumner in Monson, Mass. It was hoped that this
building, which was opened January 1, 1893, might accommodate the needs of the
college for chapel and recitation rooms for a long time, but it soon proved in-
adequate.
Pearsons Hall of Science, the gift of Dr. D. K. Pearsons, was erected dur-
ing the presidency of President Ferguson, who followed President Baldwin. At
the same time the president's residence was built at College Avenue and Fourth
Street.
After a period of unrest and dissatisfaction on the part of faculty, students
and constituency, another change in administration brought to the college President
George A. Gates. After a most successful administration of Iowa College, at
Grinnell, for thirteen years, he had been obliged to change his residence, to relieve
Mrs. Gates from the suffering of asthma, and had moved to Cheyenne, Wyo..
where he accomplished a notable constructive work, in church and town. Presi-
dent Gates came in 1902, in the prime of life, at the age of fifty-one, with ripe
experience and a circle of friends which was more than nation-wide. Seven years
later he was obliged to lay down his work, broken in health and disappointed in
his great ambitions, and, though still called to a last rare service at Fisk University,
yet with the final sentence of death upon him. For he was peculiarly an educator
and not a financier, and was crushed by the heavy burden of college finances.
Educated at Dartmouth, at x-\ndover Seminary and at a number of German univer-
sities, he brought not only the learning of the schools and a technical knowledge of
their conduct, but also a tremendous zeal in the education of young people, a deep
confidence in his students and his colleagues, and above all an absolute sincerity
and candor in all his relations with others. With such leadership the college
leaped forward. Both inside and outside of the college confidence was restored
■SO that, in his seven years of direction, the number of college students increased
from 100 to over 300, the number of teachers was nearly doubled, and the gradu-
ating class increased from eleven to forty-eight. New buildings arose on the
campus — Smiley Hall, the Carnegie Library and the Observatory. But more
valuable than buildings was the spiritual impress of his character upon the life of
200 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
the institution. This was well expressed in the resolutions adopted by the board
of trustees at the time of his retirement, which includes these words : "We recog-
nize, also, that under his leadership the college has made remarkable growth,
* * * but more than all we would give grateful expression to our sense of the
service that he has rendered to the college and to the broader interests of Christian
education, in his personal influence upon the young men and young women of the
institution. The moral earnestness and high idealism of the student body at
Pomona is so marked as to impress the most casual observer. * * *. This
inspiration of many student lives, even more than added buildings and campus,
will remain as his enduring contribution to the life of Pomona College."
A large measure of the success of the college has been due to the high pur-
pose, the constant interest and the large and real sacrifices of its board of trustees.
Among these have been a number of its own alumni. As has been truly said,
"They have been men of vision, men of faith, men of action." This has been
especially true of three who were members from the first, and whose service can
fairly be said to exceed that of any others. Of these three, Mr. Nathan W.
Blanchard and Mr. George W. Marston made some of the largest financial gifts
and bore some of the heaviest burdens, the former always being deeply con-
cerned in the welfare of the teaching staff. Mr. Marston, now for years president
of the board, and Dr. C. B. Sumner, its secretary from the first (and almost con-
tinuously), are the only members of the first board now living. For his leadership
in the beginnings of the college, in the first financial campaign, in the choice of
teachers and in the shaping of the purpose and policy of the institution. Doctor
Sumner may well be called the "Father of the College." And that title of respect
and affection has been deserved ever since in continuous service and sacrifice, in
supreme endeavor in many a time of crisis, and in loving interest and solicitude
to the present day.
While the function of the college is primarily the training of men and women
for high citizenship, yet it has also an immediate value to the town of its habita-
tion, and to a larger region as well, in such centers of influence as its Music Hall,
its library, its chapel and lecture rooms, its observatory, its experts in chemistry
and economics and other departments, and even in its Inn and Athletic Field. A
number of societies, organized at first within the college, are shared equally by
people of the town, such as the Rembrandt Club, the Astronomical Society, and
the "Cactus Club."
At this point we must leave this meager outline of the college story, already
brought much nearer to our own time than this history is supposed to run. The
Greater Pomona, greater in material equipment and resources, greater also in
numbers and in power, the new administration and new workers, all belong to a
later period and history.
Claremoxt Ixdustries, School .\Nn Church
The town of Claremont has kept pace with the college in its growtli. and
both have grown apace. This progress may well be symbolized by the eucalyptus
trees on College Avenue, planted by H. A. Palmer and the writer in 1889 — native
of other soil but transplanted to a Nature-favored spot, growing rapidly and
vigorously after the first period of handicap and nursing, young indeed as com-
pared with others that count their age by centuries, yet large and strong as they
are, and withal rugged and unsymmetrical, though not unbeautiful, and of marked
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 201
individuality, each unlike his fellows in appearance and character. Families with
children to educate have come to make themselves homes here, a score or more of
the faculty have built or acquired their own residences, others have been drawn
by the advantages of a college town, added to the rare natural attractions of
climate and location. The business has grown from the country store and post
office of John Urbanus, which stood on Yale near the corner where the St. Claire
Block is now, to forty or fifty places of business and offices. In business and
church matters Claremont long continued to retain close relations with Pomona.
Even now Claremonters go to Pomona for many things which the town does not
provide. In March, 1906, the Citizens State Bank of Claremont was organized,
with C. M. Parsons, L. N. Smith, George Jencks and F. E. Graham as directors,
and W. N. Beach cashier. In 1909 it was converted into the First National Bank
of Claremont; and on June 30, 1918, it was combined with the Claremont Na-
tional Bank, retaining the former name and moving to the fine new building of
the latter bank ; the latter having been organized in 1912, with J. T. Brooks, M. F.
and W. S. Palmer, A. W. Towne and L. N. Smith as directors. The oldest
business in the city is the book and drug store of Mr. O. H. Duvall, who as a
student in the college began to sell books for the students in a room in Holmes
Hall. During most of the time he was also the village postmaster, and until Mr.
Cree had become so well known and liked, it was thought that no one else could
fill the place.
The chief industry in Claremont, as in other foothill towns, is the citrus
industry. Though not so widely known for its oranges as are two or three other
towns, yet even in this it has a certain distinction. As pointed out in a previous
chapter, the first direct system of marketing fruit cooperatively was that of the
Claremont California Fruit Growers Association, and their leading brand was
the "Indian Hill" brand, registered at the United States Patent Office. This
association was also the first to advertise its fruit abroad, sending a box to Queen
Victoria in April, 1893, by fast freight over the Santa Fe to New York and thence
by fast steamer to Liverpool. A cordial letter of acknowledgment was received
from the Queen in reply. From this first company, packing its fruit on the north
platform of the Santa Fe station, the industry has grown in area of orange groves
and number of ranchers, until now it requires three associations to market the
fruit — El Camino Citrus Association and the Claremont Citrus Association, each
with its large packing house, and the College Heights Orange Association with
two, one for oranges and one for lemons. Among the successful orange growers
of Claremont is Mr. B. A. Woodford, the efficient general manager of the Cali-
fornia Fruit Growers Exchange, from the time of its organization (following the
Southern California Fruit Exchange) almost to the present time.
Some indication of the material advance in the Claremont district is afforded
by the assessment totals, which increased from $204,718 in 1894 to $2 104,448
in 1915.
Claremonters await with joyous interest the weekly issue of the Courier, its
one paper, which is more than a newspaper, unique perhaps in the history of local
journalism, because the peculiar expression of an untrammeled editorial mind.
Claremont was peculiarly fortunate from the first in its grammar school
building and teachers. The attractive building was put up in the boom days as a
union schoolhouse for the La Verne and Claremont school districts. Among the
early teachers were Mr. Nelson Seaver, Miss Elizabeth Palmer, daughter of H. A.
202 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Palmer, and long a valued teacher in the Los Angeles High School, and Miss Lulu
Snook (now Mrs. F. P. Firey of Pomona). The one who served longest as prin-
cipal of the grammar school, identifying himself vitally with the life in the earlier
years, was Mr. Herbert Patten, who came from Redlands with his wife, beloved
of both towns, to take the position. With his fine ideals and his deep affection
and concern for all his boys and girls, he made a strong impress not only upon
their lives but upon the whole community. As the town has grown, of course the
schools have required new buildings, a grammar school, well designed for utility
and to harmonize with the sycamores about it, and a high school, modern and
convenient and fairly well equipped.
In one respect certainly Claremont is unique, among California towns of its
size, if not anywhere in the country. Thus far a single church has served the
needs of the community. Some have gone elsewhere to church on Sundays, but a
large part of the church-going people, and they are a good proportion of the popu-
lation, are content to attend the Claremont church. Though Congregational in its
associations and confessed faith, yet it is so broadly catholic in spirit that people
of all denominations unite cordially in its public worship, its school and its social
life. For a time those who were associated with the college continued to attend
the church in Pomona, making the weary trip in the old college bus every Sunday,
in dust or in mud. Then, in 1891, a group of forty-nine, many of them from the
Pomona Church, organized the Claremont Church. ]\Ir. C. B. Sumner added the
pastorate of this little flock to his other duties, and services were held in the dining
room of Sumner Hall, until Holmes Hall was built and its chapel was available.
In spite of distracting surroundings and associations, this ministry was very
strong and helpful. Then followed Rev. W. H. JMcDougal, a rare spirit and a
most sympathetic pastor ; Rev. H. W. Jones, fine gentleman and scholar, who in
the days of his vigor was pastor of one of the leading churches in New England ;
Rev. H. N. Kinney, whose brief term was so full of the finest service to the church
and college, and whose wife, since his death, has recognized no distinction between
church and college and town in her continued usefulness to all. In May, 1900,
Dr. Henry Kingman began his service of nearly twenty years. During this time
the church building has been erected and the church has become one of the largest
in the State. Rarely is a small town or college church so fortunate in the leader-
ship of one whose scholarship and ability are so high.
Some years before incorporating as a municipality the people of Claremont
effected a town organization, known as the "Town of Claremont," with selectmen,
clerk and treasurer, and adopted regulations and ordinances. Incorporation was
not accomplished without much honest opposition, especially from neighboring
ranchers. Other contests have arisen at times, as over the location of the high
school, the voting of bonds, and political campaigns, yet the place has been
unusually free from local quarrels and the "town versus gown" spirit which exists
in so many college towns is happily very little in evidence.
Though small in numbers, Claremont has always had a good number of un-
selfish and capable citizens to serve the people as officers and as members of boards
controlling public utilities, but the list is too long to enumerate.
Edmund [Mitchell, the English novelist, once wrote of Claremont : "Many
countries have I seen, many cities visited. But no spot so quickly or completely
captivated me as this college town among the orange groves."
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 203
IN CONCLUSION
The history of this \'alley holds valuable lessons for its future. The nature
of its growth, the development of its industries, the character of its people, are
all significant. Nature has ordained that the way of the future, like that of the
past, shall lie in agriculture rather than in manufacture. She invites especially
those who would learn to receive her more immediate gifts of field and orchard,
rather than those who prefer the noise of machinery, the rush of the street and the
excitement of the exchange.
Some who are not invited will continue to be attracted to this region. Those
who seek here a climate which cures many ills and offers a new lease of life — ■
invalids of all sorts and of every degree of need, and elderly people who after lives
of hard work rejoice in lighter toil amid happier surroundings ; tourists who work
in the East, and spend their winters (and a little money) here in play; retired
capitalists who would acquire large estates on which to build beautiful residences,
dividing their time and interest between this and other resorts — all these will wish
to come in the future, as in the past. Nor should they be refused, so long as they
contribute to the welfare of the community, in some measure suitably propor-
tionate to their ability and their means. Others — the grafters who find it easier
here than elsewhere to live the life of a leech upon mankind, the foreigners who
will not become assimilated as loyal Americans, the hobos, and the criminals of
worse ilk — should be denied. In all of these, whether their object in coming be
worthy or unworthy, there is much of menace. Not by them has the growth of
the country been advanced or its character determined.
The progress of industries in the Valley indicates still more clearly the call
of the future. The worthy purpose and industry of the Missions first lifted the
country out of its native ignorance and savagery. Somewhat unrelated to this,
and somewhat more primitive, was the simple, wild life of the early ranchers,
herding cattle and shipping to market their hides and tallow. With the raising of
grain came a higher type of life, lifting also the stock raising to a higher plane.
Then came the vineyards and deciduous fruits, and again a distinct advance in the
average intelligence of the people, as more knowledge and more intensive effort
were required to develop these products. Finally, the citrus industry marks the
highest development in the agricultural and horticultural growth of the Valley.
Under its stimulation and compulsion, notable achievements have been made in
other directions, as in the development and conservation of water, the transforma-
tion and transmission of power, in the field of engineering ; as also in the principle
of cooperative marketing in the field of economics. The high intelligence and
determination to overcome difficulties, required for successful conduct of the citrus
industry, have in turn raised this occupation from an ordinary trade to a science,
and indeed to an art.
In short, the Valley calls for workers and producers, Nature-lovers of deter-
mined purpose and high intelligence. To such it offers full scope for their powers
and ample returns for their investment and effort. As in the past, so in the
future, the successful growth of the country depends upon the intelligent industry
of earnest, bona fide citizens, striving honestly and diligently to develop the re-
sources of the country in democratic cooperation, at the same time attentive to
the best teaching of school and church.
BIOGRAPHICAL
"LET Till': Ki;c(iRii IU-; mauk of Till-: mkx axd tiiixcs ok today,
LEST Tiii'.v I'ASS (irr of mic.mokv tomorrow and ARI-; lost, then,
PERPKTiATi; tiii:m xot ri'ox wood or sroxi-: iiiat crumble to
dust. KL;T upon P.VPLK. CHRUXICLKU I.X PlCTLRE A.XD IX WORDS
THAT ENDURE I-ORE\"ER."
"A TRUE DELINEATION OF THE SiMALLEST MAN AND HIS SCENE
OF PILGRIMAGE THROUGH LIFE IS CAPABLE OF INTERESTING THE
GREATEST MAN. ALL MEN ARE TO AN UNMISTAKABLE DEGREE
BROTHERS. EACH MAN'S LIFE A STRANGE EMBLEM OF E\'ERY MAN'S;
AND HUMAN PORTRAITS, FAITHFLILLY DR.WVN, ARE. OF ALL PICTURES,
THE WELCOMEST ON HUMAN \\U\hhS."
—Thomas Carlyle.
.^^M^S^UAAAJA^
BIOGRAPHICAL
HON. ALVAN TYLER CURRIER
It may be doubted if any resident of the Pomona Valley is more
widely known throughout California than the subject of this article.
Certainly none has wielded a more potent influence in affairs that
make for the upbuilding of a community and the development of its
resources. For this reason, therefore, especial interest attaches to
the record of his life, which is the story of a man who came to Cali-
fornia poor in purse, but rich in expectation and in hope; a man of
invincible determination and tireless energy, fitted by inherited endow-
ments and early training for large responsibilities in the business
world and in public affairs.
The management of his varied interests makes Mr. Currier a
very busy man. The most important object of his care is his large
alfalfa, grain, stock and fruit ranch, comprising 2500 acres, situated
five miles west of Pomona, just off the Southern Pacific stations of
Spadra and Walnut. Here a considerable portion of Mr. Currier's
time is spent. His energy is such that he is constantly at work, direct-
ing, superintending and managing every department of the farm work;
this, too, although there is no longer the necessity of hard work there
was in earlier years. His ranch is watered by artesian wells, thus
solving for him the sometimes vexing water problem. In every
respect it shows the painstaking care of the owner and his intelligent
supervision.
In Franklin County, Maine, Mr. Currier was born, April 30,
1840, a son of Alvan and Nancy (Clough) Currier, natives of Maine.
His paternal ancestors are said to have been French, and his maternal
ancestors were of English and Scotch extraction. His father, who
was a son of Samuel Currier, of Cobb's Hill, Maine, served as a State
Senator in Maine and held other official positions. The subject of
this article was reared in Maine and received his education principally
at the Farmington Academy. For a short time he taught school. On
reaching his majority he started out in the world for himself, and in
the winter of 1861-62 he saw California for the first time. However,
he did not remain here, but went to Idaho and mined for gold and
silver.
In the fall of 1867 he left Idaho and returned to California.
Soon, however, he went back to Maine to visit his relatives and
friends, and in the spring of 1868 he came via the Isthmus of Panama
from New York to San Francisco. Altogether he has crossed the
Isthmus three times. In the spring of 1869 he came to Los Angeles
County and purchased the ranch where he still makes his home.
212 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Politically Mr. Currier has been an active factor in the Repub-
lican party, and is counted one of its local leaders. In 1881 he was
elected sheriff of Los Angeles County, which office he filled for two
years. In 1898 he was elected to the State Senate from the Thirty-
eighth California district. As a senator he manifested the deepest
interest in the welfare of his constituents. He gave his influence to
measures for the benefit of the people and the development of the
state's magnificent resources. No one has had a greater faith in Cali-
fornia than he, and his faith in its future has been unshaken by re-
verses. With the keen, far-seeing eye of the pioneer, he has discerned
the wonderful opportunities the country holds, and has never regretted
casting his lot in with the people of this Valley, for his career here has
been a prosperous one. In addition to his other interests, he is a
director in the First National Bank of Pomona; a director in the San
Antonio Fruit Exchange; was president of the San Antonio Canyon
Water Company; was one of the organizers and is president of the
Walnut Fruit Growers Association at Walnut; is president of the Odd
Fellows Hall Association of Pomona and has been a member of the
Odd Fellows Lodge for many years. He was one of the organizers
of, is president and a director of the Los Angeles County Farmers'
Mutual Insurance Company, one of the most creditable institutions in
the state, organized September 19, 1899. This company has never
levied an assessment and charges about one-half of the old line com-
panies' rates, has over $11,000,000 insurance in force and $45,000 on
hand. This is one of the mutual institutions of the state that has
attracted wide attention for its method of doing business and reflects
great credit on Mr. Currier's forethought and good judgment. •
On March 20, 1881, Senator Currier married Mrs. Susan
(Glenn) Rubottom, of Spadra, and she is an active member of the
Baptist Church of Pomona and a liberal contributor to all religious
and philanthropic enterprises. She shares with her husband the
esteem and sincere regard of a wide circle of friends in Los Angeles
County.
In Los Angeles Senator Currier is best known as the owner of
the Currier Block, a large office building at 212 West Second Street.
This structure is fitted with all the conveniences of a modern public
building, and to the management of this building and property the
Senator gives some of his attention.
Mr. Currier has been a liberal contributor to the University of
Redlands, and is a director of the institution. He has been a member
of the Baptist Church for many years and a trustee ever since the
church was moved to Pomona, and has been a generous contributor
to the church funds for the modern building and other purposes. He
also showed his interest in young men by donating one-half the value
of the lot, some $15,000, on which the new Young Men's Christian
Association building will stand in Pomona, and in every way he has
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 213
showed his generous nature towards all Avorthy enterprises for the
upbuilding of the Valley and County, and in his retrospect of a life
well spent he can retire with the knowledge that he has done his full
share in making this section a better place in which to live.
RAMON VEJAR
If membership in one of the notable pioneer families of Southern
California means anything in these matter-of-fact times — and we
believe that there are many Americans who, more and more, are
appreciating historic associations — then may the family and descend-
ants of Ramon Vejar regard with pride the story of his life, work and
accomplishment. He was born at San Gabriel Mission on December
24, 1830, the grandson of Salvador Vejar, the founder in California
of the noted circle of that name. Salvador, in turn, was a native of
Spain and came to Mexico, and later came north across the border
to California to assist in building the Spanish Missions. He was
employed, for example, in the erection of the San Gabriel Mission,
founded by the Mission Fathers on September 8, 1771, and he also
worked on the Church at the Plaza in Los Angeles. At the time of
his death, he was very aged; while his wife, who was Josef a Lopez
before her marriage, lived to be 103 years old. Their children were:
Magdalena, Pablo, Ricardo, Emilio, Chrisostomo, Lazaro, Francisco,
Nazaria, Ramona and Jose Manuel.
Ricardo, the father of the subject of our review, was a native of
San Diego, and became a wealthy cattle and land owner, accumulating
13,000 acres and hundreds of cattle and horses in the Pomona Valley.
His house stood near the site of the present Louis Phillips homestead,
and was built In the adobe style of those days. He also had two
stores, through which he supplied the necessaries of life to those living
remote from towns. The Indians in his neighborhood were friendly,
but there was trouble enough with the redskins that came down from
over the mountains, and stole such cattle as they could lay their hands
upon. Wild animals were plenty, but of no use until, through labor
and expense, they had been somewhat tamed — if tamed they could be.
Ricardo married Maria Soto, and their union was blessed with eight
children. Maria was the eldest; then came Pilar Francisco, Ramon,
Josefa, Antonio, Concepcion, Magdalena, and Ygnacio, the youngest.
The third in the order of birth, Ramon, who is still living at the
old ranch at the age of eighty-nine years, received 278 acres as his
share of the estate, and this land he farmed for many years, making
of some of it a first-class vineyard. His wife, now deceased, was
Teresa Palomares before her marriage, and she was a daughter of
Ygnacio Palomares, distinguished in the annals of that pioneer family,
after whom the town of Palomares was named. It was this pros-
214 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
pective town, Harris Newmark, the observant pioneer, tells us in his
brimful "Sixty Years in Southern California," that was widely adver-
tised during the "Boom" of 1887 through a flaming poster: "Grand
Railroad Excursion and Genuine Auction Sale ! No Chenanekin !
Thursday, June 7, 1887. Beautiful Palomares, Pomona Valley!
Lunch, Coffee, Lemonade, and Ice Water Free! Full Band of
Music." Ramon and Teresa Vejar had twelve children, including
Jose, Zolio (deceased), Ricardo, who lives in South Pasadena,
Maggie, who is at home, Frank Z., Constancia, the wife of P. S.
Yorba, of Yorba, Orange County, Ygnacio, Estella, at home, Ramon,
Abraham, Carolina (also deceased), and Riginaldo, who lives on the
home place.
Frank Z. Vejar is a native of Spadra, where he was born on
February 5, 1864, and attended the first school in that district. It
was on his father's ranch, and was taught by P. C. Tonner, secretary
of the first teachers' institute, in 1870, ever held in Los Angeles
County. Mr. Vejar is now located on a ranch of 100 acres, a part
of the old Palomares ranch, which he has developed, through his pro-
gressive and scientific methods, and brought to a high state of cultiva-
tion. He has sunk two wells, and installed a fine electric pumping
plant, and set out twenty-two acres to walnuts, now ten years old, from
which he procured in 1918 nine tons of nuts and in 1919 over fourteen
tons. Besides this he has planted a new walnut grove of forty acres
south of the Pacific Electric tracks, and between the nut trees he has
planted rows of peaches. He raises alfalfa and cultivates grapes; and
he makes a success of all that he undertakes. Mr. and Mrs. Vejar
also own valuable business property in Pomona, including the Vejar
block, which they built on Main Street, between Second and Third
streets, as well as a 741-acre ranch at Corona.
When FVank Vejar married, November 20, 1892, in Yorba, he
took for his wife Miss Frances Yorba, a native of Santa Ana in
Orange County, and a descendant of the famous old Yorba family, of
pure Spanish extraction. At one time her folks owned 165,000 acres
in what is now Orange County, grants given the pioneer Yorba by the
indulgent King of Spain. Contrary to the tale often told of such
early ranchers and the fate of their princely holdings, there are still
some 1 1,000 acres of this original grant that are owned by four mem-
bers of the Yorba family, and all are cultivated. Mr. and Mrs. Frank
Vejar have had two daughters. Theresa died at age of four, and
Grace is the wife of W. M. Pipkin, and they have. a daughter
named Frances Joyce. The family attend the Roman Catholic Church
and Mr. Vejar belongs to Pomona Lodge No. 789 of the Elks and
also the Knights of Columbus. The Vejar family, therefore, preserve
in a very interesting way the traditions of more than one line among
the builders of California.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 215
LOUIS PHILLIPS
Well deserving to be held in long and pleasant remembrance as
one of the sturdy pioneers who helped to fashion and build the great
commonwealth of California, and who was especially a leader and
controlling factor in Los Angeles and parts of the Southland, Louis
Phillips, who came to the Golden State in 1850, passed away at his
home at Spadra on March 16, 1900. He was born in Germany on
April 22, 1829, and when only thirteen years of age crossed the ocean
to America with an elder brother. For seven years, he followed
mercantile life in Louisiana, and then with a party of friends, he
bought a sailing vessel and came 'round the Horn to San Francisco.
He tried his luck at mining, but without success; and then, with a
brother, Fitel, he opened a little store for the sale of general mer-
chandise on the Long Wharf in the Bay City. Dissatisfied with that
venture, he sold out to his brother, came south and located in Los
Angeles, where he again engaged in general mercantile trade; after
which he bought a portion of the so-called San Antonio ranch on the
San Gabriel River, a fine stretch of several thousand acres, on which
for ten years he farmed and raised stock. In 1863, he removed to
Spadra, then in the San Jose, now in the Pomona Valley, and bought
12,000 acres of the San Jose Rancho. Three years later, on October
18, 1866, Mr. Phillips was married to Esther A. Blake, a native of
Illinois and the daughter of William and Joyce A. Blake, who crossed
the plains to California with her parents and settled in the San Jose
Valley; an attractive woman enjoying a wide circle of friends, who
died at Spadra on December 1, 1918, the mother of four children —
Charles B., now deceased; George S. Phillips, of Pomona; Louis R.
Phillips, of Spadra, and Nellie B., an only daughter, now Mrs. A. F.
George of Los Angeles. Louis Phillips was an Odd Fellow and was
a charter member of Pomona Lodge No. 246.
As with all big California ranchos, the division of the property
of Louis Phillips was only a matter of time, and has been under
special consideration of late. The estate includes the Phillips ranch
of about 6,000 acres adjoining Pomona on the southwest, 1,500 acres
of which are as fine land as can be found in Southern California, and
as this is ripe for subdivision, the action is of vital importance to
Pomona.
This rancho of Louis Phillips has a romantic history closely
associated with early Spanish days in California; for it was a portion
of the original grant made by the King of Spain to the Palomares and
Vejar families. One of the early trails to California came over the
Cajon Pass, through San Bernardino, Cucamonga, and passed the
Phillips farm, and many a prairie-schooner party stopped there, some-
times overnight, often for a longer stay, and passengers by the stage
route to Yuma also traveled that way. Phillips raised cattle ^nd
216 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
sheep on a large scale, and during the shearing of the thousands of
sheep there were busy scenes such as will never again greet the eye
of the traveler. What relation this neighborly and large-hearted
rancher maintained to the rural life of this section may be gathered
from the late Harris Newmark's "Sixty Years in Southern Cali-
fornia," wherein he tells, among other things, of the early horse races.
"The peculiar character of some of the wagers," he says, "recalls to
me an instance of a later date when a native customer of Louis Phillips
tried to borrow a wagon, In order to bet the same on a horse race. If
the customer won, he was to return the wagon at once ; but if he lost, he
was to pay Phillips a certain price for the vehicle !"
According to Phillips' contemporary, just quoted, the history of
the San Jose Rancho in question had various twists and turns. Not
less than 22,000 acres made up the grant given to Ricardo
Vejar and Ygnacio Palomares by Governor Alvarado as early
as 1837, and when Luis Arenas joined the two partners about 1840,
Alvarado renewed his grant, tacking on a league or two of San Jose
land lying to the west and nearer to the San Gabriel Mountains.
Arenas, In time, disposed of his Interest to Henry Dalton; and Dalton
joined Vejar in applying to the courts for a partitioning of the estate.
This division was ordered by the Spanish Alcalde In the late forties;
but Palomares still objected to the decision, and the matter dragged
along in the tribunals many years, the decree finally being set aside
by the court. It Is a curious fact that not until the San Jose Rancho
had been so cut up that it was not easy to trace it back to the original
grantees, did the authorities at Washington finally issue a patent to
Dalton, Palomares and Vejar for the 22,000 acres which In the
beginning made up the ranch.
The great land domain also had Its tragedies, one of which Is
narrated. In his interesting manner, by Harris Newmark. "In 1864,"
he says, "two Los Angeles merchants, Louis Schleslnger and Hyman
TIschler, owing to the recent drought foreclosed a mortgage on
several thousand acres of land known as the Ricardo Vejar property,
lying between Los Angeles and San Bernardino. Shortly after this
transaction, Schlesinger was killed on his way to San Francisco, in
the Ada Hancock explosion; after which TIschler purchased Schles-
inger's Interest In the ranch and managed It alone. In January,
TIschler Invited me to accompany him on one of the numerous excur-
sions which he made to his newly-acquired possession, but, though
I was inclined to go, a business engagement interfered and kept me
in town. Poor Edward Newman, another friend of TIschler, took
my place. On the way to San Bernardino from the rancho, the
travelers were ambushed by some Mexicans, who shot Newman
dead. It was generally assumed that the bullets were intended for
TIschler, In revenge for his part in the foreclosure; at any rate, he
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 217
would never go to the ranch again, and finally sold it to Don Louis
Phillips, on credit, for $30,000. The inventory included large herds
of horses and cattle, which Phillips (during the subsequent wet season)
drove to Utah, where he realized sufficient from their sale alone to
pay for the whole property. Pomona and other important places now
mark the neighborhood where once roamed his herds."
JOSE DOLORES PALOMARES
There is scarcely a resident of the eastern part of Los Angeles
County to whom the name of Palomares is unfamiliar. Particularly
is this true of those who are acquainted with the early history of the
county. At a very early day the family became established here,
having come from Mexico and originally from Spain, of which country
they belonged to the nobility. The representative of the family whose
name introduces this sketch and who was a well-known citizen of
La Verne, traces his lineage to Don Juan Leocadio Palomares, of
Sonora, Mexico, who married Dona Maria Antonia Gonzales de
Zayas and had an only son, Cristobal. As a sergeant in the
Mexican army the latter became connected with the military affairs
of his native land. In the early days he identified himself with the
pioneers of the then straggling hamlet of Los Angeles, where he
served as judge and built a home on the present site of the Arcade
depot. When quite advanced in years he passed away, thus closing
a career that had been long and intimately associated with the pioneer
history of the City of the Angels. By his marriage to Benedita Saiz
he had the following-named children: Concepcion, Barbara, Rosario,
Francisco, Ygnacio, of the Rancho San Jose, Louise, Dolores, Maria
Jesus and Josefa.
The fourth member of this family, in order of birth, was Fran-
cisco, who was born in 1806 and grew to manhood amid the primitive
surroundings of his California home. During his entire life he devoted
himself to farming, much of the time making his home in San Jose,
where he had a ranch with large numbers of cattle and horses. At the
time of his death he was eighty-three. His wife, Margarita (Pacheco)
Palomares, had died in 1857 when fifty-two years of age. They were
the parents of the following-named children: Benedita, Maria Jesus,
Christopher, Rosalio, Jose Dolores (the subject of this article), Con-
cepcion and Francisco.
In the sketch of Porfirio Palomares, on another page, will be
found further mention of the family genealogy and a record of the
descent as traced from the go\'ernor of the castle of St. Gregory, at
Oran, Spain. Jose Dolores Palomares was born in San Jose, Cal.,
March 24, 1841, and was reared to a knowledge of farm affairs.
Selecting agriculture for his life work, he turned his attention to
218 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
farming in the Calaveras Valley and also had ten years of experience
in ranching in Santa Clara County. A later venture was the real
estate business, which occupied six years, and afterward he spent three
years carpentering at Contra Costa. In 1876 he came to La Verne,
where he owned a valuable farm and gave his attention to a super-
vision of his interests. In 1882 he erected a commodious house and
barn, planted fruit trees of various kinds and a vineyard. He died
in about 1909. By his marriage to Sarafina Macias, daughter of
Estaban Macias of Mexico, he had nine children, namely: Porfirio,
Maggie, Chonita, Francisco, Arturo, Emilia, Rosa, Issavel and
Ernestine.
JAMES M. FRYER
A successful rancher and a devoted member of the Baptist
Church, who has the honor of being the son of a pioneer settler and
preacher of the Word of God, is James M. Fryer, who was born in
Conway County, Ark., June 25, 1847, the son of Rev. Richard C.
and Caroline (Veazey) Fryer, both natives of Alabama. Richard
Fryer crossed the plains to California with ox teams in 1852, there
being seventy-five wagons in their train. He had with him his wife
and four children; they encountered troublesome Indians and were
seven months on the trip, finally drawing up at El Monte, Los Angeles
County, in the- fall of 1852. There he took a squatter's right and
farmed the land. He was ordained as a minister of the Baptist
Church and preached the Gospel; and as the only minister for miles
around he both married and buried many. In 1867 he located at
Spadra, when there were only three white families in the Valley, and
bought 250 acres of land which he farmed. There were no trees
then — all was a vast plain. While here Richard Fryer was very prom-
inent in the affairs of the community and by reason of his superior
ability and intellectual qualities he was honored by frequent selection
to occupy positions of honor. In 1857 he was elected to the office
of county supervisor, which he filled with efficiency, and he served a
term as a member of the lower house of the California legislature In
1870 and 1871. After several years' residence at Spadra he sold out
his interests there and moved to Los Angeles, where he passed away.
Eleven children were born to this worthy couple, James M. being the
third child.
James obtained his early education at the public schools at El
Monte and in 1867 he began life for himself, buying fifty acres of
land at Spadra, later adding more acreage, so that he now owns 112
acres. For a while he engaged in grain farming. Becoming Inter-
ested In horticulture he set out an orchard of walnuts and oranges,
devoting thirty acres to Valencia and Navel oranges and forty acres
(5^
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 221
to walnuts. In all this ranching he has been very successful. For
many years he served as a trustee of the San Jose school district, now
the Spadra school district, being clerk of the board of trustees. Polit-
ically a Democrat, he has always been very active in the political
circles of the community. In 1878 he served as justice of the peace
of his township and during President Cleveland's first administration
he was appointed postmaster of Spadra, a position which he held for
several years, being exceedingly popular with all classes of people,
irrespective of party ties.
Mr. Fryer was married on November 20, 1870, to Miss Isabel
Arnett, a native of Mississippi. There were born six children, two
of whom are living. Bertha has become the wife of A. A. Salisbury,
and she has one son, James. They reside at San Bernardino. Roy
M. is a graduate of the University of California; he taught in the
Oroville and Santa Rosa high schools and was later head of the science
department of the Sacramento high school. His marriage united
him with Minerva Biller, and they have two sons — Edward M. and
Robert R. He now resides at Spadra and assists his father in the
care of his ranch.
The Baptist Church at Spadra was organized by Mr. Fryer's
father, and James Fryer is the only living charter member. Later
the church was moved to Pomona and he has officiated as chalrma.n
of the board of trustees since that time. An Interesting chapter in
the life story of the Fryers associates them with popular education In
an enviable manner. According to the Pomona Bulletin, after serving
in the Spadra school district for the past forty-two years, J. M. Fryer,
who has been called the "father of his school," resigned his position
and his place was filled by the election of his son, Roy Fryer. In
referring to his long term as director on the district school board-
Mr. Fryer spoke interestingly of the many changes he has seen take
place.
"I became a director soon after the Spadra school district was
formed," he said, "and at that time there were about 100 children in
the district. Soon after I became a member of the board a new
school building was erected, the same building which is now In use.
There are now very few children in the district. You see, years ago
as the people began to settle in this vicinity all of them had large
families and the children attended the Spadra school. But when the
children grew up they scattered out into other places, leaving the old
folks at home. None of them wanted to sell their land, for thev think
It Is good enough for them, so there has been but little opportunity for
families with children of school age to locate in this district during the
more recent years." During the time, continues the writer in the
Bulletin, that Mr. Fryer has held the position of school board director
he has given generously of his time and has served faithfully and with
great satisfaction to his district.
HISTORY AXD lUOGRAPHY
PORFIRIO PALOMARES
The Palomares family of California is descended from Don
Francisco de Palomares, governor of the castle of St. Gregory at
Oran, Spain. In his family there were six children, namely, Esteban,
who was lieutenant-colonel of the Knights of the Order of Santiago;
Don Juan, who became governor of the castle after his father's death;
Don Antonio, who was a judge; Don Jose; Eugenio, who lost his life
as a result of his attempts to overthrow the Catholic religion; and
Dona Francisca, who married Don Diego Francisco, Knight of the
Order of Santiago and governor of the plaza of Oran. The second
of the sons, Captain Juan, is remembered in the history as the officer
who led his men in a determined but hopeless resistance against the
Turkish troops at Borcha. After the majority of his troops had been
slain, not being able to defend himself and the castle, he set fire to the
powder house or depository, and blew up the castle, beneath whose
ruins the dead bodies of himself and his men were later found.
Tracing the history of the family down toward the present, we
find another Don Francisco de Palomares, a well-known citizen of
Toledo, Spain. His children were Don Francisco, who was clerk
of the city of Madrid; Donicio, Maria Josefa and Juan Leocadio.
The last-named crossed the ocean from Spain to Mexico and estab-
lished a home in Sonora, where he married Dona Maria Antonia
Gonzales de Zayas, sister of Father Elias, an influential priest. Their
only son, Juan Francisco, was born in Sonora, and became the father
of the following children: Herman, Antonia, Juana, Francisca, Pro-
cofio, Almara, Tranquilina, Fiburcio, Manuel, Ygnacio and Jesus.
Among the children of Manuel was Juan Leocadio, by whose marriage
to Maria Antonio Gonzales was born an only child, Cristobal. The
latter came to Los Angeles as a sergeant in the Mexican army and
afterward served as judge of Los Angeles. His residence stood on
the present site of the Arcade depot. By his marriage to Benedita Saiz
he had the following chik^ren: Concepcion, Barbara, Rosario, Fran-
cisco, Ygnacio, Louise, Dolores, Maria Jesus and Josefa. Of this
family Ygnacio married Concepcion Lopez, and their children were
Louise, Teresa, Tomas, Francisco, Manuel, Josefa, Concepcion, Caro-
line and Maria. The second of the sons, Francisco, at an early age
secured employment as assistant on a ranch. Later he became a large
property owner and wealthy cattleman. It is said that for years he
was the largest land owner in all of the Pomona Valley, and over his
fields roamed thousands of cattle and horses. Eventually he carried
fewer heads of stock, but of a higher grade. On the ground where
the home of Mr. Nichols now stands he built a large adobe house, and
here the happiest days of his life were passed, in the society of his
family and the many friends whom his genial qualities had drawn to
him. In those days there was an abundance of rain, consequently the
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 223
pastures were in excellent condition for the stock. Little land was
cultivated. Indians were numerous, but did no damage except to steal
cattle occasionally. Wild game abounded, and the sportsman found
rare pleasure In hunting the deer, antelope, bears and wolves with
which the remote valleys were filled. Little did those pioneers dream
of the wonderful transformation of the present; some of them lived
to witness many of the changes wrought by the incoming of American
settlers, and Francisco was among them. The increase in the values
of land caused him to dispose of much of his property, and his last
days were spent in retirement from business. He was one of the
leading Democrats of his day and locality and for some time filled
the office of supervisor. In religion he was of the Catholic faith. He
died in 1882 when forty-six years of age, leaving a wife and four
children. The former was Lugarda Alvarado, a native of Los
Angeles, and who died June 14, 1896, at the age of fifty-six years.
The children were Concepcion, who married Eduardo Avila ; Chris-
tina; Francisco, who married Virginia Miller; and Porfirio, who forms
the subject of this article.
When the estate was divided Porfirio Palomares received seventy-
six acres for his share, of which amount he afterward sold twenty-nine
acres. At this writing he owns 191 acres of excellent land where he
raises alfalfa for feed. In addition he is the possessor of forty-three
acres in San Diego County, the whole forming what is known as the
Montserrat Ranch. His attention is devoted to a general farming
business and to the management of his vineyard. On his place will
be seen a substantial set of buildings, provided with the modern equip-
ments. Like his father, he is a Roman Catholic in religion and a
Democrat in politics. With his wife, Hortense, daughter of Vicente
Yorba of Orange County, he has a large circle of friends throughout
Southern California, and is regarded as a worthy descendant of
Spanish nobility.
MRS. FRANCES ADA PATTEN
Among the teachers of the Golden State who have contributed
definitely, permanently and mightily to its development as a great
commonwealth is Mrs. Frances Ada Patten, a pioneer instructor in
both Pomona and Los Angeles. A native daughter well worthy of
her birthright, Mrs. Patten was born at Gold Lake, Sierra County, on
July 3, 1860, the daughter of Joseph D. and Catherine E. (Shaw)
Connor, who came to California in June, 1857. The name was orig-
inally O'Connor, but when the family located in Southern California
they dropped the "O." For a while Mr. Connor engaged in the
uncertain ventures of a miner; then he purchased a resort at Gold
Lake and afterward wandered all over the state. Mrs. Connor, a
member of the Shaw family of Texas, was a school teacher, and
a sketch of her life is found in the annual publication of 1913 of
224 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Los Angeles County pioneers. Coming to Los Angeles in 1870, Mr,
Connor prospected over a wide area among the mining camps, was
engaged in contracting and building and also opened the first fish
market in Los Angeles. He built all the stations for the mule-team
trains that hauled freight for Mr. Nadeau between Los Angeles
and Independence, and in the latter place Mrs. Connor taught school.
Mr. Connor died in 1875 and she passed away in 1912 at San Fran-
cisco. She was a sister of M. W. Shaw of Galveston, Texas, and was
a member of a family that had lived there since 1847 and had become
prominent, and they are represented in Green and Bancroft's History
of Texas.
There were seven children born to Mr. and Mrs. Connor, four
boys and three girls, and Frances Ada was the second oldest child.
She was educated in the public schools and was a member of the class
of '78 — the fourth class graduated from the Los Angeles high school.
The same year she received a certificate to teach from the county
school authorities. For a year she taught school at Cucamonga, and
then was among the first teachers at Pomona, and remained here for
three and a half years, after which she was a teacher in the schools
of Los Angeles and was vice-principal of the Castellar Street school.
In May, 1875, the last old-fashioned public school May Queen
celebration was held in the Arroyo Seco on Pasadena Avenue. It had
all of the old trimmings and ceremonies. In an account of the celebra-
tion, it is spoken of as the Historical Picnic of Los Angeles, and Mrs.
Patten is referred to as the historical May Queen.
From the summer of 1885 until the entrance of the United States
into the World War, Mrs. Patten gave her time and attention to her
home and the rearing of her talented family, but she felt the call of
duty and did her bit by educational work from 1914 to 1918 in Ameri-
canizing foreigners, giving lectures to teachers and practical demon-
strations on that phase of work known as the Camp School. Her
program of industrial work included teaching English to foreign
mothers; and her song lessons were adopted by the California State
Immigration Commission and were published in Primer No. 1 1 for
Foreign Women, designed for use throughout the state.
On New Year's Day, 1883, at Los Angeles, Miss Connor was
married to Charles M. Patten, a native of Merrimac, Essex Count}',
Mass., where he was born on June 8, 1849. He was the son of
George Pickering and Sarah Elizabeth (Little) Patten and the family
descended from Colonial and Revolutionary stock. The father was
a carriage maker and for a time Charles M. Patten followed carriage
painting; but on coming to California in September, 1874, he engaged
in railroad work with the Southern Pacific. He was one of the train
crew that brought out the people for the auction of the first town lots
sold in Pomona, and fired on the train that went to the driving of the
gold spike at Lang Station, cementing Los Angeles with San Fran-
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 225
cisco. Now an invalid, he is retired on a pension and has the honor
of having been chief for ten successive years of his division lodge of
locomotive engineers. Mr. Patten is a descendant of William Patten
of Cambridge, Mass., the family history dating back to 1635, accord-
ing to Thomas W. Baldwin's Patten genealogy, and he is the first
of his line to establish the California branch of the family.
Mr. and Mrs. Patten are the parents of three sons and a
daughter: Francis Alan, an attorney of Los Angeles, graduated at
the Los' Angeles Polytechnic, read law with Judge Bordwell and was
admitted to the bar after a course in the Law School of the University
of Southern California. When the war broke out he gave up his
practice and entered the service and won promotion through merit as
regimental sergeant major in the judge advocate department at Camp
Lewis. He served from September 6, 1917, until his discharge, in
May, 1919. He is a member of the Delta Chi legal fraternity and
is a talented amateur violinist. James L. is a graduate of the Los
Angeles Polytechnic and the Law School of the University of Southern
California. He, too, was practicing law at the beginning of the war,
but enlisted in the second unit, Stanford Ambulance Corps; while in
France, December 3, 1917, he reenlisted in the United States Aviation
Corps and served as a second lieutenant until discharged, February
3, 1919. He is recognized as an orator and was the president of the
student body during his Polytechnic and University days; he is also
a natural musician and an especially fine performer on the flute. He
is a member of the Phi Delta Phi, Phi Gamma Delta, Ram's Head
Society, Chaparral and University Clubs. Clement Millard, called
"Jack" by his friends, is a graduate of Los Angeles high school and
was president of the student body there. He is now working his way
through Stanford University, and did his share of war work. Sarah
E., a graduate of Los Angeles high school and Los Angeles Poly-
technic, is the first young girl to graduate from the Law School of the
University of Southern California with the Master's degree. She has
made a specialty of sociological questions and gives promise of reach-
ing a high mark. She is married to Frank P. Doherty, who entered
the Second Officers' Training Camp, obtained a captain's commission,
was stationed at Camp Lewis from December, 1917, to June, 1918.
He went to France as captain of Machine Gun Company of the Three
Hundred Sixty-first Infantry, Ninety-first Division. He was promoted
to major for bravery in battle on September 29, 1918; he was in the
St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne salients, and on October 4, 1918, was
again cited for bravery, was wounded October 9, 1918, rejoined his
regiment in Belgium and was commander of the First Battalion of the
Three Hundred Sixty-first Infantry. He was discharged April 30,
1919, and is now practicing law in Los Angeles. Mr. and Mrs.
Doherty are the parents of three children : Frank Wilder, James Alan
and John Edmund.
226 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
CHARLES M. STONE
Prominent among the leading and successful citizens of Pomona
is Charles M. Stone, president of the First National Bank. Born in
Burlington, Vt., August 4, 1863, the son of Micah H. and Mary
(Gilmour) Stone, he was the second child in a family of six children.
Educated in the public schools of his native city, he was graduated
from the Burlington High School with the class of 1881. His first
position was with a large wholesale lumber company, but he gave this
up to become bookkeeper in the Merchants' National Bank of Bur-
lington, then the largest commercial bank in Vermont.
Mr. Stone resigned his position with the bank in December, 1887,
to come to Pomona, where for two years he was bookkeeper and
cashier for the Pomona Land and Water Company. He was then
offered the position of assistant cashier of the People's Bank of
Pomona, which he accepted. Later he became cashier and was elected
a director of the bank, retaining his position until the institution Avas
merged with The National Bank of Pomona, when Mr. Stone assumed
the responsible post of cashier of the consolidated institution. Resign-
ing this office in January, 1904, he became cashier of the First National
Bank, of which he was later made a director. In August, 1914, he was
elected vice-president, and in November, 1915, became president of the
bank and chairman of the board of directors.
This institution is the largest and strongest bank in the locality
and has been conspicuously Identified with the development of the
entire Pomona Valley. Supporting every worthy project that has had
for its aim the promotion of the best Interests of its citizens, and the
development of the resources of the community, the bank under the
guidance of Mr. Stone has made rapid strides, commensurate with
the increase of Pomona's growth in population, and now ranks with
any of Its size and capitallza'tlon in California. The position occupied
by the bank in the financial world Is due to the fact that its capable
officers, board of directors and employees ever work in harmony to
the end that the institution shall always be in the van of progress
In the diversified and helpful service it renders to its Increasingly
large clientele.
Mr. Stone was married in Pomona to Miss Mabel Buffington, a
native of Onawa, Iowa, and three children have been born to them.
Edmund Parker, the eldest, responded to the call of his country, be-
came a lieutenant In the United States Army, and is now employed
In the Wells Fargo Nevada National Bank of San Francisco; George
Gilmour, the second son, and Marian, the daughter, are students in
the Pomona High School.
Fraternally, Mr. Stone is a Knight Templar, a thirty-second
degree Mason and a Shrlner. He Is an active member of the Pomona
Chamber of Commerce, a director of the Savings Bank of Pomona;
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 227
the Southern Counties Gas Company; the Pomona Cemetery Associa-
tion; the Harold Bell Wright Picture-Story Corporation; the Cali-
fornia George Junior Republic; and the Masonic Temple Association
of Pomona. Mr. Stone has entered heartily into the development of
Southern California, especially of his adopted city and its environs,
where his influence is felt for good along many lines of activity and
where he holds an assured place as an efficient, progressive business
man and citizen.
WALTER SCOTT CARSON
Wonderful have been the changes in Pomona Valley witnessed
by Walter Scott Carson, the esteemed pioneer, who has given his best
efforts and years to build up and improve the former barren lands by
intensive farming. He was born near Chester, Randolph County,
111., July 14, 1860. His father, David Carson, was a native of Gallo-
way, Scotland, who after completing his early education went to sea
at sixteen years of age, and for sixteen years he sailed the briny deep,
passing through many hardships and exciting experiences as well as
narrow escapes. When thirty-two years of age he quit the salt water
and spent two years on the Mississippi River, when he settled down
in Randolph County, 111., and there he married Susan McLaughlin, a
native of North Carolina whose father also hailed from Scotland.
David Carson was an honest, industrious farmer and through his
years of work he acquired a competence. He was a great reader and
always well informed and stood high in the esteem of the whole
community. He died in 1872 and his wife three years later.
Of the eleven children born to this worthy couple all but one
grew up and seven are still living. Walter Scott was ninth in order
of birth and was reared on the Illinois farm and educated in the
schools of the vicinity. Being the oldest boy in the family it was
necessary for him to go to work from the time he was a lad, so when
he was only nine years old we find him driving a team in the fields; he
was always handy with horses, having no difficulty in handling them,
and this part of the farm work he always especially enjoyed. After
his mother's death the farm was sold, and he then went out into the
world to make his way. He continued working on farms during the
summers and attending school in the winters; during these years he
suffered much from chills and fever and he determined that as soon
as he was of age, when he would come into his inheritance, he would
migrate elsewhere, so in 1881 he started for California, arriving in
Pomona on August 18 of that year.
Pomona was then only a small village with two stores, a livery
barn, a blacksmith shop and a saloon. Mr. Carson found employment
under M. G. Rogers on a ranch, where he continued for a period of
two and a half years, when he went to work for the Pomona Land and
228 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Water Company. He began as a teamster, soon became foreman, and
then superintendent of all outside work for the last two years. In all
he served the company for five years, and during this time they sunk
artesian wells and had sixty flowing wells when he resigned to engage
in the real estate business in Pomona. Later he engaged in cement
contracting, building cement lines and reservoirs. While building the
reservoir on the Loop place at Claremont, Mr. Carson was waited
upon by a committee from the city council of Pomona, asking him to
accept the position of city marshal, the first incumbent of the office
having been requested to resign soon after taking the office.
Mr. Carson accepted the position and filled his term with zeal
and ability. However, he refused to be a candidate for reelection.
When he became city marshal there were sixteen saloons in Pomona,
but this number was reduced tp six .through making a high license
rate. The new jail was also built during this time and the cooler
dispensed with. After finishing his term of office he purchased a ten-
acre ranch on Cucamonga Avenue in North Pomona. He dug out the
vines and planted oranges, continuing there for three years when he
sold it; after this he teamed for one year and then bought six acres
at La Verne which he improved to olives and peaches and one acre
of lemons. When six years had passed he found that he had not
realized a dollar on the olives and peaches, so he dug them up and
set out oranges. He had watered the lemons for six years from a tank
filled by a windmill, and he then secured water from the ditch. He
also purchased twenty-two acres in La Verne; it had no water on it
and was set out to olives and prunes. In view of his former experience
he grubbed these out and planted oranges instead, watering them with
water hauled in a tank for two years. He then bored a well and
installed a pumping plant and water system, afterwards disposing of
the place. He then continued on his six acres and also purchased
thirteen and a half acres of raw land on the Base Line Road, which
he levelled and set out to oranges, at the same time building a residence
on the upper part of the place. Having sold the original six acres he
gave his time to his ranch in Live Oak Canyon, bringing it to a high
state of cultivation, when he sold it at a good profit, retaining his
residence. He now owns a small grove on Bradford Avenue which
he is caring for and building up with his customary zeal.
Mr. Carson's marriage, which occurred in Pomona, united him
with Rachel Van Zant Meredith, who was born in Pennville, Ind., and
who is a niece of L. C. Meredith of La Verne. They are members
of the Presbyterian Church of Pomona and prominent in its circles.
In politics Mr. Carson is an ardent Republican. It is to men of his
energy and perseverance that much of the present success of the orange
industry is due, for he, with other early pioneers, went through the
experimental stages, thus discovering the best and most successful crops
from a commercial standpoint for Pomona Valley.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 231
CALEB WHITE
Very few of the men who lived in Pomona were identified with
the history of California for a longer period than Caleb E. White.
,He was one of the '49ers who were led to cast in their lot with the
then unknown West at the time of the discovery of gold here. The
wonderful improvements that have brought this state to a foremost
position among the great commonwealths of America he witnessed
and he deservedly occupied a position among the pubHc-spirited
pioneers to whose self-sacrificing efforts the organization and develop-
ment of the state may be attributed.
Mr. White was born in East Randolph, now Holbrook, Mass.,
February 5, 1830, a son of Jonathan and Abigail (Holbrook) White,
natives of the same place as himself. His father, who was the son of
a Revolutionary soldier, was for years engaged in the manufacture
of shoes at Holbrook. During his boyhood our subject had some
experience in the nursery business at Holbrook, where he attended
the grammar and high schools. When nineteen years of age he started
for California, being one of a party of fifteen who purchased the brig
Arcadia, and sailed from Boston for San Francisco via the Straits of
Magellan. After a tedious voyage of 263 days they sailed through
the Golden Gate October 29, 1849. In 1850 Mr. White embarked
in the general mercantile business in Sacramento, as a member of
the firm of White & Hollister. However, this firm was dissolved in
a short time. Subsequently he engaged in the nursery business on a
ranch on the American River, and also for seventeen years was a
member of the firm of White & Hollister at Courtland, in the raising
of fruits. At a later date he became interested in sheep raising with
James Denman, having a sheep ranch of 6,000 acres at Florence, Los
Angeles County.
The year 1880 found Mr. White a pioneer of what is now the
city of Pomona. He was one of the prime movers in securing the
organization of the city, and served as a member of its first board of
trustees. He became one of the well-known horticulturists of the
region. His place consisted of seventy acres, of which sixt}' acres were
in orchard. In addition to the management of this property, he served
for ten or more years as vice-president of the People's Bank of
Pomona, owning the bank building; he was one of the trustees of the
University of Southern California. The Republican party always
received his allegiance and its candidates his vote. He was invariably
found on the side of progress and development, and his support was
given to measures for the benefit of the city and the development of
its resources. Fraternally he was a Mason and in religion a member
of the Pomona Methodist Episcopal Church.
The marriage of Mr. White took place in Sacramento, Cal.,
November 13, 1857, and united him with Mrs. Rebecca Ann Holship,
232 HISTORY AND I'.IOGRAPHY
nee Ferguson, born in Nashville, Tenn., December 12, 1835. She
crossed the plains with her husband and baby, and were the only ones
in the train who had horse teams. They brought with them two negro
slaves, who were emancipated after arrival in California. Mr. and
Mrs. White have two living children : Nannie C, born in Sacramento, ^
is the wife of Charles L. Northcraft, of Patagonia, Ariz., and Harry
R., of Pomona, who was born at Courtland. Helen M., who passed
away in March, 1920, was the wife of Hon. R. F. Del Valle, of Los
Angeles, and was very prominent In club life, especially In the activities
of the Native Daughters of the Golden West. Mr. White died at his
home on September 2, 1902, and his wife passed to her reward on
December 12, 1910.
ALBERT L. TAYLOR
Prominent among those who, having once gazed upon the fertile,
promising Valley of Pomona, came eventually to settle here, must be
mentioned Albert L. Taylor, a resident of Grand Avenue and well
known In Pomona social circles. He was born near Placerville, El
Dorado County, Cal., on December 8, 1853, the son of Albert T.
Taylor, a native of Maine, who married Mary L. Towle, also from
the Lumber State. Albert T. Taylor crossed the great plains as a
'49er, and made the last 500 miles of the journey alone and on foot,
while his wife came around the Horn In a sailing vessel. For a while
he was In the merchandise business at Placerville, then he was a mer-
chant in Sacramento, and then he went to Carson City, Nev., where he
engaged in raising garden truck and small farming. Still later, he
removed to Santa Cruz, and then to Westminster, and from there
to Monrovia, and at the latter place he died. In 1911.
Young Albert Taylor worked for se\'eral years at Westminster
and 1875 passed through Pomona Valley. It was not until eight years
later, however, that he located at Pomona, where for four years he
followed well drilling, owning his own outfit. Since then he has
engaged in house moving; and as he established a reputation as a
pioneer in that rather difficult field, it Is not surprising that his territory
extends from El Monte to Cucamonga. He has tackled a number
of extremely difficult propositions in his time, among them being the
moving of a two and a half story house from north of Lidlan Hill
to Claremont. He also moved the Iowa Hotel from Uplands to
Ontario — the structure being used by Chaffee College for a dormitory.
In carrying out the reconstruction work on the school building at
Walnut, he moved it, raised it up, and built a story under It. Thus,
during a very busy career, he has literally seen all the changes In the
Valley since 1883, and still he is active in the moving enterprise.
Some years ago, Mr. Taylor bought a fifteen-acre ranch at 488
East Grand Avenue, where he planted fruit trees and handsomely
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 233
developed the land. In 1912 he built a fine house, and has sold all
but about three acres, and now he has one of the choice homes of the
vicinity.
On July 16, 1885, at Pomona, Mr. Taylor was married to Mrs.
Eliza Decker, a native of Ohio, who came to Pomona Valley in 1884
with her mother, Nancy Edgar, who is still living at ninety-six years
of age, at Campbell, near San Jose. Mrs. Taylor died in July, 1911,
and left three children by her first husband. George E. Decker Is in
Los Angeles; Col. C. W. Decker, practicing medicine In Los Angeles,
became a lieutenant-colonel in the United States Army and saw service
in the hospitals of France during the late war; while a daughter is
Mrs. L. F. Norton of Los Angeles, who graduated from Pomona
College in 1901. The only child born to Mr. and Mrs. Taylor died
at the age of twenty years. Mr. Taylor is a member of the Fraternal
Aid Association.
Mr. Taylor has been Identified with every progressive movement
for the benefit of the Valley. He took and proved up a 160-acre
homestead in the Palo Verde Valley, which he still owns.
PATRICK RILEY
The title of pioneer is justly merited by Patrick Riley, for he
came to Pomona Valley when development work here was just start-
ing, and during his lifetime was identified with the upbuilding of both
its water and railways, besides his individual agricultural interests. He
was known as a man who did things ; obstacles never discouraged him
and he gave his strong will and vigorous activities to the accom-
plishment of whatever w'as at hand in pioneer labors for the future
generations.
Born In Cavan, Ireland, March 17, 1847, when fifteen years of
age Patrick Riley came to America to seek his fortune in the new
world. He worked In New York City, and in Philadelphia, Pa., and
then, in 1864, came to San Francisco, and engaged In construction
work on the Central Pacific Railway, in the bridge building depart-
ment; he worked north on the Sacramento division and there became
interested in mining activities, and on his return to San Francisco
followed mining speculations for a time, in one deal making $25,000,
but as so many did In those days, lost the amount in later speculations.
In his railroad work he had also been engaged In the Truckee division
and in that city his marriage occurred, in April, 1878, to Kate Nagle,
also a native of Ireland, born in Tipperary. She came to the United
States at the age of seventeen.
In 1881 Mr. and Mrs. Riley came to Pomona; before their
arrival, he had bought sixteen and one-half acres of land here on Holt
234 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Avenue, and here the young pioneers made their home and have lived
since that early day, their three sons being born on the old homestead.
Mr. Riley set out ten acres of his land to vineyard, but later the vines
were taken out and Navel oranges planted from the seed and budded,
and after her husband's death Mrs. Riley planted the remainder of the
orchard and they now have the entire acreage in oranges, in a thriving
and productive condition.
During pioneer days here Mr. Riley helped to build the old
motor railway to North Pomona, his early experience in railway work
making him a valuable man for that work. He was also foreman
on the construction of early water systems in Pomona. Up to that
time drinking water had been taken from wells dug on the ranches
and Irrigating was done through open ditches. Mr. Riley was active
in the Catholic Church, and in the Foresters of America; a man of
pleasing address, always jolly and full of wit, he had many friends
in the Valley who mourned his passing, which occurred December
6, 1905. His faith in the future of this section never varied and in
the years since his death it has been proven a farsighted vision.
Four children blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Riley: Mrs.
E. D. Ralls of Pomona; Edward, a soldier in the Spanish War, now
deceased; John; and Francis, the two latter sons assisting their mother
in the care of the home ranch.
ROLLIN T. BURR, M. D.
A Pomona physician of long experience who can summon a
volume of personal reminiscence and is noted not only for his learning
and skill, but for his many good stories of early days, is Dr. RoUin
T. Burr, who came from Mt. Vernon, Knox County, Ohio, where he
was born on August 10, 1843. He was reared in Louisiana, how-
ever, and in 1869 graduated with the degree of M. D. from the
New Orleans Medical College. For two years, during his studies, he
was interne at the New Orleans Charity Hospital. After his gradua-
tion, for six years he practiced in Central Texas. Leaving there in
pursuit of health, he rode horseback from Texas to the Colorado
River, a distance of 1,500 miles, 1,000 miles alone, with saddle bags
and rifle.
In 1877 Doctor Burr passed through Pomona, going from Ari-
zona en route to visit his family in Texas, and so had a good chance to
see the now flourishing city when it was only a village, or perhaps rather
a small cluster of houses and homes. The impression, however, was
sufficiently favorable to induce him to return to Southern California,
when he resigned from the Army service, to locate first in El Monte,
until in 1883 when he came to Pomona. He is thus the oldest doctor
in age and point of service in Pomona Valley, for when he located
here there was only one house north of the railroad track.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 235
From the first, Doctor Burr practiced all over the Valley, riding
horseback with saddle bags, and as there was a dearth of drug store
facilities, he carried with him his own medicine chest of over one
hundred varieties, and thus became a kind of traveling drug store.
After a while, he was appointed by the board of supervisors town
health officer, and in one year, during a smallpox scare, he vaccinated
two thousand persons, never losing a life.
In 1898 Doctor Burr was appointed by President William
McKinley, surgeon of the U. S. Volunteers in the Spanish-American
War, and joined the Seventh Regiment from St. Louis, a regiment of
immunes from the yellow fever. In 1899 he also saw service as civilian
surgeon in Cuba, continuing there for eight years, and accomplishing
much for science and the good name of America.
It was not long before Doctor Burr's pronounced ability and ex-
ceptional experience became somewhat widely known, and In 1905 he
was sent to the Panama Canal Zone, where for four years he was dis-
trict surgeon under General Gorgas, and for forty-eight or fifty months
he did not lose a day's work. This is a record of which he is and may
justly be proud, for those were trying times in the Canal Zone, due
to climate and disease.
In 1909 Doctor Burr left the Canal Zone, resigned from the serv-
ice and for twenty-two months traveled through Europe, Asia and
Africa. In 1911 he visited In Cuba, and there he remained until 1915.
In 1917 he returned to Pomona, where he Is once again in active and
successful practice. On his retirement, Doctor Burr had the rank of a
first lieutenant of the U. S. A. Volunteers, a status the more interesting
because Doctor Burr was a private soldier In the First Louisiana Cav-
alry and therefore a Confederate veteran, and one of the original mem-
bers of the Ku Klux Klan In New Orleans. During his fourteen years
of service for the LInlted States Army, he never lost a day from ill
health from the performance of his duty, and for five years, while In
the Army, never had leave of absence.
Doctor Burr, whom to know Is to admire for his strong and attrac-
tive social qualities, was twice married. His first wife, now deceased,
was Mollle Virginia Adams, a native of Tennessee; and four of her
children have survived. Rollln T., Jr., lives at Tucson, Ariz., William
H. and Ella May are In Los Angeles, and Mary Bell Is Mrs. Wallace
of Santa Ana. His second wife, whom he married In 1901 and Is still
living, was Ellsa M. M. La Madriz before her marriage, a descendant
of a historic Spanish family. She Is a granddaughter of a famous
Spanish-American poet, and inherits those Intellectual gifts always
so charming In a woman.
Doctor Burr was one of the first subscribers to the Pomona Public
Library, and donated a subscription for Harper's Monthly. The
library was then In a small room upstairs In the Ruth Block at Third
and Main Streets, and the librarian was a Mrs. E. P. Bartlett. About
236 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
the time when Doctor Burr made this contribution toward the founding
of one of the most beneficent institutions in Pomona, the people's great
fountain of general knowledge, he also invested in Pomona real estate;
and he still holds some of the property he thus fortunately acquired.
CHARLES AUGUSTUS LORBEER
Among the residents of Pomona, Charles Augustus Lorbeer is
held in high esteem by those who were privileged to know him during
his lifetime. He was born in Saxony, Germany, on the Moselle
River, on February 4, 1831. He attended the schools of his native
country until he was fourteen and then learned the trade of cabinet
maker. The family emigrated to the United States in 1 847 and settled
at Naumburg, Lewis County, New York, where the father was a
pioneer, having cleared the wilderness, cut down trees and built a log
cabin for his family.
Charles Augustus worked at the trade of cabinet making in
Carthage, Jefferson County, N. Y., then removed to Champion, in
the same county. He studied one year at Lowville Academy, Lewis
County, and worked at his trade until 1854, when he migrated to
Fulton, 111., working at his trade there until his return to New
York state in 1859, where he followed his trade until 1863, when he
settled at Springvale, Iowa, where his was the first family to live; there
he remained until he came to Pomona to reside in 1887. While living
in Iowa he was justice of the peace, and owned a large stone quarry;
also built a business block and was the first to engage in the furniture
business. He made coffins and furniture.
In 1855 at Dixon, 111., he was united in marriage with Aurella
Elizabeth Wickes, a native of Lowville, Lewis County, N. Y., born
May 3, 1834. Her father was a Congregational minister, and her
mother was the daughter of Captain Jesse Wilcox, who served with
distinction in the War of 1812. In the early days Miss Wickes taught
school in Lewis County in a log schoolhouse; and she taught one
season in Fulton, 111. She is a well-educated woman and is gifted with
a wonderful memory. She began teaching in Sunday school when she
was sixteen and was a Sunday school teacher in the First Methodist
Church at Pomona for twenty-five years. She is the mother of twelve
children, six of whom are living: Charles I., her oldest son, came
to Pomona in 1883 and set out the trees on the ranch, which had been
purchased by his father while on his first visit to California, in 1883.
Charles I. was one of the founders of the Mutual Building and Loan
Association of Pomona, and he died here on April 5, 1916. Alvin G.
resides In Antelope Valley, Cal.; Minnie is the wife of D. S. Parker,
manager of the Home Telephone Company of Pomona; Carrie E. is
Mrs. Harry J. Tremaine of Minneapolis, Minn.; Harry A. is in
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 237
Los Angeles and was in the employ of the Los Angeles Electric Rail-
way for over twenty years; Fannie is Mrs. W. J. Pillig of Los Angeles,
and Melvin W. also lives in Los Angeles. Mrs. Lorbeer has twenty-
two grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Upon locating in Pomona in 1887, Mr. Lorbeer settled on his
fourteen acres on White Avenue, which his son had planted to apricots,
peaches, pears, apples, oranges and twenty-seven varieties of plums.
He was very successful as a horticulturist and lived on the ranch until
he purchased the present home place at 511 West Center Street,
Pomona. He possessed an unusually good voice and was a fine singer
and was very active in the Union Church work at Humboldt, Iowa.
He was an abolitionist and was a naturalized citizen, having cast
a vote for Abraham Lincoln. He was also a strong prohibitionist.
He died August 17, 1915, at Pomona. Mrs. Lorbeer has been
a member of the W. C. T. U. ever since its organization.
At a Thanksgiving party given by the Lorbeer family at Pomona
in 1917, there were seventy-three people present, all of whom were
descendants of this pioneer and his brother, the late John G. Lorbeer.
In 1918, because of the influenza and the war, there were only thirty-
seven present at the annual Thanksgiving reunion, nine having gone
into the service, and several having died.
THEODORE RUTH
One of the old and honored pioneers of the Valley, Theodore
Ruth has been a resident here since the first inception of a town and
has taken part in the development and upbuilding of Pomona and
environs. He is a native of Delaware, born at Leipsic, July 22, 1842,
and after living in different cities in the East, came to the West Coast
in 1874. For a time he was engaged in the drug business in San
Diego; then, in 1875, he came to Pomona, which then consisted of one
hotel, a livery stable, three houses, blacksmith shop, and one saloon.
He started a drug and grocery store at Fifth and Garey avenues, and
was the second merchant in Pomona, the first being James Elgan, who
came here from Spadra. Prospering in business, Mr. Ruth built a
business block in town; his father. Rev. P. S. Ruth, built the first brick
block, the Ruth Block. Theodore Ruth was appointed postmaster by
President Hayes, and also was agent for Wells Fargo Express Com-
pany for many years, their first agent here, and in the beginning
business was so light that he hauled the express packages to and from
the trains in a wheelbarrow; a small fact which goes to show the
phenomenal growth of the city in the last decade.
During these years of growth and expansion Mr. Ruth has done
his full share in furthering the advancement of the community, and has
watched its development with an unwavering faith in the wonderful
238 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
possibilities in view for this section of California. Pomona has been
fortunate indeed in the men who first started the march of progress
here; in their farsightedness and unselfish sacrifice of their own ends
for the best good of their home community.
The marriage of Mr. Ruth united him with Margaret Faris, a
native of Ohio, on May 4, 1865, and five children were born to them:
Peter R., Mrs. May Reed, Mrs. Elizabeth Hewlett, are living, and
Frank and Kirby are both deceased.
HON. J. E. McCOMAS
Identified for forty years with the development of Pomona
Valley and prominent not alone in Southern California, but through-
out the State, was Senator J. E. McComas, whose sterling life and
character will ever leave its impress on the community In whose up-
building he was so loyally Interested. Mr. McComas was born In
Cable County, Va., on May IS, 1834. His parents moved from
there to Platte County, Mo., while he was quite young, residing there
until his father's death, which occurred when young McComas was
about seventeen years of age. Soon after that he joined a cattle train
of emigrants coming to California to seek gold, as the excitement of
'49 continued to draw inany young men to the Pacific Coast. He had
not been In California long until he and two of his companions joined
a Methodist Church just being organized, and throughout the remain-
der of his life Mr. McComas was ever loyal to the church of his
choice.
After a short time he left California and returned to his old home
in Missouri, and while there. In 1860, he was denied the privilege of
votmg for Abraham Lincoln for president, as the election judge told
him that no such candidate was recognized at the polls; if he wished
to vote for Bell, Breckenridge or Douglas he could. He asked that
oflicial to excuse him and left. In 1861, when the President called
for ^'olunteers to preserve the Union, he went to Fort Leavenworth
and asked the recruiting oflicer In charge for a commission to recruit
a company for the United States Army. The officer asked, "Where
do you want to recruit?" Young McComas replied, "In Missouri."
"Can there be any loyal men in Missouri?" questioned the officer.
"When we give a man a commission to recruit, we back him with the
United States Army. We cannot do that in Missouri. If I were to
see you being murdered across the river In Missouri I would not dare
to go to your relief." "I will take all the responsibility If you will
give me the commission," McComas replied. After securing forty
volunteers in Missouri he started for Fort Leavenworth, traveling
in great danger of being captured, but they reached there safely and
united their fortunes with Company G, Fifth Kansas Cavalry, W. A.
•K:>
1»
p..&.-7^.^.
i:»'>-v't'«sr^
HISTORY AND IIIOGRAPHV :43
Jenkins being captain and Mr. McComas, first lieutenant. They left
Springfield, Mo., in May, 1862, with 900 able-bodied men, and in
October of the same year, at Helena, Ark., only 225 of this number
could respond to the roll call, Lieut. McComas being one of the number.
He was allowed to return home on a furlough on account of his health.
He had been married to Miss Rebecca Yount on December 13, 1860,
and had left her with her parents on entering the army. At the end
of the war he again embarked with his own and other families for
California, taking charge as captain of a wagon train, as on his pre-
vious journey. On reaching California they lived awhile near San
Jose and finally went to wheat raising near Modesto, where he was
financially successful. He then came south and bought a ranch at
Compton in 1872. In 1875 he came to Pomona and was employed
as a land agent by the new company that had bought a large tract of
land from Louis Phillips of Spadra, which includes the present city
of Pomona. Mr. McComas helped in platting the now beautiful and
prosperous city and from that day he never ceased to work for its best
interests and advancement.
In 1876, Mr. McComas was bereaved of his wife and a little
daughter, Dora, leaving one son, J. L. McComas. About this time
a new schoolhouse was built containing four large rooms, but in the
beginning there were only enough children in the district to employ
two teachers. A Mr. Coleman was secured as principal and Miss
Emma M. Loughrey as assistant, these two forming the whole corps
of teachers for the new town. At that time more than two-thirds of
the pupils were Spanish, as was the whole population. Two of the
school trustees were also Spanish, the third member, Mr. Cyrus Bur-
dick, being chairman of the board, and it was at the home of the latter
that Miss Loughrey boarded. The children made rapid advancement
in their studies, many of the Spanish children keeping pace with the
American children, notwithstanding the fact that they had to learn
the English language in connection with their studies. Mr. McComas
became very interested in the school, or rather in the young lady
teacher. Although there was a number of years difference in their
ages his fine character and happy, cheerful disposition won her heart
and hand, and at the end of the school year they were married and
made their first home in Pomona. Both were so attracted to the won-
derful mountain scenery, fine climate and general surroundings that
they never expected to live anywhere else. But lovely Pomona was
overtaken in her infancy with a calamity. Before water had been
developed and piped for domestic and irrigating purposes, Pomona
had two dry years, and on top of that, a financial crash, that affected
more or less the whole United States, so that the syndicate which
had bought this land found themselves unable to sell land and develop
water under such conditions. The land reverted to the original owner,
and upon his declaration that he would make the site of Pomona a
2AA HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
sheep pasture, Mr. McComas disposed of their comfortable little
home at Fifth and Main for much less than it cost and went to live on
the Compton ranch again. That climate was so detrimental to Mrs.
McComas' health, however, that she could not live there, and Mr.
McComas also found it very difficult to get ahead financially. Hear-
ing of more favorable conditions in Arizona he went there and fitted
out some freight wagons to run between Benson and Tombstone, for
his son. Lane, to manage. His wife taught the village school "and
he practiced law, but in that dry climate it was very expensive to keep
up teams and wagons, and family living was also exceedingly high.
Although Mrs. McComas had secured a first-grade territorial diploma
for six years, her health gave out so completely that they were obliged
to return to California, and after living for awhile in Los Angeles
they went back on the Compton ranch. By this time a new syndicate
had purchased the land on which Pomona is situated and immediately
developed and piped water there and Pomona once again began to
appear on the map, for new houses started up in all directions.
At the earnest solicitation of his wife, aided by putting in all her
earnings from school teaching, Mr. McComas had previously pur-
chased twenty-five acres on Holt Avenue (on a part of which is still
the family home) and they now decided to return and link their des-
tinies with Pomona for life. They moved into an old house on South
Main Street, where they lived for two years. In 1885 they built the
best residence on Holt Avenue on their land there and went to ranch-
ing, putting out \'arious kinds of fruit trees. However, the little town
grew so fast that they soon began to sell off land. The first ten acres
Mr. McComas sold to Mr. Penny, his partner In the real estate busi-
ness, for $175 an acre. His wife insisted on waiting for a higher
price, but Mr. McComas said that there would never be anything but
ranches on Holt Avenue and $175 an acre was all that a man could
afford to pay for a ranch. It was not a month, however, until he
refused $250 an acre for another ten acres. A few years later a boom
came, and he was offered $1,000 an acre, and he parted with it with
some twinge of conscience, but the syndicate that bought It platted It
and In less than two months cleared up about $2,000 an acre on it.
Mr. McComas built the first brick block on the corner of Main
and Second, and later a smaller one on the corner of First and Thomas;
also a brick livery stable on First Street, which he later gave to his
son Lane for a wedding present. It is truthfully said of him that not
much more than half his time and money was spent for his own needs.
His wife ably assisted him In putting In her own efforts and resources,
thus enabling him to give more largely to the church, the temperance
cause and other good works in which he had a vital interest. He put
in much time and was very successful In getting pensions for old sol-
diers and for the widows of veterans. So much of his time and re-
sources were devoted to public work that It was mutually arranged
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 245
between himself and his wife that she look more after the interests
of the home, being in closer touch with its needs. So in 1907 she
planned and had built with her own resources their beautiful home at
219 West Holt Avenue. Their two daughters and one son were now
college graduates and fitted to talce up their own life work. It also
devolved upon Mrs. McComas to assist her mother in the care and
education of her younger brothers and sisters.
In "Pen Portraits of Pomona People," these few extracts are
given of Senator McComas and his family: "Mr. McComas has had
a large share in every movement for the upbuilding of our city —
industrial, moral and commercial. Beginning with Pomona as a sheep
range in 1876, his influence and money has helped to build every
church and schoolhouse. He organized and established Methodism
and has been a devout member of that church ever since. He gave
the land on which the present church stands, having helped to build
and enlarge it four different times. He put Methodism in power in
the Valley and maintained it as long as he lived. He was one of four
to found Odd Fellowship, and was the founder of the Good Templars.
He was one of five who founded the First National Bank. He was
one of three who founded the first board of trade. He conducted the
first campaign, assisted by the W. C. T. U. and others, for the first
Prohibition ordinance. He threw himself heart and soul into this
work and gave largely of his time and money. He suffered villifica-
tion and insults in this work, but he never let up until the prohibition
clause was incorporated in the city charter in 1911. In 1888 he was
elected first Republican State Senator from this district. He intro-
duced and labored for the first division of Los Angeles County. He
landed the Orange County bill and almost landed the Pomona County
bill. He had the age of consent raised from ten to foui-teen years.
He introduced the first bill for woman suffrage. He served his four
years as State Senator, but refused any further nomination on the
Republican ticket, and became an ardent Prohibitionist, later being
nominated on the State Prohibition ticket for governor."
An extract from a Prohibition paper says: "Mr. McComas
says he cannot as a conscientious Christian act any longer with the
Republicans, who are under rum rule and power. Senator McComas,
as he is popularly known by nearly every one in the southern counties,
will be a valuable accession to the Prohibition party. He has for
years been one of the foremost Republicans of the State and had
always been known as an extreme anti-saloon Republican. When in
the Legislature his voice and vote were always exercised in the Inter-
ests of temperance, equal suffrage and good government. It has long
been expected that his place would inevitably be in the only party which
really represented his principles. That time has now come, and it is
the beginning of a break that will lead hosts of other good men out
of the rum-ruled parties into the Prohibition ranks.
246 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
"In making mention of the manly stand taken by Senator Mc-
Comas for the cause of Prohibition and right, it would surely be
amiss not to mention the name of his estimable co-worker and wife,
Mrs. Emma McComas, one of the most able and loyal Prohibition
workers in the southern part of the State, and to whose potent influ-
ence no doubt is due, in a great measure, the stanch and unfaltering
stand the Senator has always taken for the right. In addition to her
social and domestic duties she is activ-e In the work of the church, and
a leader in the work of the W. C. T. U., having served seven years
as president, and four years as treasurer, this organization being a
chief factor in making Pomona free from the destructive influence of
the saloon.
"Although a devoted and congenial wife, she has had large
business and realty interests of her own, which she looks after with a
degree of tact and skill rarely found in either men or women. She
presides over her lovely home, one of the best appointed and best
located in the beautiful city of Pomona, with charming dignity, that
is entirely free from ostentation or garish display. Her daughters,
Maude and Ethel, combine in their persons those charms of character
and culture for which the young ladies of Pomona are justly famous.
Her son. Rush, has won all the medals given by Demorest Medal
Contests, and is naturally gifted in oratory, and it is expected that he
will follow in his father's footsteps, by giving his life to the best inter-
ests of mankind. The Senator is well presei-ved in mind and body, and
a man of exceptional value in the upbuilding of a community to its
best — socially, materially and spiritually. The evidence of his earnest
Christian life is the enduring monument at Third and Gordon Streets.
He was a strong factor in making the Methodist Church one of the
most potent influences on the moral and religious progress of the ideal
city of Pomona."
These unsolicited and unexpected encomiums from the public
press were highly appreciated by Mr. and Mrs. McComas and in-
creased their zeal for the work to which they had both given freely
of their time and money. When Pomona could boast of a population
of 500 she also had the disgrace of having seventeen saloons, and as
Is always the case where saloons exist, there was a strong sentiment
in their favor. The fight for temperance was long and hard, but It
was a "Gideon Band" of Godfearing men and women who said, "By
God's help, the saloon must be banished from beautiful Pomona."
And In due time their efforts were rewarded. This was a great joy
and comfort to Senator McComas in his declining years. He had
many able helpers in temperance and church work who are richly
entitled to have their life work recorded in this "Pioneer Book." One
of his closest friends and helpers (afterward his brother-in-law) was
J. M. Mitchell. At one time Mr. Mitchell gave $5,000, which made
It possible for the First Methodist Church to build its last addition
HISTORY AND BIOGRAt^HY 247
to accommodate the needs of the rapidly growing Sunday school. He
had previously given a farm back East to endow a college and, not-
withstanding his generosity, left an estate of $200,000. Only time
will reveal the influence of such lives on the oncoming generations of
young men and women, and many have already expressed themselves
in words of deep gratitude for the helpful and uplifting example and
influence of these noble characters on their own.
Senator McComas being gifted in speaking, he was called upon in
all the Prohibition campaigns. He did this with telling effect and
made many converts to the Prohibition cause, all up and down the
Coast, and lived to see victory proclaimed in "California dry."
On the evening of November 14, 1916, Senator McComas re-
tired at his usual hour with no sign or word of illness, and while the
family slept he peacefully passed away, closing his eyes on earthly
scenes but leaving behind him the rich legacy of a life full of good
deeds which will ever enrich those who were so fortunate as to come
within the sphere of his benign influence.
The following resolutions express the regard and affection in
which Pomona people held him:
"The quarterly conference of the First Methodist Church, at its
session Monday evening, November 20, appointed the undersigned
to express to you and all the members of your family the sincere grief
that the entire church feels at the departure of our Brother McComas.
The church owes him such a debt of gratitude for his long and faithful
service as it never has owed, and probably never will again owe, to
any other person. In a very important sense he was its founder, and
he has been the constant and efficient promoter of all its enterprises,
ever since. In him this church has had an exponent and representative
who deserved and has had the respect of the entire community.
"Now that he has been called away, we feel deeply bereaved, and
sympathize with you and all your family in your loneliness, but our
grief is tempered by the consideration that our loss is his gain. There
is no despair in our sorrow, for we are sure that this good man has
gone to his well-earned reward. And we congratulate you, as well
as ourselves, on the fact that God gave him to us as a companion in
the journey of life and service of Christ.
Frank B. Cowgill, Pastor,
A. B. Avis,
C. C. Caves."
"Whereas to the Pomona W. C. T. U. has come the tidings of
the sudden departure from this life of our much-esteemed brother,
Ex-Senator McComas, on November 14, 1916,
"Therefore, Resolved, That as a Union we have lost one who
has been a tower of strength to us In all our struggle for a clean town
and in destroying the liquor traffic. Always a loyal, upright citizen
248 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
from pioneer days; a sympathetic friend; an earnest Christian, rarely
missing the weekly prayer meetings; always ready to aid in everything
that would help establish righteousness in the city, state or nation.
While we shall ever cherish his memory, in being thankful to the Dear
Father he loved, for the beneficial influence of his noble life among
us and for the gentle manner of taking him home without pain or
suffering.
"To our beloved sister, Mrs. Emma McComas and her dear
family we do express our sincere affection, knowing well that they
have the great comfort, that in the life beyond they may be a reunited
family in the heavenly home, where parting can never come.
Miss E. E. Micklin,
Mrs. Earl,
Mrs. H. W. Bowen,
Mrs. Emma Edwards,
Mrs. Eliza Stevens,
Mrs. C. a. Lorbeer,
Mrs. Ella Reed."
On January 11, 1912, Miss Ethel McComas was united in mar-
riage with Sidney J. Turney, and Mrs. McComas' only grandchild.
Ward McComas Turney, was born about a year later. His picture
appears with his grandmother in this work.
F. DE WITT CRANK, M. D.
An eminent practitioner of medicine who for thiry-five years has
safeguarded the health, and alleviated the pain and, therefore, the
sorrows of many, witnessing the great human drama In the develop-
ment of Pomona from Its unpretentious beginnings, is F. De Witt
Crank, M.D. Born at Geneseo, N. Y., on October 19, 1859; when
four years of age he accompanied his folks to Ohio, then to Knoxville,
Tenn., and back again to Ohio and the city of Cincinnati. Finally, In
the memorable Centennial year, when California was making her best
bow at Philadelphia to the Nation and thousands were thinking for
the first time of the Pacific Coast, the father and two sons, Hon. J. F.
and F. De Witt, came to Pasadena. The father, James D., and Anna
Elizabeth (Dake) Crank, were both born in New York. On arriving
in California, J. F. Crank bought the Fair Oaks Rancho, and there
engaged In orange and grape growing; but when F. De Witt was
convinced that he was not Interested In fruit culture, he determined
to enter an altogether different field.
He returned East In 1879 and took up the study of medicine at
the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia and later he continued
at the Pulte Medical College of Cincinnati. Ha\'ing finished his
courses with honors, he returned to California In the spring of 1884.
HISTORY AND BIOCxRAPHY 249
and the same year located at Los Angeles for one year, then came
to Pomona, where he has since followed his profession, increasing in
popularity as his power of diagnosis and surgical skill became known.
In 1887, the year of the California boom. Doctor Crank bought a
corner lot on Garey Avenue north of the Southern Pacific Railway, and
there erected his home. There were only two houses north of the track
at that time. When Pomona was Incorporated, Doctor Crank served
for two years as its first health officer, and for years he has been a
member of the County, State and American Medical Associations, in
which societies his scholarship, experience and personality count for
the most progressive trends.
While at Pasadena, Doctor Crank was married to Miss Jessie
Banbury, a native of Iowa, and the daughter of Jabez Banbury, who
brought his family to what was known as the Indiana Colony, now
Pasadena, in 1872, and built the first dwelling house there. Two
daughters have been born to bless this union: One is Yvonne, an
assistant librarian in the Los Angeles Public Library, and Elma, a
physical director of the Pomona schools. The former is a graduate
of Pomona College, and the latter of the Cumnock and Los Angeles
Normal Schools and the University of California at Berkeley. Doctor
Crank's fraternal associations are limited to the Knights of Pythias,
but with a fortunate temperament in which more than one "touch of
nature" is easily detected, he finds "the whole world kin."
NATHAN E. STRONG
Among the pioneers of Pomona of the early eighties, mention is
made of Nathan E. Strong, who settled here with his family in 1885
after having spent some time in looking over Southern California in
search of a favorable location, and finally selecting Pomona. This
was then a small hamlet and but few orange groves had been planted,
in fact but little development was in evidence in the entire Valley. He
bought a five-acre tract on West Holt Avenue, set out trees and for
many years devoted his time to orange growing and met with success.
The place was later subdivided into building lots, but the family still
occupy the home into which they first moved. Here Mr. Strong now
lives retired in the enjoyment of a well-earned rest from active labors.
Nathan E. Strong was born In Madison County, Ohio, in 1833,
and received his education in the public schools there. He entered
upon the study of pharmacy in a local drug store and thereafter fol-
lowed that profession for many years. He spent some time in
Colorado, then was in Waseca, Minn., where for years he was promi-
nent in politics as well as in business circles, serving as a county official
with satisfaction and efficiency. On account of the rigorous climate
he came to California to make his home.
Mr. Strong has been twice married. He had a son, Henry
250 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Strong, by his first wife, who after reaching manhood was an employee
for years of a bank in Waseca. He located in Pomona and engaged
in the furniture business with A. G. Lorbeer, later succeeding to the
entire business, and remained active until ill health necessitated his
selling out. He died In 1907 at the age of fifty-two. The second
marriage united Mr. Strong with Mrs. Sarah L. (Ide) Smith, and
they were blessed with a son, G. Wilford, who was identified with
Pomona's business circles for twelve years before he returned to
Minnesota, and Is now located at Waseca. By her first husband Mrs.
Strong had a daughter, now Mrs. H. Irene Alden, who makes her
home with her parents. Mrs. Strong Is well known in Pomona, where
she taught china and oil painting for twenty-five years. She Is a woman
of culture and refinement and with her family is esteemed by a wide
circle of friends in Pomona.
JOSEPH RELTON GARTHSIDE
A pioneer who came to Pomona in the Centennial year of 1876
was the late Joseph Helton Garthside, whose widow recalls many an
interesting detail of the life here In early days. He was born at Utica,
N. Y., on April 20, 1846, the son of Richard G. and Isabella (Relton)
Garthside, natives of England; and representatives of some of the
best stock that ever migrated to this country. The father came to
the United States In 1840, and located at Utica, where he plied his
trade of carpenter. Joseph, in course of time, learned the trade of
carpenter and builder, and what is more, working under the direction
of his father, he learned It well. In 1873 he moved as far west as
Marshalltown, Iowa.
Three years later he came out to California and located at
Pomona, where he bought five acres of land on East Holt Avenue,
built a cottage and otherwise Improved the property. In 1880 he
bought five acres more, and went in for orangie culture; later he
bought ten acres on Laurel Avenue, and such was his observant nature
and his enterprise, that he and C. E. White became the first men to
plant Navel orange buds in the Pomona district.
In 1886 Mr. Garthside sold five acres of his holdings, and later
he disposed of the remainder. Then he went in for contracting and
building in the Valley, and he erected many homes and edifices, among
them the Episcopal Church in Pomona. Afterward he followed the
Insurance business, and for four years served as City Clerk of Po-
mona, and for years was superintendent of the Pomona Cemetery
Association. He bought and sold other orange ranches, and promoted
the development of city and valley In every way that he could. Then,
honored by all for his high degree of public spirit and fidelity to duty,
he passed away on December 16, 1910, an active member of the
Episcopal Church until his death. He also belonged to the Odd Fel-
(Jt ^0-^Pv^<2^^L^jQ2^
HISTORY AXD BIOGRArHY 233
lows, in which he was Past Grand, was a thirty-second degree Scottish
Rite Mason, holding membership in Pomona Lodge No. 246, F. &"
A. M., of which he was Past Master; Pomona Commandery, K. T.,
and the Shrine in Los Angeles; and he belonged to the EasteHi Star,
of which he was Past Patron.
At Deerfield, N. Y., on December 27, 1869, Mr. Garthside mar-
ried Mary E. Lewis, daughter of Rees and Jane (Jones) Lewis, both
natives of Wales, hut who were brought to America when children.
Mary E. was herself born at Deerfield, N. Y. She was active in the
Rebekahs, of which she is a charter member and is a past matron of
the Eastern Star, and belongs to the Episcopal Church; and like her
revered husband, she is public spirited and naturally interested in the
preservation of the annals of Pomona Valley. To such a history she
might easily contribute something of value, for she tells of the days
when one read by candle light, when there were no roads, and when
the settler shared the great, open plains with the wild antelope. So
early did they pitch their tent here that their house was the fourth
home on Holt Avenue.
EDWARD J. FLEMING
A worthy representative of the bar of California, Edward J.
Fleming has risen to a. place of prominence in the legal profession
through his own abilities.
He was born March 28, 1872, at Cambridge, Mass., and is the
son of Peter and Margaret (Coleman) Fleming. The family moved
to Spadra, Cal., in 1875, when Edward was but three years of age.
He received his education in the public schools of Los Angeles County,
attended Pomona College and studied law in the office of P. C. Ton-
ner at Pom.ona. In 1894 he was admitted to the California bar, and
later to practice in the United States Circuit and District Courts of
Southern California, and the United States Circuit Court of Appeal.
From 1 894-1 897 he was a member of the firm of Tonner and Fleming
at Pomona, and from 1899 to 1901 was city attorney of Pomona. In
1902 he removed to Los Angeles, and from that time to 1907 was
Deputy District Attorney of Los Angeles County, and during 1908
and 1909 was Prosecuting Attorney of Los Angeles City. From 1910
to 1912 he was a member of the firm of Fleming and Bennett. Since
then he has practiced his profession in the city of Los Angeles.
His marriage with Miss Gertrude Dennis was solemnized March
27, 1898, and they reside at 148 South Mariposa Avenue, Los Angeles.
Mr. Fleming's business office is in the H. W. Hellman building.
Fraternally he is associated with the Masonic fraternity, the
Knights of Pythias, and the Maccabees; and is a member of the Los
Angeles Bar Association, the Chamber of Commerce, the Union
League and the City Clubs. In his politics he is a stanch Republican.
254 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
FRANK PARKHURST BRACKETT, A.M.
Coming to Pomona in January, 1888, to prepare a class of
students for the opening of Pomona College, Prof. Frank Parkhurst
Brackett has been continuously identified with the development of this
institution, whose growth and influence has steadily increased year
by year.
A nativ-e of the Bay State, Professor Brackett was born June 16,
1865, at Provincetown, Mass. He comes of a family of educators,
his father, S. H. Brackett, a graduate of Harvard in 1862, being for
twenty-five years a teacher of science in St. Johnsbury Academy (Ver-
mont), and his mother, Mary A. (Thomas) Brackett, a native of
Maine, was a teacher in Cambridge, Mass., before her marriage. In
addition to his scholastic work, S. H. Brackett invented and built scien-
tific apparatus used in schools and colleges.
Professor Brackett began his career in early life as a district
school teacher in New Hampshire, then going to St. Johnsbury Acad-
emy as teacher of algebra; later he was principal of Phillips Academy
at Danville, Vt., and acting principal of Caledonia Academy at Pel-
ham, Vt. These positions were held previous to his graduation from
Dartmouth College in 1887, and where, three years later, in 1890, he
received his A.M. degree. In 1887, Professor Brackett came to Los
Angeles as instructor in McPherron Academy. It was while engaged
there that he was invited by Dr. C. B. Sumner to come to Pomona and
begin the preparatory work for the first group of students who would
enter Pomona College. Accordingly, the first of January, 1888,
Professor Brackett opened the work with about a dozen students in
the chapel of Pilgrim Church, and this class, with a few additions, was
prepared, during the next six months, for the formal opening of the
college, which occurred September 12, 1888. In 1890, when the col-
lege entered upon its collegiate work, Mr. Brackett was elected to a
professorship in mathematics. At the completion of Pomona College
Observatory, in 1911, Professor Brackett was made director, and since
then much of his time has been given to the development of this work.
In 1911 he was a member of the Smithsonian Astronomical Expedi-
tion to Algeria and in 1913 of the Expedition to Mt. Whitney. In
1918, during the great solar eclipse, he was a member of the Mt.
Wilson Observatory Eclipse Expedition to Green River, Wyo. Pro-
fessor Brackett is editor of the "Publication of the Astronomical
Society of Pomona College," which brings to the college \'aluable
exchanges from other observatories throughout the world.
In 1916 Professor Brackett was appointed American delegate on
the Commission for Relief in Belgium. He remained there for six
months in the relief work in the province of Brabant, with headquar-
ters at Brussels. On his return home, after the entrance of America
s,.^.^^j4 ^^.a^
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 257
into the war, he took up the work of secretary of the Local Exemption
Board No. 2, serving until the close of the war.
In politics Professor Brackett is an Independent Republican, giv-
ing his support to the best men and measures, especially in local af-
fairs. He is a member of the University Club of Los Angeles, Phi
Beta Kappa, and numerous national mathematical and scientific socie-
ties. He was an Honorary Fellow of Clark University in 1902 and
1903.
On August 15, 1889, Professor Brackett was united in marriage
with Miss Lucretia Burdick, daughter of Cyrus Burdick, Pomona's
honored pioneer citizen. The story of the Burdick family and their
intimate connection with the early days of Pomona is given in Chapter
Four of the historical section of this volume. Professor Brackett hav-
ing prepared this history, in collaboration with Mrs. Brackett. Pro-
fessor and Mrs. Brackett have two sons — Frederick Sumner and Frank
Parkhurst, Jr. Frederick Sumner Brackett was married in 1918 to
Miss Agnes Leek, both being graduates of Pomona College. After
serving for a year in the Bureau of Standards at Washington, D. C,
Frederick S. Brackett is now stationed at Mt. Wilson Observatory.
COL. GEORGE HEATH
One of the early pioneers of California, and among the very first
settlers in the Pomona Valley, Col. George Heath lived here through-
out the decade of wonderful advancement for this section of the equally
wonderful mother state, and during that time took an active part in
the development work which has made the Valley a veritable "land
of milk and honey." He was born near Batavia, N. Y., October 9,
1828, and when but a lad of ten years the family moved to Michigan,
where they settled on a farm near Flint.
In 1852 Colonel Heath made his first trip to California, cross-
ing the plains by ox teams, and returned East via Panama ; he made
two or three trips before finally settling in the West, and mined for
a time at Yuba City, for gold, and he also had silver mining interests
in the state. He decided to devote his time to agricultural develop-
ment, however, and in 1878 settled in the Pomona Valley, and bought
a 100-acre ranch on the site of Lordsburg, now the thriving city of
La Verne. After his marriage, in 1879, which united him with Emma
A. Colvin, born in Oakland County, Mich., Colonel Heath brought
his young wife to his ranch and began farming operations. A Mr.
J. W. Brim and Mr. Goodhue had also bought 100 acres each, and
later he bought Mr. Brim's holdings and farmed the 200 acres. He
fenced the land, putting up the first barbed wire fence in the Valley;
built his home and barns, and windmill, and farmed to barley and
wheat. In 1881 he planted a family orchard of 100 trees. In April,
258 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
1887, when the Santa Fe Railway built their road through, Colonel
Heath sold his ranch to the Townslte Improvement Company for a
good price; and also gave to them a long strip of ten acres through
his property, and a depot was built on this part, with sidetrack for
grain shipments. The railway built their road through his ranch, and
after its sale Colonel Heath moved to Pomona, where he retired from
active work. He was later appointed councilman to fill out an unex-
pired term. Though never seeking office he held himself at all times
in readiness to give of his time and substantial help toward advancing
the best interests of his district and was recognized as a man of wise
counsel and efficient execution. His passing, on August 29, 1901,
was sincerely mourned by his devoted family and many friends in
the Valley, who held him in high esteem.
Four children blessed the marriage of Colonel and Mrs. Heath:
Mary Emma, wife of Maurice E. Ludden of Pomona and the mother
of one son, Richard; George L. of Pomona; Ella, wife of Fred A.
Link of Claremont; and Lieut. Colvin E., graduate of Pomona Col-
lege and a member of the Twelfth Infantry, Co. E, U. S. A. The
Heaths are one of the representative pioneer families of the Valley
and have taken their place as such in the life of the community. Mrs.
Heath is a member of the Eastern Star and the Ebell Club, and in
religious faith she joins with the Methodist Church.
ANDREW AND GEORGE OSGOODBY
John Osgoodby, father of Andrew and George, was born in
Lincolnshire, England, in 1819, a son of Harrison and Ann (Hannah)
Osgoodby, both natives of England. The family emigrated to America
in 1827, and located in Monroe County, N. Y., and there John was
reared and schooled and followed farming for a vocation and also kept
a store for a few years. He married Mary Ann Dagworthy, who was
born in Devonshire, England, in 1827, and they followed farming in
New York state until 1865, when they moved to Cass County, Mo.,
and engaged in farming there for about three years. In 1868 they
removed to Miami County, Kans., there also engaging in farming
and stock raising.
Feeling the call of the West, In 1877 they came to California,
first locating In San Gabriel, and in 1878 moved to a point two miles
south of Pomona, where they purchased from Louis Phillips forty
acres of land, and this property they cultivated until 1884. That
year, with his son George, John Osgoodby purchased forty acres west
of Pomona, and planted it to fruit and vines. In 1887 the increasing
demand for residence property induced him to sell, and the tract was
subdivided and sold, being known as the Lemar Tract. A man of
sterling character, John Osgoodby was a deacon in the Baptist Church
and aided in ev-ery good cause for the advancement of Pomona dis-
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 259
trict, which he watched grow from the small beginning of ten houses,
the nucleus of the present city when he arrived and settled here. He
passed to his reward January 6, 1908, at the venerable age of eighty-
nine, active up to the time of his death. His wife died July 4, 1903.
Three sons and one daughter were born to John and Ann
Osgoodby, George; Andrew; Lucy A., who died in 1877, aged seven-
teen years; and Harrison, who died in Missouri at two years of age.
Andrew, born near Rochester, in Monroe County, N. Y., November
27, 1855, was the first of the family to come to California, making
the journey in 1873, and locating for a time in Merced. He returned
East that same year, to come back with the family in 1877. On their
arrival Andrew found employment in the distillery of a San Gabriel
vineyard, and later was associated with his father in fruit raising. At
present the two brothers own ten acres on Sixth and White avenues,
which they planted to apricots and walnuts, both producing fine crops.
George Osgoodby was born in Monroe County, N. Y., July 4,
1853, and received a good education, being a student at William
Jewell College, at Liberty, Mo., and later studied to be a teacher. In
1873 he came to California with his brother, remained about three
months, then returned home and with the family came back to Cali-
fornia in 1877 and associated with his brother in Pomona's fruit
colony. His marriage united him with Mary E. Rhoades, a native
of Illinois, and daughter of Silas C. and Ann (Quincy) Rhoades, and
three children blessed their union, Charles of Pasadena and Ethel
and John Logan, deceased. Mrs. Osgoodby died about 1909.
The brothers plowed up the raw land, set out vines and trees, and
with pride have watched the county grow to its present prosperous
condition. They sold their land to a syndicate and it was platted. The
ten acres they now have was originally their father's, but they have
developed it. Always active Republicans, and attending conventions
at different times, interested in good schools and good government, they
have exerted an influence in the community. They became owners of
145 acres of land, the headgates of the present water supply system
of the Valley, and this they sold to the Pomona Valley Protective
Association. This controls the flood waters of San Antonio Canyon.
When they settled here there was a primitive Indian rancheria where
Ganesha Park now is. The brothers raised corn on their forty acres
and hauled it to San Bernardino, their nearest market.
WILLIAM PLUSH
Of French descent, William Plush has been prominent both in
the Eastern states, where he followed agriculture on a large scale, and
in California, where he has made horticulture his occupation, and has
become a part of the increasing growth and prosperity of Pomona
Valley. Progressive and keenly alive to the advancement of the times.
260 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
he has made a place for himself in the community which he chose for
his home because of its fine climate and splendid educational facilities,
as well as its opportunities for a man of energy and business acumen.
William Plush was born in Linn County, Mo., December 25,
1866, on the home farm there, and received his education in the
country schools of that district. When still a boy he was taken to
Kansas, and he later started to farm in that state, first as a renter, and
later owned and operated one of the best farms in Kingman County,
raising grain and stock, and meeting with splendid success. During
his years of residence in Kansas he was active in the civic and educa-
tional advancement of his section of the state, and served on the school
board in two different districts, also served three terms as township
assessor. He was a member of the Odd Fellows' Lodge there, and
numbered his friends by the score.
In 1904, the ill health of his wife induced Mr. Plush to seek a
milder climate, and he sold eighty acres of his holdings in the East
and turned his face toward California. He spent the first five years
in different parts of the state, looking for a suitable place to settle,
and finally decided that the Pomona Valley offered the greatest induce-
ments. In 1910 he made his permanent location here, bought an eight-
acre apricot orchard at 440 East Phillips Boulevard, and joined the
ranks of the prosperous horticulturists in the Valley. His ranch was
somewhat run down at the time of his purchase of the property, and
he at once set to work to bring it to a high state of cultivation, until
it is now one of the best-kept orchards in the Valley. He erected a
windmill for water for domestic use; put in cement curbing along the
front of his ranch; planted more fruit trees and a number of flowers
and shade trees; installed a cement flume for irrigation purposes;
walnut trees which he planted for a border are now producing good
crops, also peach trees and a family orchard. Mr. Plush keeps the
land in the best of condition and has raised as high as eleven tons of
apricots; he aims to average eight tons yearly, working for a uniform
yield. Three lemon trees on his ranch are exceptionally large pro-
ducers also ; from two pickings he has taken twenty-three boxes of the
fruit. All showing the results possible from expert care and methods
in the Valley.
The marriage of Mr. Plush united him with Sadie Cheatum, a
native of Missouri, and two sons have blessed their union: Virgil R.
died at the age of twenty-one. He had located in Calexico. Imperial
Valley, and became a department manager in Yarny Bros.' General
Store there, one of the rising young business men of Calexico at the time
of his death; the second son, Lieut. Lewis C. Plush, made a name for
himself in the aviation department of the United States Army during
the recent World War; he was a graduate of Pomona College, class
of 1917, and soon after he enlisted as an aviator, and for fifteen
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 263
months did brilliant service for his country. He received his training
in the aviation school in France, and drove one of the "Spad" ma-
chines over the battlefieldsof France, made a splendid record and has
two German planes to his credit; his family and people of Pomona are
justly proud of him. On his return, February 21, 1919, Lieutenant
Plush gave a number of addresses on his experiences and the thrilling
sights he saw while in the air service; he also brought back a number
of souvenirs and many pictures he took while in the service.
No praise is too high for these valiant defenders of our flag and
liberty, and their records show the sturdy stock from which they
have descended.
HENRY H. WILLIAMS
The rich returns yielded by California's fertile soil hks brought
residents from all states of the Union to her environment, who have
made homes and acquired competencies in the occupation of horticul-
ture. Among these the late Henry H. Williams was well known to
many of the residents of Pomona Valley. He was born in Miami
County, Ohio, and when twenty-one years of age removed to Tama
County, Iowa, where he engaged in farming a 200-acre farm. He
was a veteran of the Civil War and served in Company G, of the
Fourteenth Iowa Infantry under Col. W. T. Shaw of the Sixteenth
Army Corps under General Grant. He took part in thirteen battles
while in service, among them the battles of Shiloh, Donaldson and
Pleasant Hill. He was taken prisoner at Shiloh and confined in four
different prisons, viz., Memphis, Mobile, Cabala and Macon. He
was mustered out of service November 8, 1864, at Davenport, Iowa,
and afterwards went to Belle Plaine, Benton County, Iowa, and fol-
lowed the occupation of farming. He was a merchant in Belle Plaine
for eight years and was a member of the I. O. O. F. and also of the
G. A. R. Post in that city. In 1883 he came to Pomona, Cal., and
purchased fifteen acres of unimproved land, a part of the Hixon
ranch, at the corner of San Antonio and San Bernardino avenues.
He planted an orange orchard, developed water by sinking an artesian
well, installed a pumping plant and piped the water to his land, which
he brought to a high state of cultivation and which yielded a rich
return for his investment and the labor bestowed upon it.
Mr. Williams married Caroline R. Prill, a native of Ohio, by
whom he had two daughters. Dllla, is now Mrs. Bailey of Los An-
geles, Cal., and is the mother of two sons, both of whom saw o\ersea
service In the late war. Her oldest son, Capt. Le Roy H. Bailey,
graduated from Hahnemann Medical College, New York, and was
practicing medicine In Los Angeles when he enlisted. He was surgeon
in the Military Police Division and is now with the Army of Occu-
264 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
pation in Germany. The second son, Elba N., was attending the
University of California at Berkeley at the time he enlisted. He
attended the ordnance school, was attached to the Mobile Artillery
Repair Shop; he saw active service in France and was top sergeant
when discharged. Mrs. Williams' second daughter is Mrs. Gertrude
Henry, of Los Angeles, Cal., and she is the mother of a son, Lieut.
George W. Henry, D. D. S., who enlisted in the Officers' Reserve
Corps, but did not go to France.
Mr. Williams was Past Commander of Vicksburg Post, G. A. R.,
at Pomona, and was also identified with the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows, and donated liberally to the church. He was widely
esteemed for his public spirit and his interest in the upbuilding and
advancement of the community in which he resided, being ever ready
to do his part in advancing the interests of the Valley. His demise,
which occurred October 17, 1902, was deeply lamented by his many
friends.
EDGAR A. LAWRENCE
Among the representative men of Pomona, Edgar A. Lawrence
has perhaps been one of the largest individual factors in the develop-
ment and progress of this section of California, which he chose among
all others as his abiding place, after traveling over the entire state
before deciding on his future home. A native of Oswego County,
N. Y., where his birth took place August 22, 1842, he followed farm-
ing for a time on finishing his schooling, and has made his own way
in the world, helping his father farm from the early age of thirteen
until he was about thirty. He went to East Syracuse, that same state^
and engaged in contracting and building, and erected the first store
building in the town, and later built six buildings for himself and
fourteen for another enterprising man. He erected a fine home for
himself in the town, and took an active part in the upbuilding of the
rapidly growing city. He engaged in the general merchandise business
for a time, then became a stockholder and superintendent of a wagon
manufactory until coming to California. He served as deputy assessor,
among other civic duties, and in church affairs was trustee and treas-
urer of the Presbyterian Church, and always an active worker in the
temperance cause.
Mr. Lawrence made his first trip to California in 1884, arriving
November 26 of that year. He traveled through the state and decided
to locate in Pomona, an important factor in his decision being the
excellent artesian water to be had here. He returned East and brought
his family to Pomona on November 13, 1885. Mr. Lawrence's first
business investment here was a grove in the Kingsley tract, on which
he set out oranges; this he later sold, and bought, developed and sold
other orange groves in the Valley. Among his varied enterprises he
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 265
engaged in the manufacture of Alpine plaster, in Los Angeles, and
at one time owned a 600-acre banana plantation in South America.
A large property-owner in Pomona, Mr. Lawrence is the owner of
three store buildings on Second Street, and a building on Main Street.
He helped to form the Home Telephone Company and is one of the
largest stockholders in that concern, also is a stockholder in the First
National Bank of Pomona, and has real estate holdings in Los Angeles.
The marriage of Mr. Lawrence, which occurred in New York
state, July 3, 1865, united him with Cornelia J. Burnham, of Cort-
land County, and four children have been born to them, three living,
E. Alva, Arthur H., and Mrs. Albert Snow. The family attend the
Congregational Church.
Recognized as one of Pomona's most representative upbuilders,
Mr. Lawrence has been in the vanguard of progress since his first
arrival in the Valley. A man of firm convictions and with the courage
to carry them to successful conclusion, it is to such men as he that the
rapid advancement of Pomona, as a city, and center of the orange
industry of the Southwest, is due.
JOHN J. WHITE
A worthy pioneer of Pomona Valley and one who has taken an
important part in its development and was closely identified with the
fruit industry here for many years, John J. White has seen many
changes wrought in this fertile section in the past thirty-six years, and
has himself been a part of the growth and advancement of the com-
munity. He is a native of Indiana, born in Bartholomew County,
February 17, 1843, and was reared in Tipton, Howard County, that
state. He enlisted and served in an Indiana regiment during the Civil
War, after which he farmed there for a time, then went to Miami
County, Kans., in 1871, and farmed there until 1881.
In 1876 Mr. White made his first trip to California, and stayed
four months. In 1881 he came here to stay, and for two and one-half
years resided in San Diego County, near what is now Escondido. In
1883 he came to Pomona, and has made his home here since that early
date, keenly alive to the opportunities to be found here and helping
to make their realization possible for future generations. After his
arrival he did carpenter work for a while, and later did teaming. For
a number of years he leveled land for orchard planting. He super-
intended the grading of the Loud ranch on San Antonio Avenue,
directing a gang of 100 men, and later bought fruit for Loud and
Gerling, fruit packers in Pomona. Amoijg his other interests, he ran
a fruit-drying yard for himself and others, and bought and developed
land. He planted a five-acre ranch to fruit, on Grand Avenue; this
land he later sold to his son, John D. In 1885 Mr. White bought
266 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
a five-acre ranch on Towne Avenue, from the Pomona Land and
Water Company, which he planted to apricots and wahiuts, and this
land he still owns; he has developed it into a fine producer and in his
various activities in the Valley has worked steadily as a real upbuilder
and upholder of the community's best interests.
The marriage of Mr. White, in Indiana, near Kokomo, united
him with Lucy Jane Long, a native of Indiana, and five children have
been given them to help carry on the world's work: -Ulysses E., Addi-
son T., John D., Lawrence T., and Grace, wife of Ernest Irwin. Ten
grandchildren and one great-grandchild have blessed the family as
well, and Pomona can well be proud of such worthy citizens.
CHARLES KUNTZ
Among the pioneers of Pomona Valley, mention should be made
of the activities of the late Charles Kuntz, who was one of the moving
spirits in Pomona from the date of his arrival here until his death.
A native of Germany, he was born in 1842, and when he was a lad of
twelve he was brought to this country by his parents, who settled in
Warrensburg, Mo. He received but a limited education, but his
contact with the world eventually made him an interesting conversa-
tionalist and a well-informed man.
Although but a lad of thirteen he began work in Missouri as
water boy to the construction crew engaged in building the Central
Pacific Railroad, and at the age of nineteen he enlisted for service in
the Civil War in the Tenth Missouri Volunteer Infantry and served
with the Union Army throughout the war. After the war was over he
engaged in the nursery business in Henry County, Mo., and it was
while living there that he married Mrs. Jane C. (Kaufman) Kadell,
their marriage taking place on June 1, 1876.
A native of Northern Switzerland, Mrs. Kuntz was born in
1850, and when a girl of five accompanied her parents to the United
States, and for a time they lived in Ohio. In 1861 the family removed
to Henry County, Mo., and it was there that her marriage to James
Kadell was solemnized in 1867. Of that union she has two children
living: Mary, Mrs. Heyle of Rockville, Mo., and the mother of five
sons, one of whom served as a soldier in the World War and saw-
service in France. The second child is James William Kadell of Oak-
land, Cal., and the father of two children, Alleen and William. After
the death of Mr. Kadell she married Mr. Kuntz, and they had ten
children, six of them still living: Louise, Mrs. Heydenreich of Los
Angeles, is a talented musician on the violin; Lena, Mrs. Huston of
Calexico, Cal., and the mother of two sons, Charles and Louis; Otto,
served in the Seventh Regiment Band, N. G. C, on the Mexican
border, then was with the band of Company B, One Hundred Sixtieth
Regiment, U. S. A., stationed at Arcadia and later at Camp Kearny
V
^
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 269
for six months; Etta and Olive are next in order of birth; Frank,
served for twenty months in the United States Navy during the World
War, and had many interesting experiences during his term of service.
It was in 1884 that Mr. and Mrs. Kuntz, with their family, came
to California and settled in Pomona, where Mr. Kuntz engaged in
raising vegetables and delivered them to customers by wagon through-
out the Valley. They built their first home at the corner of Fourth
Street and Garey Avenue, and there they lived for many years. It was
on this spot that the first water well in Pomona was located, and where,
in earlier days, the people of the Valley held their picnics on account
of the fine water, and the people of the new settlement used to come
there for their supply of drinking water. The well ceased to yield a
supply and was covered over by the residence that now stands on that
corner, where the family now make their home. During the latter
years of his life Mr. Kuntz lived retired. He was a charter member
of Vicksburg Post, No. 61, G. A. R., was a loyal citizen and upbuilder
of Pomona Valley, and when he died, August 22, 1917, the County
of Los Angeles lost a good citizen and the community, a stanch friend.
Mrs. Kuntz, during the Civil War, was of great service to the
Union soldiers, for she took up her father's work in the Home Guards
while he planted and raised corn for the army, doing her share of the
work by riding horseback and taking the supplies to the soldiers.
About twenty years ago she was healed by Christian Science and ever
since then has been an active member of that denomination and a
practitioner of note in Pomona, where she has made some wonderful
cures and healed many whose cases had been given up by the physi-
cians. Especially was this noted during the epidemic of influenza that
raged in the Valley in 1917 and 1918, when some eighty cases were
cured by her. She is a charter member of the Christian Science Church
of Pomona, and a kindly and benevolent character, and is beloved by
a large circle of friends who appreciate her qualities of mind and heart.
JAMES ALBERT DOLE
Natives of the state of Maine have always been noted for their
stanch "hewing to the right," no matter in what circumstances they
find themselves, and for the sturdy characteristics which go to make
successful men of affairs in any walk of life. Among those who have
elected to make California their home and who have aided \ery mate-
rially in the advancement of their sections of the Golden State, no
biographical history would be complete without mention of the name
of James Albert Dole. Born in Bangor, Maine, September 20, 1843,
he is the son of Albert and Miriam (McDonald) Dole, the father
a cabinet maker and a manufacturer of furniture. The Dole family
is traced back to Richard Dole, who came from England to Newbury-
270 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
port, Mass., early in the seventeenth century. James A. received his
education in the common schools of his neighborhood, and entered the
high school, expecting to graduate. Circumstances, however, inter-
fered with that desired consummation of his studies, and he left school
to learn his father's trade, and from that time on was face to face with
the serious business of life.
When a youth of eighteen, the Civil War broke out, and, like a
true Yankee, young Dole went to the defense of the Union, enlisting
in Company F, Eighteenth Maine Infantry, afterwards the First
Maine Heavy Artillery, and was promoted from the ranks to a first
lieutenant. He took part in two very serious battles, those of Harris
Farm, Va., and Petersburg, and in the Hrst battle his company lost
half of their men, while in the second every fighting man left in the
company was hit. The regiment, in fact, lost more men than any
other in the entire war, which surely speaks well for the courage and
endurance of those who, like Mr. Dole, although wounded in both
battles, came through safely. After the surrender of Lee, Mr. Dole's
resignation was accepted, June 10, 1865, and he returned home. His
father had died May 30, 186kJ, so with an elder brother he took over
the father's business, conducting it under the name of Dole Bros., and
under that heading they continued business for twenty-five years, be-
coming well known for the artistic qualities and reliability of their
workmanship.
A younger brother, John Henry Dole, came West and established
the People's Bank at Pomona, and when the health of William B., the
elder brother, failed, they all came to California and settled at Pomona
in 1887. William B. became president of the People's Bank, and also
invested in orange groves, remaining active in the business life of the
Valley until his death, which occurred in 1897. His younger brother,
John H. Dole, was cashier of the bank until his death, the following
year. Succeeding his brother, James Albert Dole became president
of the bank and continued in that position until the institution was sold
to the American National Bank, in 1902.
Having early given his attention to the absorbing question of
water supply and power, Mr. Dole became president of the San An-
tonio Light and Power Company, and the importance of the enterprise
may be realized when it is learned that this was the first company in
the world to successfully transmit electricity a long distance for power
purposes so economically that it was demonstrated a commercial
success. In 1900 Mr. Dole sold his interest in the water company, and
for three years he was president of the gas company. During the
early pioneer years, he was active in horticultural development work
and with his brothers planted, improved and owned large orange
groves. The Pomona Telephone Company was another enterprise to
claim Mr. Dole's attention, and for some years he was vice-president
of that concern, and in 1918 was elected president of the company,
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 271
which maintains a high rate of efficiency as a public service corporation.
The marriage of Mr. Dole, which occurred June 2, 1874. at
Bangor, Maine, united him with Miss Emma Drummond, a daughter
of Manuel S. and Lucinda C. Drummond, and one daughter, Miriam,
blessed their union, who distinguished herself during the late war to
the satisfaction of her many friends in the community through Y. M.
C. A. work for our soldiers in France, and is now establishing a 500-
bed hospital in Serbia. The wife and mother passed to her higher
reward in Bangor, Maine, November 13, 1917, sincerely mourned by
her devoted family and many friends in the community, where she had
endeared herself as a faithful coworker with her husband for the
welfare of their home section. The family attend the Congregational
Church. Fraternally, Mr. Dole is a Knight Templar as well as a mem-
ber of Al Malaikah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., Los Angeles. Patriot-
ically, he is a member of the Grand Army and the Loyal Legion. It
would be hard to find a man more thoroughly in accord with the spirit
of progress for which Pomona Valley is known throughout the country,
and who in both his public and private life has proven himself a true
citizen and representative of the American commonwealth, than James
Albert Dole.
ALLEN P. NICHOLS
A member of the California bar, the junior son of an old-time
Pomona family, Allen P. Nichols was born in Burlington, Vt., on
April 1, 1867. He is the son of Dr. Benjamin S. Nichols, who for
years practiced medicine in New York and Vermont and in time
married Miss Lucy Penfield. Later Doctor Nichols entered the field
of business in Vermont; and, coming to California and Pomona in
1886, he bought an interest in the Pomona Land and Water Company,
of which he became the president and remained the managing spirit
until his death. Mrs. Nichols, beloved by a wide circle of friends and
acquaintances, passed away in 1914.
Educated in the public and private schools of Burlington, Vt.,
Allen P. Nichols studied at the University of Vermont until coming
to Pomona in 1887, and eventually matriculated in the Law School
of Yale University, from which he was graduated in 1891 with the
degree of LL.B. Prior to that he had studied law with Attorney P. C.
Tonner from 1888 to 1890, which considerably facilitated his Yale
University work. At the University of Vermont he belonged to the
Sigma Phi fraternity; and at Yale he was made a member of the Book
and Gavel Club. After graduating he practiced in Pomona in 1891
with Mr. Tonner. In later years he formed a partnership with Russell
K. Pitzer, which continued to 1916, when his present firm, Nichols,
Cooper & Hickson, was formed.
272 HISTORY AND BIOGRz^PHY
At East Hardwick, Vt., on July 2, 1891, Mr. Nichols married
Miss Elizabeth Adgate, and they are the parents of four children:
Lucy E., now Mrs. Edgar W. Maybury of Pasadena; Luther A. is a
graduate of the University of California and was a lieutenant in the
Aviation Corps during the war; he is now graduate manager of univer-
sity athletic activities at Berkeley; Mary G. is Mrs. H. A. Bartlett
of Pomona; and Donald P. is a senior in the Pomona high school.
Mr. Nichols is a thirty-second degree Mason and a Shriner, and is
deeply interested in all Masonic activities.
A member of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Nichols is always
seeking new and approved ways of promoting the growth of Pomona
and vicinity. He was president of the Board of Education for two
terms and chairman of the local exemption board during the war, and
also served as city attorney for one term. He is a member of the
Claremont Golf Club and takes his vacations in the Big Bear Valley,
where he enjoys entertaining his family and friends.
ALONZO W. LEE
Among the names worthy of being perpetuated In the annals of
Pomona Valley is that of Alonzo W. Lee, a prominent orange and
walnut grower and pioneer of the section. Mr. Lee was born In Wash-
ington County, Ind., October 31, 1857, a son of William and Eliza-
beth (Thomas) Lee, both born and reared in Indiana of Southern
ancestry. He was reared on the farm and after attaining his majority
spent a year in Texas, from whence he returned to his native State
and engaged in farming for one year. He then went to Nebraska,
when the greater part of the land was undeveloped, and worked on a
farm for a year, then rented land and engaged in the occupation of
agriculture for himself. He next went to southwestern Missouri and
farmed for two years, going thence to eastern Kansas, where he con-
tinued the occupation of tilling the soil two and a half years more.
In September, 1887, he came to Pomona Valley, Cal., and settled at
Lemon Station, now Walnut. For five years he raised barley on the
Rowland Ranch in the Walnut district, and In the meantime purchased
twenty acres of unimproved land, which he set to Navel and Valencia
oranges.
In 1902 he bought fifteen acres adjoining his place and set out a
walnut grove. His walnut trees are all budded to the best variety of
walnuts, and in 1918 the orchard produced $9,000 in gross receipts,
and the 1919 crop exceeded this in net returns. His orange grove is
a wonderful producer also, and one season six acres of Valencia
oranges yielded over $10,000 worth of fruit — a record crop in the
Valley. In early days he sold oranges direct to the residents of
Pomona.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 275
He has been twice married. His first wife, who in maidenhood
was Eva Engle, bore him three sons and four daughters. James
De Witt was a member of the One Hundred Forty-fourth Field Ar-
tillery in the Grizzlies Regiment, and saw service in France; Ernest
was a member of the United States Marines; Arthur was also in the
navy and saw active service at the front with a machine-gun company.
Edna is the wife of W. D. Persons of Walnut; Kathleen is the wife of
F. W. Combs of Oregon, and Florence is a nurse and was employed
in Pomona Valley Hospital during the war, but is now at home. Maud
M. died aged eighteen years. Mrs. Lee died in April, 1912.
On November 26, 1914, Mr. Lee was united in marriage with
Mrs. Clara Afflerbaugh, who was living at Chino. She has one son,
Alvin Fay Afflerbaugh of Los Angeles.
Mr. Lee was a member of the school board in the Walnut district
for several years. He was one of the organizers and is a director and
charter member of the Walnut Fruit Growers Association. He has
been largely instrumental in developing the Walnut district, and is
justly entitled to the position of esteem and respect accorded him.
DAVID H. COLLINS
One of the first settlers of Pomona Valley, where he located in
1883, after varied experiences in California and Arizona, David H.
Collins crossed the plains to California when a lad of fifteen years
and, with the exception of two years, lived the balance of his life in
this state, a part of the growing West, in which he was a well-known
figure. Born in Rochester, N. Y., in 1838, he was the son of LaFay-
ette and Elizabeth (Hayden) Collins, the former a native of Vermont
and the latter of Connecticut. The father located in Rochester, and
there practiced law and was judge of the district court in that city. In
1853 he brought his family across the plains to California, and located
in Petaluma, Sonoma County, where he practiced law and served as
district attorney for that county. His death occurred in 1867.
David H. Collins followed farming and stock raising with his
father and brothers in Sonoma County. For two years he was in
Arizona and helped lay out the town of Prescott in that state, also
followed mining for a time. Then, in 1867, he came to Southern
California and located at San Jacinto and with his brother, Germain
Collins, engaged in stock raising, continuing in that occupation until
1874, in which year he came to Santa Ana and followed ranching.
From 1881 to 1883 Mr. Collins was in the dairy business, on his
Chino ranch, with 600 cows, leasing land and stock from Richard
Gird. In 1883 he came to Spadra, bought 200 acres of land in the
San Jose School District, one mile west of Spadra, and engaged in
grain-raising on a large scale; in addition to his ranch property, he
276 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
rented land and combined his raising of grain with the breeding of fine
horses. and Durham cattle.
Always with the public welfare at heart, this fine old pioneer
served in public office even while busily engaged in development work;
a Republican in politics, he was a member of the county central com-
mittee, and also served as deputy county assessor. In fraternal organ-
izations he was a member of Pomona Lodge No. 246, I. O. O. F.
David H. Collins was twice married; the first time in 1867, to
Zille Martin, a native of Sonoma County, Cal. She died in 1881,
leaving five children: Fred, Bessie, Gertrude, Grace, and John, a
druggist at Cutler. On April 20, 1882, Mr. Collins was united in
marriage with Ida F. Arnold, and one son was born to them, Henry
LaFayette, who entered service in the very beginning of the World
War, 1914, as chief yeoman in the United States Navy, and assisted
in the capture of the German raider Vicksburg in the Pacific Ocean.
A true helpmate to Mr. Collins during their thirty years of life
together, after his death Mrs. Collins sold the home ranch, in 1912,
and moved to Pomona, where she conducts the Fifth Avenue Apart-
ment House.
HENRY M. REED
During the period of his residence in Pomona Valley, dating
from 1882, H. M. Reed, pioneer of Pomona, has seen the arid and
treeless country develop into a veritable garden of luxuriant beauty,
citrus groves displacing the fields of grain and well-paved roads inter-
secting the Valley in lieu of the old sand roads through which the
horses and mules of that early day had to amble knee-deep in dust.
Mr. Reed is a native of Montgomery County, Ohio, and was
born December 6, 1848. His father, John G., and mother, Lydia
(Yoe) Reed, natives of Schuylkill County, Pa., are deceased. The
father, a carpenter by trade, followed that occupation in Ohio and
Indiana, and continued it after coming to Pomona, October, 1875,
where he purchased a quarter block of land at the corner of South
Thomas and West Sixth streets, upon which he built the house in which
his son now lives. He was the father of four children: Henry M.
Reed of Pomona ; David C. Reed of Del Mar, San Diego County,
Cal.; Mrs. T. J. Emerick of Summerland, Cal., and Mrs. Catherine
Beem, of Strawberry Park, Cal.
H. M. Reed was reared in Shelby County, Ind., where he re-
mained until nineteen years of age, when he removed to Johnson
County, Ind., going thence to Brookson, White County, in the same
state. He was employed as a farm hand in Indiana, and upon coming
to Pomona in 1882 worked at the carpenter trade with his father.
Many of the old homes are now standing in Pomona which he built.
?lrc»^/il -^a
HISTORY AXD BIOGRAPHY 279
In 1903 he entered the employ of the city as teamster, and helped
grade and construct many of Pomona's streets. He is now retired.
His marriage united him with Miss Ella F. Haff of Indiana, who
bore him three daughters: Mrs. Pearl Nunneley of Pomona, Mrs.
Hazel Reynolds of El Centro, Cal., and Mrs. Helen Blakemore of
Pomona. In his religious convictions Mr. Reed Is a member of the
Methodist Church. He Is a respected citizen of the community and
enjoys the confidence and esteem of a large circle of friends and
acquaintances.
FRANK GARCELON, M. D.
When the Grim Reaper called Dr. Frank Garcelon to his reward
on June 24, 1914, Pomona Valley and Southern California lost one
of the old-school physicians who had endeared himself to a very wide
circle of friends through his humanitarian methods and his skill in
diagnosing and In the treatment of diseases. He was of that school
of family doctors, almost extinct, who ever have been looked upon, not
alone as physician, but as counselor and friend.
Frank Garcelon was born in St. Albans, Maine, June 6, 1848, a
worthy representative of the old New England type of family, long
prominent In the history of Maine. His early education was obtained
In the schools of his locality, after which he matriculated In the Uni-
versity of Maine, from which he was graduated with honors, then
began the study of medicine at the University, completed the course,
graduated from Bowdoln later, and then took up post-graduate work
In Bowdoln Medical College.
His first independent practice was in LIvermore Falls, Maine,
where his talents were becoming well known and he was building up
a practice, but In 1883 he was called to Abilene, Kans., by the serious
illness of a sister, and during the years he remained In that state he
experienced some of the pioneer life In Kansas. It was In January,
1888, that he located In Pomona, but the following year the family
moved to Chico, where the Doctor had a sister living. For about a
year he remained there, when, on account of the heaviest rains ever
experienced In the state, causing tremendous losses to the people. Dr.
Garcelon decided he would return to Pomona, which he did in 1890,
and from the time of his second arrival here he was in continuous
practice until shortly before his death.
During the early years of his practice here he was often called
upon to travel long distances to visit the sick and afflicted, his patients
living as far west as El Monte and eastward Into San Bernardino
County and south to Riverside. He first was associated with Dr. C.
W. Brown and Dr. Thomas Coates, under the firm name of Brown,
Coates & Garcelon, but eventually he practiced independently for many
280 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
years. For more than twenty years he maintained his office in the
PhilHps Block, only closing it about a year prior to his death, during
which time he was confined to bis home with ailments that caused his
death.
Dr. Garcelon was the last of five brothers in a family of eleven
children, three of whom showed their patriotism by their service in
behalf of their country during the Civil War ; one died in Libby prison ;
another was with Sherman in the march to the sea, and was killed
during the trip; and a third was also a victim of the war, dying in a
hospital in New Orleans; a fourth died in South America. His sisters
were Mrs. Helen Warren; Mrs. Lydia Stewart; Mrs. C. W. Brown;
Mrs. Louise Pettengill; Mrs. Amanda Pettengill; and Mrs. George
Hunton.
Dr. Garcelon was a member of all the Masonic bodies in Pomona,
and was largely instrumental in organizing Southern California Com-
mandery No. 37, K. T., here, of which he was the first Eminent
Commander; he was a member of the Scottish Rite Consistory in Los
Angeles. Through his efforts and untiring zeal the Pomona Valley
Hospital owes more for its existence than to any other man, and he
was the dean of the faculty on its opening; no one had thought of any
other for the honor. He was the friend of all physicians who sought
to be worthy of the calling. It is said of Dr. Garcelon that he seldom
sent a bill to a patient for services, nor asked one dollar from any one
in his life. He believed every one to be honest and that they would
pay when they could. It is also true that he never refused a call, no
matter how far he had to go, nor did he ever take into consideration
the weather conditions. He was a skilled physician, often called in
counsel in difficult cases, and as long as he was needed he was on hand
to attend the patient.
His professional duties did not entirely absorb all of his time to
the exclusion of all other interests; he was approachable and was
always ready to aid, so far as in his power, all worthy projects for the
advancement of the interests of the people of the Valley and the up-
building of the state of his adoption. No one ever sought his aid and
was denied. He was highly esteemed by his associate physicians, for
he was always abreast of the times and held membership in the Los
Angeles County Medical Society; Southern California Medical Asso-
ciation, of which he served as president at one time; and the American
Medical Association.
The marriage of Dr. Frank Garcelon on May 27, 1877, united
him with Miss Eleanor Coffin, a native of Maine, and they became
the parents of two children: Dr. Harris Garcelon of Victorville, Cal;
and Eleanor, who married George B. Jess of Van Nuys.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 281
JAMES W. FULTON
To be the descendant of one of the old pioneers of Cahfornia, one
of the '49ers who paved the way for the present prosperity enjoyed
by their descendants, is an honor which is getting to be distinctive,
since so many of the old families in the state have died out and left
no one to carry on the work started by their forefathers. The interest
which attaches to the biography of California pioneers is not that of
curiosity, but a visible expression of the gratitude which all men feel
towards those forerunners of civilization in the far West. Himself
a native son, and the only li\ing descendant of a pioneer family, James
W. Fulton has ably carried on the work of development in the state
in which his father had a large part, and mention of both these able
men is due in compiling the history of any part of California, and
particularly that of Pomona Valley.
Born in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, July 30, 1857, James W.
Fulton is the son of James and Malissa (Wilson) Fulton, the father
a native of Indiana, who crossed the plains to California with ox teams
in the year 1849, and mined during those exciting times in the state's
history. He later engaged in stock raising and the dairy business, first
at San Jose, and then in Sonoma County. In 1878, with his son,
James W., he traveled all over the northern part of the state, Oregon
and Washington, and upon their return the father went to Texas and
bought a band of sheep which he leased out there. He came to
Southern California and located at Rivera, hear Whittier, Los Angeles
County, where he was joined by his son. From that locality he went to
the Azusa Valley and there bought a tract of land. This ranch his son
was put in charge of, and James, Sr., remained on the Rivera ranch,
both engaged in stock raising on a large scale.
In 1883, James W. Fulton sold out his ranch and went to Texas,
where he remained about two years, and while there sold his father's
sheep and returned, and in 1885 father and son located on a tract of
raw land in the Pomona Valley, comprising seventy-five acres; later
this land was subdivided and sold, and is now all built up, a part of the
residence section of North Pomona. James W. later set out a forty-
five-acre orange grove and devoted his ranching activities to citrus
cultivation. In later years he retired from active horticultural pursuits
and sold tliis ranch, though he still is the owner of a twenty-five-acre
apple orchard in the Yucaipa Valley, an evidence of his progressive
ideas in trying out new development work in the state.
Since his first residence in the Valley, James W. Fulton has taken
an active part in the development work of this section, and he is now
rated as one of the most prominent and representative men in the
Valley. His years of diversified work and travel have given him a
broad vision and keen insight into the future possibilities of a com-
munity, and with the public spirit found in all real Californians, he has
282 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
been a factor In the advancement and growth of both Pomona and her
surrounding territory. He was a director and one of the founders of
the first orange growers' association in the Valley; he is president and
one of the founders of the Home Builders Loan Association of Po-
mona; a director and one of the organizers of the State Bank of
Pomona; and a director and one of the founders of the Home Tele-
phone Company of Pomona.
The marriage of Mr. Fulton united him with Anna McCune,
born in Greencastle, Pa., and they had a son, WHford, now deceased.
They are members of the Christian Church and active in the good
works of that body.
SAMUEL B. CLIFTON
Among the valiant men who serve the country faithfully in the
capacity of L^nited States forest rangers, is numbered Samuel B.
Clifton, a Southerner by birth. He was born in his native state of
Alabama, March 6, 1859, In Cherokee County, and at the age of
fourteen, in 1873, accompanied his parents when they removed to
Conway, Ark. His father was a stock raiser and butcher, and Samuel
B. was associated with him in this occupation until 1886, when he came
to Pomona Valley, Cal. In those early days the present site of the
thriving city of San Dimas was a waving field of grain, and in the
thirty-three years of Mr. Clifton's residence in the Valley he has wit-
nessed many changes equally great. In early days he did day work
on the ranches in the Valley, which in those days were devoted prin-
cipally to grain farming, there being only a few oranges trees in the
Valley. He next engaged in the important industry of water develop-
ment in the Valley, and worked at tunneling for water for the La
Verne Land and Water Company. He worked on the Edgemont
Ranch, and also for L. M. Wicks in water development, constructing
pipe lines, etc. In 1901 he entered the L-nited States Government
service as forest ranger, the position he now occupies. His territory
includes the San Dimas, Live Oak and Palm Canyons, and his duties
are to prevent forest fires, fight fires, prevent cutting of timber, and
to prevent people from leaving camp fires burning. These are his
summer duties. In the winter he has charge of a crew of men engaged
in making trails and fire breaks. He has built a fire break from San
Dimas Canyon to San Antonio Canyon nine miles long and fifty-two
feet wide, and in all has built fifty miles of trails and fire breaks. The
whole mountain district which he serves is a network of trails, which
makes it an easy task to get the fire fighters quickly to the blaze. He
has a fine record in his district, where no large fires have ever occurred
and many small fires have been quickly extinguished. He has also
played an important part in the development of the orange inudstry
In the Valley. He purchased a ten-acre unimproved piece of land at
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 283
the mouth of San Dimas Canyon, cleared the land, developed a supply
of water for irrigation purposes, planted the property to Navel
oranges, and in ten years' time sold the place for a good profit. He
next bought eight and one-half acres of unimproved land at the mouth
of Live Oak Canyon, which he similarly developed and disposed of in
nine years' time. He was married in Arkansas in 1879 to Kate E.
Pettit, born in Missouri, of whom he was bereaved March 3, 1915.
Of the seven children she bore him, four are living: Audrey, who
presides gracefully over her father's home; Bessie, the wife of Robert
Estep of San Dimas; Charlotte, the wife of V. Fugate of El Segundo,
Cal.; and Ross, who is in the employ of Hamburger's Department
Store in Los Angeles. Self-made in the widest use of the term, he is
a man of broad ideas, liberal and progressive, and enjoys a wide
popularity in a community which owes much to him for the furtherance
of its development.
PATRICK W. DOYLE
One of the early settlers of Pomona who adjusted himself to the
pioneer conditions here and aided materially in the development work
then being put forward, Patrick W. Doyle will be remembered as one
of the worthy pioneers of this section. Born in Kildare, Leinster,
Ireland, he was the youngest of nine children born to Patrick and
Catherine (Wall) Doyle, the mother also a native of Kildare.
Patrick W. received his education up to his thirteenth year in private
schools in Ireland; the mother died when he was young, and the father
brought his children to America in 1849. He followed farming near
Auburn, N. Y., and later died there.
Patrick W. Doyle went to Rochester, N. Y., and there learned
the carpenter trade and followed it there until 1864. He then went
to Cleveland, Ohio, and there became a contractor and builder and
followed that work in Cleveland for twenty-one years. In 1885 he
came to California and located in Pomona. He bought a nine-acre
ranch in the Kingsley Tract, one of the first to buy and build a home
in that tract. The land was piped for irrigation and domestic use, and
a pumping plant established. Mr. Doyle set out prunes on his land,
but later took them out and set out oranges. Navels and Valencias.
The family home is still on this ranch, situated on the corner of San
Antonio and Olive avenues.
In addition to his citrus development, Mr. Doyle engaged in con-
tracting and building in Pomona, and followed that line for many
years. He built the first Catholic church here and superintended the
building of the present church. He erected the packing plant at Clare-
mont, and many fine homes and business blocks in Pomona. During
all his residence here he proved himself a man of worth, with the
welfare of his community at heart and willing to work toward that
284 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
end, and his death was mourned by a large circle of friends as well as
by his devoted family. His death occurred November 17, 1917.
On January 1, 1868, Mr. Doyle married Helen Max, a native
of Germany, and she survives him. They were the parents of eight
children, as follows: James, now deceased; Edward, of Riverside
County ; Thomas, deceased ; Alice M., residing at the old home ; Anna,
Mrs. McGarry of Los Angeles; George of Seattle; Mary; and
William, traveling auditor for the Santa Fe Railway.
T. HARDY SMITH, M. D.
A physician who, following exceptional scientific and technical
preparation for his work, and years of illuminating practice, has come
to take front rank among the best representatives of medicine and
surgery in Pomona, is Dr. T. Hardy Smith, who was born at Nor-
folk, Va., on July 26, 1855. His father. Prof. William A. Smith, was
president of Randolph-Macon Callege at Boydton, Va., and under his
fortunate supervision, the lad took up the study of Latin and Greek
at the age of nine years. Later, Professor Smith was made president
of Central College at Fayette, Mo., and there Hardy studied until he
graduated with the degree of A. M. Then, for three years, he
engaged in the wholesale dry goods business at St. Louis, Mo.
In 1879 Mr. Smith began the study of medicine, and three years
later he was graduated from the St. Louis Medical College with the
degree of M. D. He practiced medicine with success at St. Louis
up to 1887, and during the time when he was enlarging his experience
in the most helpful way, by actual clinical and laboratory work, he was
professor of physiology at Beaumont Hospital Medical College,
St. Louis, an institution that has had much to do with directing the
trend of educational and scientific affairs in the city that some years
later was hostess to the world.
Doctor Smith arrived at Pomona on August 24, 1887, and here he
resumed the practice of medicine in which he has continued ever since.
For six years he was health officer of Pomona, and a member of the
Pomona branch of the Los Angeles County Medical Society and also
of the American Medical Association. He has also served for thirty
years as the local surgeon of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and the
same for the Pacific Electric Railroad since the line was built into
the Valley.
At Pomona, Cal., on June 25, 1895, Doctor Smith was married to
Frances Helena Flood, a native of Canada and a descendant of Ed-
ward Blake, the distinguished Canadian statesman who did so much
to safeguard both the distribution of public money and the delicate
relations between the rapidly growing Dominion and the mother
,»
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 287
country. Mrs. Smith has become active in both Red Cross and church
work and has thus made herself invaluable in Pomona society and
social and civic work. Doctor Smith belongs to Pomona Lodge No.
789, B. P. O. Elks, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Woodmen
of the World and the Fraternal Brotherhood.
MARCUS L. SPARKS
That adverse conditions build up the strong and break down the
weak has found convincing expression in the life of Marcus L. Sparks,
whose dauntless spirit has surmounted many obstacles and drawn
helpful lessons from disheartening circumstances. His reputation as
one of the most substantial citizens of Pomona rests upon a solid foun-
dation of actual merit, upon honesty of purpose and never-failing
devotion to the best interests of his community. Born in Wilkes
County, N. C, March 30, 1853, Mr. Sparks is a son of Joseph and
Mary (Gray) Sparks, both natives of North Carolina. In 1867 the
father left the South and with his family located in Kansas.
Seeking both adventure and greater opportunities, in 1875 young
Marcus came to California, and first settled in the Sacramento Valley.
He arrived in the state with just $8.25 for his capital, and $8.00 of
that went for blankets, so he may be in all truth called a self-made
man. For five years he worked along the Sacramento as farm hand
on different ranches.
On July 9, 1880, Mr. Sparks came to Pomona Valley, and here
he immediately became a landowner, buying five acres for ranch pur-
poses, and also working for wages, receiving the munificent sum of
$1.25 per day for his services. Later, he bought a team and wagon
and did grading work, and setting out trees and vines. Li 1886 he
bought twenty-two acres of land near Pomona. On this property
water was developed, two artesian wells sunk, with fifty inches of
water. This acreage became valuable and he sold the ranch for
$25,000, which sum gave him his start in business and on the road to
prosperity.
In the fall of 1889 Mr. Sparks bought Pomona property and
built a home on Holt Avenue and Main Street, and on December 20
of that year he purchased twenty acres north of La Verne, one-half of
which he set to oranges. In the spring of 1890 he hauled the water
in tanks to irrigate his orchard in its first year's growth. With the
persevering spirit which makes for success, he kept adding to his hold-
ings until he had 152 acres in productive ranch property, built a
packing house and established a pumping plant, overseeing the work
with characteristic thoroughness and energy.
Selling out his ranch holdings, in 1908 Mr. Sparks came to
Pomona to reside, and became president of the San Antonio Meat
288 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Company, dealers in wholesale and retail meats, with a large modern
packing plant covering twenty acres, on East Holt Avenue, and also
maintaining the Palace Meat Market on Second Street, one of the
most successful business enterprises in Pomona.
For the past thirty-nine years an active and important factor in
the development work being done in the Valley, Mr. Sparks has dem-
onstrated at all times his loyalty to this section and has taken a vital
interest in pushing forward all movements for the ultimate good of
Pomona and surrounding territory. He has seen many changes in
that time, for when he first came to the city he found but two small
general stores in operation; in one of these the post office, about six
feet square, was located. The settlement also boasted one saloon, one
blacksmith shop and one little restaurant run by the little Spaniard,
old Saboni, that all old-time residents will remember. Where most
of the fine orange groves now stand was a desert waste, and it has
taken all these years of ceaseless toil and untold expenditures to bring
them up to their present stage of beauty and profit. To the men who
have assisted in this reclamation work all praise is due, and future
generations will have them to thank for providing the stepping-stones
to even more wonderful work awaiting their hands.
In the midst of his full and busy life, Mr. Sparks has found time
to give to civic matters at all times, and also to further, as far as was
in his power, the educational advantages of his districts. He was a
trustee of the LaVerne grammar school, and was president of the
board of trustees of the Bonita high school. In church matters he
serves as trustee of the First Baptist Church of Pomona. Among his
other important business associations, he has been president of the
LaVerne Citrus Association, and of the San Dimas Land and Water
Company.
Mr. Sparks was united in marriage to Miss Nancy Michael in
Butte County, Cal., June 27, 1880. To this union were born: Nellie
M., now Mrs. Levi Ehresman; Elsie, Mrs. William Keating; Minnie,
who died aged nineteen months; Eva, Mrs. George E. Jones. Mr.
and Mrs. Sparks have eight grandchildren.
DR. THOMAS COATES
In the passing of Dr. Thomas Coates, September 8, 1900, Po-
mona experienced a loss that deprived the community of a valuable
promoter of the city's prosperity, and that his friends and acquaint-
ances deeply deplored.
Doctor Coates was reared in the state of New York. His ten-
dencies were in the direction of the medical profession, and in early
manhood he was a student at Rush Medical College and at Ann Arbor,
Mich., graduating from the former institution with the degree of
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 289
M. D. He practiced his profession in Clarence, Iowa, and in 1883
came to Pomona, where he, with Captain Smith, founded the first bank
in the place, the Pomona Valley Bank, of which he was cashier. This
bank was later merged into the First National Bank of Pomona, with
Stoddard Jess as president, and Doctor Coates as vice-president, which
position he held until his death. Later he took up the practice ot
medicine in Pomona, in which profession he was associated with
Dr. Frank Garcelon.
He became very prominent as an exponent of the medical science
and was recognized as a fine practitioner. Progressive in his ten-
dencies, he was one of the first men to plant orange trees in the Valley
and sent to South America for the young trees. At one time he owned
five ranches in the Valley. He was a large owner of Pomona real
estate and a prominent man in the community.
His marriage united him with Miss Sarah Emma Cross, a native
of Pennsylvania, who died May 12, 1917. Five children were born
of their union. The two older, Thomas and Edith Rose, are deceased.
The surviving members of the family are: Mrs. Jessie Coates Burle-
son of Pomona, Mrs. W. Harold Stokes of Pomona, and Charles M.,
an orchardist in Pomona Valley. Doctor Coates was a member of the
school board of Pomona and a trustee in the First Presbyterian
Church.
Mrs. Jessie Coates Burleson's husband. Dr. Frank D. Burleson,
came from the northern part of the state and practiced dentistry in
Pomona up to the time of his death, which occurred in August, 1900.
He was born in Sutter Creek, Amador County, Cal., and was a member
of one of the old pioneer families of the state. His father crossed the
plains with an ox team in the early days. Doctor Burleson was a mem-
ber of the Native Sons of the Golden West. Thomas Coates Burle-
son, the son of Doctor and Mrs. Burleson, is the only grandchild of
Dr. Thomas Coates.
EDWIN T. PALMER
Numbered among Pomona's highly-esteemed pioneers is Edwin
T. Palmer. Mr. Palmer is a New Englander, and was born at Ston-
ington. Conn., May 10, 1854. He was educated in the schools of his
native state and as a young man learned the drug business and con-
ducted a drug store in his native city for ten years.
He came to Pomona in 1884, which in those days was a small
country village, and opened a grocery store in the old Palmer Block
on Second Street. This block was one of the first two-story buildings
built in Pomona. Later he engaged in packing and shipping fruit. As
an independent shipper he erected a small packing house and shipped
fruit as far as old Mexico. He continued this business for fifteen
years, and in the meantime formed a partnership with Harold C.
290 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Dewey in the real estate and building business. During the three years
of his partnership with Mr. Dewey they erected over twenty buildings
in Pomona.
During recent years Mr. Palmer has devoted his time to planting
and developing orange orchards in the Valley. He purchased twenty
acres in Pomona Heights, planted the land to trees and disposed of
ten acres of the property, retaining ten acres. He also owns an eight-
acre orange ranch near Ontario, which is planted to Valencia and
Navel orange trees and which is in full bearing.
His marriage united him Avith Miss Carolyn Huntoon, one of
Idaho's native daughters, and they are the parents of one child, a
daughter named Patricia. In his religious associations Mr. Palmer is
a member of the Congregational Church, of which is one of the
charter members.
JOHN W. ROMICK
Early settlers of Pomona Valley, Mr. and Mrs. John W. Romick
came there when what is now covered with the luxuriant green and
fragrant blossoms of orange trees was arid desert land. The citrus
industry was then in its infancy and It took stamina and perseverance
to show results after years of labor and hardships. John W. Romick
was born near Newman, Douglas County, 111., February 15, 1857, a
son of G. W. and Frances J. (Ingrum) Romick. His parents were
farmers in that state, and the father came to Pomona in 1900, at the
age of seventy years, and engaged in orange growing, his death occur-
ring ten years later, at the venerable age of eighty years. The mother
survived him two years, passing away at the age of seventy-six years.
The eldest child in a family of six boys and six girls, John W.
received his education for the battle of life in the public schools of
Illinois and Kansas, the family having moved to the latter state when
he was a lad of eight years. After finishing his schooling he farmed
for a time in Kansas, then came to California, in 1887, and settled
in Pomona Valley. He purchased land, improved a desert ranch and
set it out to oranges. He made a success of this venture through per-
severing industry and the thrift that goes into the upbuilding of any
community, and later, in 1902, purchased his upper orange grove of
twenty-seven acres, located on Cucamonga Avenue in Claremont.
Here he built a comfortable residence and suitable farm buildings,
setting out the balance, so that he now has a splendid grove, bearing
fine fruit. To the care of this orchard he gives all of his time and
best efforts. He has now spent thirty-two years in citrus culture and
is one of the oldest orange growers in the Claremont district. He is
well pleased with the locality, considering it the most satisfactory of
any in the state.
Ur UK0-'2<yU^<
'<i
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 293
The marriage of Mr. Romick on August 26, 1880, united him
with Miss Ida Brown, who was born in Ingham County, Mich., a
daughter of Dr. Marcus Everett Brown and Eliza M. (Walker)
Brown, both born in Michigan. Dr. Brown was a prominent physician
and surgeon, who afterwards died in Oregon. His wife died in
Kansas.. Mrs. Romick came out to Kansas in 1879, where she met
Mr. Romick, the acquaintance resulting in their marriage. Two chil-
dren blessed their union: Esther Frances is a graduate of Pomona
College and now is the wife of Stuart Wheeler of Claremont; and J.
Ray, who died when thirteen months old. The family are members
of the Congregational Church, and enter into the social and college
life of Claremont.
Since first making his home here, Mr. Romick has shown a deep
interest in the development and upbuilding of the Valley, and is
counted as one of its representative citizens. While never seeking
public office, he has been active in the civic life of the Valley, and in
furthering educational and commercial advantages. He is a director
of the First National Bank of Claremont, and also holds a like position
in the El Camino Fruit Exchange.
FRANK E. ADAMS
A man of rare attainments and a successful orange grower of the
Pomona Valley is found in Frank E. Adams, who came to Pomona
thirty years ago and ever since has been closely identified with its best
interests. A native of New York, he was born in Vernon, Oneida
County, May 6, 1852. He received a good education during his boy-
hood, then entered Whitestown Seminary, New York, where he took
a preparatory course. Entering Amherst College, Amherst, Mass., he
was graduted with the class of '75, and wears the gold key of the Phi
Beta Kappa fraternity of Amherst. He began teaching in Falley
Seminary at Fulton, N. Y., after which, for two years he read law. In
1878 he was elected a teacher in the Oahu College at Honolulu, Ha-
waiian Islands, and spent the next three years in that institution as
teacher of Latin, Greek and mathematics. He resigned in 1881 and
returned to the United States, and the following year entered upon
a business career in Humboldt, Iowa, where he continued successfully
for eight years, disposing of his interests there to come to Pomona,
Cal., in 1890.
Upon locating here he at once entered into the spirit of the times
and was interested in everything that had for its obiect the building up
of the Valley. He bought a six-acre ranch on West Holt Avenue,
made valuable improvements on the property and later added another
five acres to his holdings when he purchased a place in the Alvarado
Tract. This was set to lemons, but later budded to oranges, and has
proven a wise investment, as the grove is a fine producer, the land
294 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
being very rich and adapted to citrus crops. To the development of
his holdings Mr. Adams has given much thought and is recognized
as an authority on orange and lemon culture.
The marriage of Frank E. Adams on June 30, 1885, at Clover-
dale, Sonoma County, united him with Miss Caroline E. Jones, a native
daughter, whose father, the late Rev. W. L. Jones, as a home mission-
ary from the state of Maine, came to California, via Cape Horn, in
1854, the trip being his wedding journey. He located in Campton-
ville, Yuba County, then a thriving mining camp; later he held other
charges in various parts of the state, and in 1878 went to the Hawaiian
Islands, where for five years he was president of Oahu College. He
returned to California and died at Cloverdale, Sonoma County, in
1908, after an unusually interesting career and mourned by a wide
circle of friends. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Adams three children
have been born : Myron F., who was attending Pomona College at the
time of his death in 1908; Carolyn A., who is a graduate of Pomona
College and is now a teacher of Spanish and Latin at the Bonita High
School; and Eugene S., a graduate from Pomona High, who joined
the United States forces in September, 1917, trained at Camp Lewis,
and in July, 1918, went overseas with the Three Hundred Sixteenth
Ammunition Train, Ninety-first Division, and served nine months in
France. He was on his way to the front when the armistice was
signed. He was discharged as bugler at the Presidio in San Francisco
on May 14, 1919, and is now at home in Pomona.
Mr. Adams served for three years as a member of the Pomona
Board of Education, one year acting as president of that body; he is
an ex-member of the Pomona Library Board; secretary of the Currier
Tract Water Company; was one of the organizers of what is now the
Pomona Fruit Growers Exchange, and for years served as a director;
and is a member of the Pilgrim Congregational Church, of which he
served fifteen years as financial secretary, and was very active in the
campaign for increasing the church membership. As a broad-minded,
intelligent and well-educated gentleman, Mr. Adams has wielded a
strong influence for the betterment of the social, moral and educational
conditions of this highly favored section of California, and he and his
wife have a wide circle of friends in Pomona Valley.
HIMON N. PIERCE
One of the "old-timers" of Pomona Valley, and a man of true
public spirit, Himon N. Pierce has been a worker for the advance-
ment of this section for the past thirty years, and during that formative
period of the Valley's growth has given of his time and knowledge
without stint to help develop its latent resources and bring them to the
present state of perfection. .Born in Chittenden County, Vt., October
HISTORY AND BIOGRAI'HY 295
28, 1858, Mr. Pierce is the son of John C. Pierce and Ruth (John-
son) Pierce; the parents were farmer folk back in old Vermont, and
raised a family of five children. Himon N. was educated in the public
schools of his home town, and began helping on the farm from a lad
and from eleven years of age paddled his own canoe.
On reaching manhood, he worked as a sawyer five years, and
also learned butter making and followed that trade three years. He
then farmed four years, and after these occupations decided to come
West to newer fields. He arrived in California October 25, 1888, and
in November of that same year came to Pomona. After locating here
Mr. Pierce started to work for the Pomona Land and Water Com-
pany and has been connected with that company and its successors ever
since. He put in some time with the company which supplied the water
for the Loop and Meserve tract, this company later being known as
the North Palomares Irrigation Company, and he is now superin-
tendent of water for this company, looking after its property at the
Canyon. He owns five and one-half acres in the town of Claremont,
on the corner of Third and Alexander, that he devotes to oranges and
lemons, and has made of it a beauty place.
The marriage of Mr. Pierce united him with Miss Gertrude M.
Pierce, who, though of the same name, was of a different Pierce
family. Two children have been born to them, Wright M., a photog-
rapher by profession, and Salome, who resides with her parents. Mr.
Pierce has been identified with all public movements during his many
years of residence here, and numbers his friends by the score in the
community. He is a great lover of the beauties and wonders of nature,
especially of the mountain regions, and is an ardent hunter and fisher-
man. In politics he votes independently, putting man before party.
FREDERICK J. SMITH
Among the pioneers of the Valley who have weathered the vicissi-
tudes of fruit growing in early days, Frederick J. Smith has labored
faithfully to bring to success his efforts of a lifetime in this section of
California, and can now look backward with pride in his achievements.
A native of England, he was born April 12, 1861, in Bradford, York-
shire, a son of George Belk and Margaret (Russell) Smith, of English
and Scotch extraction, the father a civil engineer by profession. They
raised a family of four boys and an equal number of girls, and have
both passed to their reward. The youngest son in the family, Fred-
erick J. was educated in the schools of England and in private schools,
graduating from International College, London.
At the age of twenty, in 1881, after traveling over Southern Cali-
fornia on horseback, he picked out Pomona as the place for his future
home, there being only three business buildings here at the time, a
296 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
general merchandise store, postoffice, and drug store. After his arrival
Mr. Smith at once began raising fruit, peaches, apricots, olives, pears
and grapes, and shortly afterwards put in oranges, his oldest orange
grove being thirty-one years old. In the early days water was at a
premium, when it ran from the headwaters in an open ditch about nine
miles to his tract, and fruit-growing was not the straight road to
success it has grown to be in later days, and the young orchardist went
through all the grief and worry and financial stress that is the common
experience of the early deciduous fruit growers. Success finally crowned
his work, however, and he now has ninety-seven acres in orange
orchards, with a pipe-line system. He planted seventy acres to grapes,
then, water having been secured, he set out lemons, the fluctuating
prices in deciduous fruits making them a hazardous undertaking in
early days; from eighty dollars a ton they dropped to five and six, both
peaches and apricots, though the establishment of canneries later led
to more profitable prices. The above prices show how hard it was for
the early fruit grower to succeed.
The wonderful growth of Pomona in the last thirty-odd years is a
criterion of the sort of men who have been of the warp and woof
of her progress, and Mr. Smith holds a deserved place in that galaxy
of men. Since his first becoming a part of the community he has been
an earnest worker for the better interests of this section of the state;
for ten years he was president of the San Antonio Fruit Exchange; is
now president of the Growers' Fumigation and Supply Company;
president of the Canyon Water Company; and vice-president of the
Pomona Fruit Growers Exchange. Also past president of the Chamber
of Commerce, and is now a member of its board of directors. Deeply
interested in the advancement of the Valley, he is a firm believer in its
possibilities and has worked to make it the garden spot of the orange
belt. A lover of nature, Mr. Smith takes his recreation in mountain
climbing, and is a member of the Sierra Club of California, at one
time climbing Mt. Whitney with these intrepid climbers, who are
known throughout the coast for their feats.
The marriage of Mr. Smith united him with Miss Louise Cary
of Troy, N. Y. The Cary family came to America in the second ship
after the Pilgrims, in early Colonial days, and the progenitor of the
family in America, Deacon John Cary, was the first Latin scholar in
Plymouth Colony. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs.
Smith: Dorothy Louise, a graduate of the University of California
with the degree of B. S., and of the Johns Hopkins Hospital of Balti-
more, at home; and Russell Cary, who served his country in the World
War in the heavy artillery and was doing intensive training in France
when the armistice was signed. He is now at home. Mr. Smith was
very active on the first loan drive, worked for the Y. M. C. A. and
the Red Cross war fund drives and has been chairman of all of the
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 297
roll-call membership drives for the Red Cross. Mrs. Smith was
organizer and active chairman of the activities of the Red Cross
during the war, in which Pomona secured an enviable record.
GEORGE DILLMAN
A pioneer from the Hoosier State who has made his contribution
toward the progress of Pomona and vicinity in the development of
water in this productive Valley, is George Dillman, favored both in
his. own career and the success of his children. He was born in Wayne
County, Ind., on August 31, 1855, and when a young man moved with
his family from place to place, living in Iowa, Missouri and Kansas.
When he left the latter state in 1878 he located at St. Louis, Mo., and
there established a reputation for both ability and reliability in the
service of the Vulcan Steel Works.
This reputation he very naturally cherishes, for he comes of the
best of German and American stock, with family traditions linking his
ancestors in the most interesting manner with our early history. On
his father's side his forbears came to America from Germany in 1754
and settled in Pennsylvania, so that his great-grandfather was a soldier
under General George Washington and wintered at Valley Forge in
that period described by President Wilson in his history, when he says
that the services of Baron Von Steuben, the German patriot who came
over to help the American colonists, and who drilled Washington's
soldiers, was a more valuable and important aid, if less spectacular,
than that rendered by the French patriot, Lafayette. On his mother's
side, his ancestors came over in one of the trips of the Mayflower. In
time, George grew up in the harvest fields of the Middle West and had
his share in the prosperity of a country his forefathers had sacrificed
so much for, in founding and defending.
For twenty-five years after coming to Pomona — in 1886 — Mr.
Dillman followed well drilling with Palmer Ashton as a partner, and
together they put down hundreds of wells in the Pomona Valley, in
Orange County and in Pasadena. For the first fifteen years they de-
pended upon hand tools, but later steam power was introduced, and
then they were able to advance far more rapidly. Among the wells
sunk were those for the Consolidated Water Company of Pomona, the
Pomona Land and Water Company, and the Del Monte Water Com-
pany, and they also put down many wells north of Claremont, and for
two years he was the superintendent of Sycamore Water Company at
that place. One of the wells was for the Consolidated Water Com-
pany, when a fourteen-inch hole was drilled for 850 feet.
In recent years, Mr. Dillman and his partner. Palmer Ashton.
have been engaged in developing an orange and a lemon orchard in the
Claremont section. When they took hold of the area, a ranch of
298 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
twenty-three acres, it was raw land, but they set out seventeen acres
in oranges and six acres in lemons, and although the trees are young,
they are doing well and bearing handsomely. The same foresighted-
ness and high business principles for which Mr. Dillman was long
noted as a well-driller have made him an honored fellow ranchman.
Mr. Dillman was married at St. Louis, Mo., in September, 1881,
to Miss Sarah F. Coons, a native of Kentucky, and three children have
blessed the union. Stanly went to Tampico, Mexico, and established
a machine shop and boat-building plant, with which he has been very
successful; Ethel married Samuel Gurnsey, and has one daughter,
Francisca ; while the younger child is Louise. The family attend
the First Christian Church. Mr. Dillman belongs to the Modern
Woodmen.
WILLIAM HENRY BARTLETT
An experienced and successful rancher and orange grower, who
has always taken a deep interest in every rational movement to
advance the best and most permanent interests of Pomona Valley, and
has never failed to contribute such assistance and cooperation as he
could, is William Henry Bartlett, who was born in Cheshire County,
N. H., on February 4, 1839. He grew up on a farm and attended
the country schools; and in 1854, when he was fifteen years old, he
accompanied the family to Iowa, locating first in Clinton and later in
Scott County.
Those were pioneer days for that state, when the country was
sparsely settled and men had to work hard, early and late, and undergo
much not altogether agreeable or easy to bear; and yet Mr. Bartlett,
who later dealt in grain, cattle and hogs, all of which he raised in
abundance and shipped in carload lots, became a prominent farmer
and prospered so well that he remained in the state for thirty-eight
years. He was a member of the Grange at Round Grove, Scott
County.
After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett settled in Victor,
Iowa, in 1881, where they farmed for thirteen years, after which one
year was spent in Nebraska. Then, in February, 1894, they arrived
in Pomona, and Mr. Bartlett, in partnership with his brothers, C. H.
Bartlett, now deceased, and H. E. Bartlett, bought twenty-six acres
of land in the Claremont section on East Cucamonga Avenue, and this
they planted and developed into a fine orange orchard. Later they
bought forty acres of unimproved land near Upland, which they
planted to oranges and lemons; H. E. Bartlett withdrew from the com-
pany and took twenty acres of the Upland ranch as his portion of the
property; and at the death of C. H. Bartlett the rest of the property
was divided, W. H. Bartlett retaining the twenty-six acre ranch on
East Cucamonga Avenue, which he still owns. His home place, a fine
z^^/^^^^—
fflSTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 301
example of residential property, at 350 East Holt Avenue, and ex-
tending through to Center Street, has been the family seat for many
years; it is well improved with flowers, shade and ornamental trees
and a few orange trees.
On February 23, 1881, at Durant, Iowa, Mr. Bartlett was mar-
ried to Miss Virtura A. Emery, a native of Fairfield, Maine, but who
was reared and educated in Iowa from the age of thirteen. She has
been an able helpmate and is the mother of three sons, Harry L.,
William E., who served on the Pomona exemption board during the
war, and Edward F., who was stationed at Camp Kearny for eight
months. She is an active member of the Congregational Church and
contributed to the efiiciency of the Red Cross drives during the war.
Now the sons are caring for the ranch and making their home there.
For many years Mr. Bartlett served as a director in the El Camino
Citrus Association of Claremont, and also of the Del Monte Water
Company.
JEFFERSON M. HATHAWAY
A pioneer of California, and one of the very first to settle in this
section of the state, Jefferson M. Hathaway during his life took an
active part in the growth of Pomona from its very beginning and
lived to see its remarkable development from barren stretches of sage
and cactus to the garden spot of Southern California. He was born
in Jefferson City, Mo., January 2, 1832, and when fifteen years old
went to Lamar County, Texas. In 1853, with a brother and sister, he
crossed the plains with ox teams to California; they drove a band of
cattle on the long journey, and for a short time located at El Monte,
Los Angeles County. From there the young pioneer went to San Ber-
nardino County and bought a ranch on Warm Creek, east of San
Bernardino, and engaged in ranching. Here his marriage occurred,
February 16, 1860, to Martha M. Russell, a native of Paris, Lamar
County, Texas, and one year after his marriage he sold his ranch and
went back to EI Monte for three years; then to Rincon, San Bernar-
dino County, where he bought 320 acres and farmed it for fifteen
years, nine of which he served as justice of the peace.
Southern California proved the real magnet, however, and set-
tling in Azusa, Mr. Hathaway bought 150. acres and engaged in
ranching there for five years. In 1888 he came to Pomona and made
this his home until his death, December 12, 1905. He bought forty
acres on South White Avenue and twenty acres near Chino; he first
purchased five acres on White Avenue and there made his home. He
built several houses in Pomona, besides owning a number of ranches in
Pomona and Chino Valleys, and in his development work he became a
representative pioneer and upbuilder for his community. He was
302 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
a member of the First Baptist Church and highly esteemed by his
many friends in Cahfornia, and particularly this section of the state.
Mrs. Hathaway is also a pioneer, and to the pioneer women of
the state, no less than to the men, are due the honor and respect of the
generations that have followed, for without their faithful devotion and
toil there had been no home carved in the wilderness nor civilization
brought to the western frontier. As previously stated, Mrs. Hath-
away is a native of Paris, Texas; her father, Hiram C. Russell, owned
a part of the site where Paris now stands. A native of Tennessee,
born in 1812, he crossed the plains to California with his family in
1858 and practiced law in San Bernardino and later in El Monte,
where he was justice of the peace; he was a Mason and a man of
strong character, his death occurring in 1890. Hiram C. Russell
married Louisa Standefer, born in Alabama, and besides Mrs. Hath-
away, the other living children of this marriage are Virginia Russell
of Pomona and Mrs. H. B. Briggs. Mrs. Hathaway relates many
interesting experiences of early days in the Valley, when the country
was a wilderness, inhabited by many lawless people; she passed
through this section before Pomona was even thought of, and has seen
all the changes wrought by advancing civilization. She is a member
of the Christian Science Church and, like all pioneer women, has unu-
sual breadth of character and has borne her full share in the making
of this great commonwealth.
Mr. and Mrs. Hathaway had eight children born to them, six
sons and two daughters : William lived in Pomona, was a farmer, and
died leaving five daughters; Hiram, living in- Wintersburg, Orange
County, is a rancher; Jefferson H. of Pomona is in the bicycle repair
business; Charles W., who makes his home with his mother, was a
rancher; George died aged twenty-four; Walter also is with his
mother; Louisa P., Mrs. Weeks, near Ontario, has one daughter; and
Anna, Mrs. Gardner, died and has one living daughter.
PETER FLEMING
An honored pioneer citizen of Pomona Valley whose name will
always be associated with one of the most important developments of
the Valley is Peter Fleming, the founder of its water system. With
James Beckett as a partner, he established the waterworks, built the
waterways and formed the Sycamore Water Company, also the Con-
solidated Water Company.
Of old Eastern stock, Peter Fleming was a native of Vermont,
and his wife, Margaret (Coleman) Fleming, a native of Massachu-
setts. They came to Spadra, Cal., in 1875, and Peter Fleming first
engaged in the dairy business, later becoming interested in the bee
industry. He was also an orange grower in Lordsburg, now La Verne,
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 305
and in Mountain View, with George Roher as a partner, the firm name
being Fleming and Roher. He maintained his interest in the water
company up to the time of his death, remaining superintendent until
that date, October 2, 1898. His widow survives him, with their six
children : Mary A. and E. J. Fleming, both born in the Eastern state ;
William T., Fred A., Frank X. and Walter, born in Pomona.
Fraternally, Peter Fleming was a member of the Knights of
Pythias. He is remembered as a progressive and public-spirited man,
always ready to help in the advancement of Pomona, and to see her
wonderful possibilities in the future and work to make them realities.
WILLIAM S. TRUE
A rancher and his wife who have contributed much to the ad-
vancement of more than one department of California agricultural
life are Mr. and Mrs. William S. True, who live on Bowdoin Avenue,
north of Foothill Boulevard, in La Verne. William S. True was
born in La Salle County, 111., September 18, 1868, and comes of good
old New England Revolutionary stock. His father, George A. True,
now deceased, was a native of Massachusetts, and he married Miss
Eliza M. Stevenson, who was born in New Jersey. The parents, with
their family, came to La Verne in 1886, and George A. True bought
ten acres of the famous Morris Keller ranch, then set out to grapes
and prunes, and later he took out the vines and prune trees and set out
oranges and lemons. Mrs. George A. True has also passed away,
leaving a blessed memory, the mother of two children, both of whom
are in La Verne. Angie, now Mrs. Hartshorn, resides on the old
home place, and William S., the subject of this review, is living on his
own ten acres of oranges and lemons, a grove formerly part of the
Vic. Keller ranch. This finely-developed ranch was also formerly set
out to prunes, but they were grubbed out and citrus trees planted.
Mr. True's property is indeed one of the most desirable in all
this locality, possessing as it does a well and a fine pumping plant,
installed at a cost of $8000. This unimpaired source and adequate
machinery afford an ample supply of water for all possible purposes,
and must always prove a valuable asset to those operating the farm.
Mrs. True, who was Miss Edith Inez Smith before her marriage, is a
native of Coldwater, Branch County, Mich. She is a daughter of
James and Catherine (Ames) Smith, both natives of Michigan, her
father being the first white male child born in Litchfield, Hillsdale
County. Her grandfather, Hervey R. Smith, born in New Hamp-
shire, was an early settler of Litchfield, and donated the land for the
city park at that place. James Smith was a merchant in Michigan. In
1886 he moved to Santa Paula, Cal., and three years later to Po-
306 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
mona, where he resided until his death in 1909. His widow survives
him and continues to reside on the old home place. Of the ten chil-
dren born to this worthy couple, eight are living. Mrs. True was the
third, in order of birth, and she has a twin sister, Mrs. Ethel Line-
barger. She was educated at the college at Adrian, Mich. Coming to
California in 1888, she became a resident of Pomona in 1889, and it
was here that she made the acquaintance of Mr. True, which resulted
in their marriage, which occurred on January 15, 1895, the ceremony
being performed in Los Angeles.
They have been very successful in citrus growing as well as in
raising Anglo-Nubian goats, an enterprise in which they both obtain
much pleasure and keen enjoyment. Mrs. True was one of the organ-
izers and the vice-president of the Citrus Belt Milk Goat Association,
and is one of the largest breeders of milk goats in Southern California,
having sixty head on her ranch. She makes a specialty of Anglo-
Nubians and her herd is headed by the famous buck. Banzai Abdallah,
pure Anglo-Nubian No. P.-18 I. N. B. A., No. 642, A. M. G. R. A.
Holly Lodge Shingle, his grandsire, was bred by Baroness Burdett
Coutts, of England, and he was imported nine years ago, and he is the
greatest progenitor of the Anglo-Nubians of America. He sired the
greatest milker known to the western world, B. Tallassae, which gave
nine quarts a day. Abdallah's dam, Wigmore Brownie, No. P. -2 I. N.
B. A., No. 464, A. M. G. R. A., was a pure-bred imported Anglo-
Nubian doe of great renown, a producer of big rich milkers. Mrs.
True also owns Silkie, No. G-422 L N. B. A., three-fourths Nubian,
one-fourth Saanen ; sired by Holly Lodge Shingle, dam Bonanza Maid,
No. G-256 L N. B. A., a seven and a half quart milker. The Anglo-
Nubians produce the richest, sweetest-flavored milk, from which but-
ter may easily be made, anc^ all the butter used on the True ranch is
made from goats' cream. Mrs. True breeds and sells goats, many of
which have brought high prices, and she has taken prizes at all the
milk-goat shows in Southern California where she has had an exhibit.
Mr. and Mrs. True are members of the Pomona Valley His-
torical Society and of the Claremont Pomological Club, as well as the
Society of Pomona Valley Pioneers. Mrs. True is descended from
Revolutionary stock on both her paternal and maternal side, and par-
ticularly on the latter from Elijah Ames, Ebenezer Pardee and the
Wisners, who served in the Revolutionary War. She takes pride and
satisfaction in being a member of the Pomona chapter of the Daughters
of the American Revolution. The Trues take a live interest in the
past of the Valley, as they look forward to the future, and they are
among those who feel the wisdom of preserving the annals of the neigh-
borhood before it is too late.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 307
JOSEPH T. LAUGHLIN
An enterprising and very successful pioneer in the auto transfer
and delivery field is Joseph T. Laughlin, for the past two decades
familiar to residents of the Pomona Valley, for here he found the
happy solution of his troubles. It is no wonder, then, considering that
Pomona and vicinity claim Mr. Laughlin as their own, that he should
have become, in his increasing prosperity, one of the best "boosters" of
this favored part of the Golden State.
Mr. Laughlin was born in Adams County, 111., on January 1,
1860, and in that vicinity was reared on a farm where, especially in
those disturbed days, there was little chance for an education, for he
had to work early and late to assist his father. He really started in
on the farm when he was nine years of age, and it was not long before
he was doing a man's work. His father had a threshing machine, and
every fall until he was twenty-two years of age, he as'9isted his father
in running the same.
He then started to farm for himself, renting land in different sec-
tions, his last place being a farm of 210 acres in Hancock County, 111.
He started in a small way with one horse; but by hard work and intel-
ligent application of his wits and experience to the problems of the
hour, he made a success of grain farming and was doing well enough to
encourage him to remain where he had risen.
On December 28, 1884, Mr. Laughlin married Miss Alice Cham-
berlin, a native of Illinois and the daughter of Noah and Mary Jane
(Riley) Chamberlin, and when her health failed it was necessary for
him to take her to another climate. By good fortune, he had his atten-
tion directed to Southern California ; and having sold out all his effects,
in 1902 he left for Pomona. His first employment made him a driver
of a city street sprinkler owned by a private person, and next he worked
for the city in the same capacity, continuing in the municipal service for
three years. He then drove an Orange Belt Emporium delivery wagon
for another three years, and after that he went into the delivery busi-
ness for himself.
This line of activity he has now followed for a number of years,
and he runs an auto-delivery truck, undertaking all kinds of trucking.
His business has carried him all over the Valley and many miles be-
yond, especially to the beaches, but he has never lost his first love for
Pomona, which he considers an ideal spot for both a comfortable home
and a profitable trade, with appreciative patrons. His wife, always
the best of helpmates, has entirely recovered her health, so that no one
could be more loyal than either she or he to Pomona.
Mr. and Mrs. Laughlin ha\-e reared a large family of children :
Elsie is the wife of E. L. Lindsey of Claremont, and the mother of
five children; Floyd, the first-born and a general favorite, died at the
age of nineteen; Mabel is the wife of Richard Brown, of Long Beach;
308 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Florence has become Mrs. Robert Motts of Pomona ; Arno is an expert
machinist and assisting his father; Verner was a soldier, having enlisted
in the regular army, in the 165th Field Artillery, at the Presidio in
San Francisco, from which place he was transferred to Camp Kearny;
he saw eleven months' service on the battlefields of France, went over
the top and was gassed, and he is still in the service, able to give a good
account of himself; Aldo was born in Pomona, while Grace is a school
girl. The family attend the Cavalry Baptist Church of Pomona, and
Mr. Laughlin belongs to the Loyal Order of Moose and the Modern
Woodmen. On coming to Pomona, Mr. Laughlin bought a house on
South Garey Avenue, and later he traded it for his present home at
237 West Eighth Street.
WALTER SHAFER
Pomona has been fortunate in the quality of citizens who have
chosen this beautiful Valley as their homesite, and who have unselfishly
worked to help their neighbor as well as themselves. Among these
may be mentioned Waiter Shafer, who passed to his reward August
18, 1911, but whose name is held in appreciative remembrance in the
hearts of friends and neighbors who were associated with him in the
years of his residence in the Valley. A native of New York state,
Mr. Shafer was born about twelve miles from Middleburg, Schoharie
County, January 3, 1855, and in that state he engaged in farming.
In 1888 Mr. Shafer came West and settled in Pomona Valley, and
soon after his arrival here purchased four and one-half acres of land
on North San Antonio Avenue, which had been planted to Navel
oranges and prunes, but he replanted to Navel and Valencia oranges
and brought the property to a high state of improvement. Later, he
planted ten acres to oranges for a Mr. Kelley, and still later became
owner of that tract also, which he sold at a profit and continued in the
development of his original ranch. While developing his own prop-
erty Mr. Shafer took an active interest in the development of the com-
munity as a whole, and he was president of the California Produce
Company, one of the independent packing companies of the Valley.
He was a director in the Kingsley Water Company, and a director and
stockholder in the Fraternal Aid Association, which erected the Opera
House at Pomona.
Together with John C. Deck, Mr. Shafer organized a fumigating
concern when that method of obliterating the scale was first started,
and they ran several gangs of men and had the largest outfit in the
Valley, even going into San Bernardino County to operate. Mr. Shafer
finally bought out his partner and operated the business alone, and he
was thus engaged at the time of his death.
February 11, 1890, Mr. Shafer was united in marriage with
Mary A. Northrup, a native of Michigan; two daughters were born
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 311
of their union, Winifred May, a student at Pomona College, and
Mildred Julia. During his many years of residence here Mr. Shafer
took an active part in church work in the Presbyterian Church; and
fraternally he was a member of the Fraternal Aid and of the K. O.
T. M. A kind and obliging neighbor and a true friend through both
adversity and spiritual trials, it is for these traits of character that his
memory is held in loving esteem by his many friends in the community.
CHARLES CLARK
One of the pioneer business men of Pomona who has taken part
in the business affairs of the city from his first arrival here, in 1888,
until his retirement from active duties, in 1913, Charles Clark has
watched the march of progress during that period and did his share
toward the upbuilding of the community. He is a native of England,
born in Chelmsford, February 6, 1848, a son of Benjamin and Emma
(Auger) Clark, both now deceased. He received his education in the
English schools and remained at his studies until ten years of age. At
that early age he started in his business career, and worked at and
learned the bakery trade, remaining in that business in his native
country until eighteen years of age.
Mr. Clark then came to the United States, and located at Chicago
for ten years, then removed to Des Moines, Iowa, and lived in that
city twelve years. At the end of that time, in 1888, he came to
Pomona and went into business for himself, remaining as proprietor
of the bakery and restaurant he established until 1913, when he sold
out to his sons and now lives retired from business affairs.
The marriage of Mr. Clark, in Beloit, Wis., September 23,
1872, united him with Miss Alice Pauline Wells, and three sons and
two daughters were born to them; Arthur, now deceased; Frank, pro-
prietor of the San Pedro Bakery, and Ralph, succeeding his father
in Clark's bakery in Pomona. The two girls died in infancy in Iowa.
The family attend the Episcopal Church. With his wife and children,
Mr. Clark made a visit to his old home in England to see his aged
mother, and he and his good wife now live to enjoy the fruits of their
years of industry in the beautiful valley where they worked for the
better part of their lives, content in the knowledge of work well done
and lives lived for the betterment of their neighbors as well as them-
selves. Mr. Clark was the pioneer baker of Pomona, in business con-
tinuously for twenty-five years. Fraternally he is a Mason and a
Shriner; a member of the Elks, of which he has been manager since
1912; the Foresters, and the Fraternal Aid. In politics he supports
the Republican party.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
CARLTON SEAVER
To have been a good American citizen, active in the upbuilding
of this great commonwealth, and to have reared a family with high
American ideals and equally active in putting these same ideals into
practical use, is fame enough for any man, and any community may be
justly proud to have in its boundaries so many of these families as has
Pomona Valley. Representative among them may be mentioned
Carlton Seaver. Mr. Seaver was born at Rochester, N. Y., the son
of B. E. and Mary J. (Pryor) Seaver, also of that city. He was
educated at the public schools and so given the foundation for his
later career.
While still a young man, about 1870, Mr. Seaver became engaged
in the mercantile and banking business at Traer, Iowa. In 1884 he
settled in Pomona and purchased land and planted an orchard, and
in 1885 he entered the Pomona Valley Bank as president.
In 1886 he converted that bank into the First National Bank,
continuing as president, and the institution has had a large part in the
development of Pomona Valley, in the husbanding of its resources and
the laying of a sound foundation for its future prosperity. During
Mr. Seaver's term as president the bank building was erected, an event
of importance and a milestone in the life of the city, for it was then
the finest structure in Pomona.
Resigning from the bank, in 1898, since that date Mr. Seaver
has devoted his attention to his private interests and to the general
welfare of his home community. His marriage, which occurred in
Iowa, united him with Miss Mary Samuels, a native of New York
state, and of their union six children were born, all of whom are
graduates from Pomona College: Georgia Gladys is the wife of
Dr. Roy E. Thomas of Los Angeles. Doctor Thomas is also a grad-
uate of Pomona College. Mrs. Thomas studied in some of the best
art schools and her talent in shown in the beautiful paintings from her
brush. Next in order of birth is Frank R., an attorney in Los An-
geles, a graduate of the Law Department of Harvard University, and
patriotic American, who organized the Ninth Division of the Cali-
fornia Naval Militia, and upon the entrance of the LInited States in
the war, enlisted in the Navy and was engaged in the convoy service.
He is practicing in Los Angeles. The third child, Byron D., is also
a Harvard Law School graduate, an attorney of prominence in Los
Angeles. He enlisted and passed the examination for a commission
in the army. Homer C. received his degree of M.D. in the Medical
Department of the University of California and enlisted in New York
in the Medical Corps of the United States Army and saw service in
the Argonne and other hospitals at the front. He is now practicing
in San Francisco. Marguerite, a graduate of Wellesley College and
also of the Chalmers School of Dancing, was prominent in Y. W.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 313
C. A. work. She is supervising principal of hygiene and physical
education in the Los Angeles city schools. And the youngest of this
promising family, Manila, is now taking a course in applied arts at
Columbia University.
Mrs. Seaver has always been prominent in club work, serving as
president of the Ebell Club of Pomona, and was state superintendent
of the Southern California Division. She was also very active in Red
Cross endeavors, especially in shop work during the World War.
With such progenitors, the children could hardly fail to make their
mark in the world, and it is to these representatives of Young America
that we look for her future of unlimited possibilities.
WILLIS A. NORTON
That a man may do more than one thing well is demonstrated
beyond doubt in the career of Willis A. Norton, the Claremont orange
grower and plumber, whose property adorns the Base Line Road. He
is a native son, and was born at Duarte on August 30, 1884. His
father was George Norton, a native of Iowa, who came to California
in 1875 and located in Los Angeles; and later he removed to Pomona,
where he became identified with water development in the Claremont
and Pomona districts. He hauled the first load of pipe that was used
to develop water in the Kingsley Tract, and as a stationary engineer
was employed on the Loud Ranch, at the pumping plant, and later still
was in the same capacity with the Del JVIonte Irrigation Company. He
was, too, the first engineer with the Claremont Domestic Water Com-
pany, and he also planted an orange grove on the Base Line Road,
where he erected a home and developed water, which was in time sold
to the Valley View Irrigation Company of Claremont. Having sold
this ranch property, Mr. Norton went to reside in Los Angeles. His
wife was Miss Lydia French before her marriage, and she is now
deceased.
- Willis attendetl the public schools of Los Angeles and the Pomona
High School, and with Mr. Holt, the plumber of Claremont, he began
the plumber's trade. From 1904 to 1917 he worked as a plumber in
Santa Monica and Venice, and for five years was foreman for J. H.
Jackson of Santa Monica. During his stay at that place, he worked
on many of the buildings erected while Venice was being built, and he
also helped construct some of the finest edifices in Ocean Park and
Santa Monica.
In 1907, he bought ten acres of raw land on the Base Line Road
north of Claremont, which he cleared, graded and planted, with seven
acres of Navel oranges and three acres of lemons. In 1917, he re-
turned to Claremont to make his home there and to look after his
orange ranch, and in the summer of 1919, he became manager of the
314 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Hardy Plumbing Shop in Claremont. His expert Icnovvledge of plumb-
ing has always made him in demand, and he has thus done much to
help build up the districts in which he has lived. The same ability to
grasp the problems of ranching has assisted Mr. Norton to become
one of the very successful citrus ranchers in the Valley. As early as
1897 Mr. Norton constructed a bicycle and rode it in Los Angeles
down Broadway from Fremont Street.
While at Santa Monica, Mr. Norton was married to Miss Alice
Coriell, a native of Kansas, whose parents were Julius D. and Jane
(Hesser) Coriell. They have one son, Robert C, and the family are
affiliated with the Methodist Church. Mr. Norton is a Mason, and
belongs to the Santa Monica Lodge No. 307, F. & A. M., and is also
a member of Pomona Chapter No. 76, R. A. M.
ELMER EUGENE ARMOUR
A professional and business man of Pomona, whose successful
career ought to inspire the ambitious youth of this and other California
communities, was the late Elmer Eugene Armour, who died at his
home in Pomona on May 1,1912. A native of Ohio, he was born at
Chagrin Falls, September 25, 1861, the son of John Armour, a mer-
chant tailor who lived to be ninety-three years of age. His mother
was in maidenhood Polly Ward, and she was the second wife of John
Armour and she proved the ablest of helpmates.
Elmer Eugene received his schooling at the public schools in
Chagrin Falls and early took up the study of pharmacy. At the age
of seven years he met with an accident that injured his leg and he
was thus handicapped from joining with his mates in their more excit-
ing and strenuous games. After becoming a full-fledged pharmacist
he continued at his calling at Chagrin Falls until the fall of 1887,
when he came to California and settled in Pomona. He began here
at the close of the first wild inflation in real estate, with slender finan-
cial resources but with an ambition to succeed in business by following
in the paths of honor and rectitude. He entered the employ of E. T.
Palmer, and old-tjmers recall the marvelous industry, the perennial
cheerfulness and the everlasting persistency of Mr. Armour in those
days, thirty-two years ago. He won the respect of everyone about
him and came to be recognized as a young man of sterling merit.
About 1890, Mr. Armour bought the little drug business of the
late William C. Hamner, who had a small wooden building for his
business where the George & Harris hardware store now stands.
From the day Mr. Armour took control, he prospered; for early and
late he was at his business, he put his whole thought and zeal into his
enterprise, he knew no weariness, and he was always genial and
courteous. About two years later he moved into the new L^nion Block,
(^!/ . (Q . ^^^S'^^^n-^^-t?— <u-/f-^
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 317
for his business had gone forward by leaps and bounds, and there he
was in business for over twenty years. He was always successful, for
a man of his character and temperament could not help advancing
and prospering in any field. He was wrapped up in Pomona, her
interests were his interests and he gav'e liberally of his time and means
to further every project that had for its object the advancement of
the business, social and educational growth of the entire Valley. He
was one of the organizers of the Home Builders Loan Association
of Pomona, was elected its first president and continued in office until
he died. He was a prominent Odd Fellow, Knight of Pythias and held
membership in several other fraternal orders. In the passing of
E. E. Armour, therefore, Pomona lost a citizen of peculiar and unde-
niable worth. "He was," as the Pomona Review said of him "honest,
upright, prudent, loyal and wise. He has been in every movement
for the betterment of his town and State. He has been a liberal and
charitable giver, a man of good deeds and steadfast purpose. He was
a true friend, quiet and domestic in his tastes, of strict integrity and
strong patriotism." In politics he was a Republican.
On December 11, 1881, E. E. Armour was united in marriage
with Miss Cora Myers, daughter of Henry and Louisa (Boardman)
Myers, and they had two children born to them: Harry Willard,
born at Chagrin Falls, Ohio, who attended Pomona College and
graduated from the University of California, Department of Phar-
macy, where he also did post-graduate work later. He continues the
business established by his father in Pomona; he married- Sue
Wheelock and they have a son Richard Willard Armour. The second
son, John Lester, was born in Pomona, attended Pomona College, went
to Pennsylvania, where he graduated from the University of Penn-
sylvania as an architect, and also received his Bachelor of Science
degree. When war was declared against Germany he enlisted in June,
1917, having spent three months — from April until June — under
government direction studying in the ordnance department, in which
he later was commissioned first lieutenant and served one year in
France with the United States forces.
JOHN WEBER
With the passing years the ranks of the California pioneers are
being rapidly depleted, but the inestimable service rendered to succeed-
ing generations entitle them to the honorable place accorded them in
the annals of history and in the hearts and minds of their successors.
Among the pioneers of Pomona Valley, the late John Weber is
worthy of special mention. He was born in Clinton County, 111., June
14, 1855, and reared on the farm and secured his early education in
the neighboring district schools. Later he attended Westland College,
318 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
at Warrington, Mo., and for eight years taught school in his native
state. He came to Pomona November 15, 1887, and purchased the
Pomona Soda Works, supplementing the business with an agency for
the Pomona Ice Company. For two years Frank Martin was his
partner. Later Mr. Weber ran the business alone for a number
of years, at ISO Main Street, and finally disposed of the works
and retired.
In 1880 he was united in marriage with Elizabeth Koob, a native
of Clinton County, 111., and six children were born of their union.
Philip H. graduated from the Pomona High School and Cooper
Medical College at San Francisco. He is a practicing physician of
Oakland, Cal., and married Miss Ruby Hughes of San Francisco.
Fraternally he is a Mason and an Elk. Edna is the wife of L. H.
Browning, and the mother of three sons. Bertha is a talented
musician. She graduated from the Pomona High School, attended
Pomona College and the University of Southern California, studied
organ under Prof. W. F. Skeele of Los Angeles and Professor Butler
of Pomona College and was organist at Trinity Methodist Church,
Pomona, for six years. She is a composer of music and an artist on
the pipe organ. At present she is teaching music at Giant, Cal. John
R. is a graduate of Pomona High School and of the University of
Southern California Law School. He did newspaper work in Fresno,
and enlisted in the war from Fresno. He was sent to Camp Kearny,
joined the Fourth Division, and was attached to the One Hundred
Fifty-seventh Ambulance Company and the One Hundred Fifteenth
Sanitary Train, stationed at Toul, France. He reenlisted and is now at
Coblenz. F^-ances, a graduate from the Pomona High School, is in
the employ of the Southern Pacific in San Francisco. Olive L. died
at the age of eighteen.
Mrs. Weber is prominent in Pomona social and fraternal circles
and is a member of the Ebell Club and associated with several frater-
nities. Mr. Weber died September 13, 1912. He was a man of fine
education, kind and genial in his disposition, an upright and pro-
gressive citizen and had many warm friends.
FRANK L. PALMER
A well-trained, practical orange grower, familiar with the latest
scientific methods in advanced agriculture, and highly favored through
a valuable experience in positions of responsibility, is Frank L. Palmer,
who was born in Stonington, New London County, Conn., on March
31, 1852. When only seventeen he came west to California, and for
thirteen years was a resident of Oakland. He was long attached to
the United States Surveyor-General's office, and was also secretary
of a large corporation in San Francisco.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 319
Having made a reputation for good judgment and exceptional
executive ability, Mr. Palmer came to Pomona in 1883 as the secretary
and treasurer of the Pomona Land and Water Company, an enter-
prising concern that had just been formed; and that position he held,
representing the business end of the company, until 1891, when he
resigned to take the management of the Seth Richards Ranch in North
Pomona, and here he grew and brought up to a profitable bearing age
a grove of 25,000 orange trees and maintained that grove in profit-
able condition for more than twenty years. When it became desirable
for the executor of the Richards Estate to dispose of this property,
Mr. Palmer organized a company known as the Richards Orange
Grove Company, purchased the property and then began its subdivision
into smaller parcels. His associates in business were D. C. Crook-
shank, F. L. Somers, H. J. Nichols and A. P. Nichols, and they are
among the largest growers of oranges in the Valley.
Besides sharing in this responsible undertaking, Mr. Palmer is a
director in various irrigating companies in the district, associated with
the Pomona Land and Water Company. He is also vice-president
and director of the Indian Hill Citrus Association of North Pomona.
He has his own orange groves in the Valley, and has personal interests
in Tulare County.
While at Oakland, in 1879, Mr. Palmer married Martha L.
Belcher, a daughter of Frederick P. Belcher, born in San Francisco
and a descendant of an early pioneer family that crossed the great
plains in the still more strenuous days of '49. Five children have
blessed the fortunate union; Franklin C. being the eldest, succeeded
by Frederick B., Donald Day, Roger Sherman and Gertrude, who
served in France, active in base hospital work. The last three are
graduates of Pomona College, of which thorough institution Mr.
Palmer was trustee for a number of years. He is a charter member
of the Pilgrim Congregational Church of Pomona, although at present
a member of the Congregational Church of Claremont.
MRS. ELLEN D. WESTERMAN
One of the pioneer educators and for many years principal of
Lincoln School, Mrs. Ellen D. Westerman is well and favorably
known in Pomona. She is a native of La Crosse County, Wis., where
she was educated in the public schools, and taught school in La Crosse
for three years.
When she came to Pomona, in December, 1887, she was Mrs.
Ellen D. Kibbee, a widow. She began teaching in the public schools
of Pomona in September, 1888, and has served under every city super-
intendent of schools since. She has been a grade teacher in the Tenth
Street, the Central and Kauffman schools, and has been principal of
320 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Lincoln School since 1909. Four years after coming to Pomona she
married H. B. Westerman, pioneer attorney of Pomona, of the firm
of Westerman & Broughton. He was a native of Texas, and when
a small child crossed the plains to California with his parents. After
completing his schooling he studied law in the San Francisco School
of Law, and came to Pomona in the early days, where he practiced
for years. He was a prominent Mason, and died in 1894.
Mrs. Westerman's only child by her first husband is now Mrs.
Marjorie K. Deay of San Bernardino County, and the mother of two
children, Dudley and Doris by name. By her second husband, one
daughter, Dorothy Estelle Westerman, was born; she died when
twenty-one, on January 1, 1915.
Mrs. Westerman is a member of and secretary of Pomona
Chapter No. 110, O. E. S., is a member of the Episcopal Church, and
is active in Red Cross work.
JOHN E. ADAMSON
A thrifty citizen of Pomona who has always felt a deep interest
in and affection for the thriving town ever since he came here to settle
in the late eighties, is John E. Adamson, the experienced orchardist in
charge of the Lemon House at the Pomona Fruit Growers' Exchange.
He was born near Guelph, Ontario, Canada, on December 31, 1867,
the son of Thomas Adamson, the brick manufacturer. His wife was
Lydia Shepherd before her marriage, like himself of English nation-
ality; and both are now deceased. There were nine children in the
family, and John is the youngest of the two boys. He began his educa-
tion in the excellent public schools of Canada, and later studied assidu-
ously privately. He first took a course In mechanical engineering, then
in electrical, and later studied hydraulic work. Coming to Pomona in
1888, he has always considered it his home, although his professional
work frequently took him far away.
Mr. Adamson was engineer for the San Antonio Power Com-
pany in 1894, then worked for the San Diego Electrical Railroad
Company, beginning with 1896, and the San Diego Land and Town
Company in 1899. In 1901 he returned to Pomona as engineer for
the Del Monte Irrigation Company, with which concern he continued
for five years.
In 1906, satisfied that he had worked long enough for the devel-
opment of other people's interests, Mr. Adamson decided to give all
of his time in the future to the improving of his own groves; and being
splendidly fortified through study and practical experiment, has been
able to bring his holdings to a high state of cultivation, and to make
of his ranch properties show places worthy of the great show county.
This reputation for experience and success and a live interest in the
■Itrfr^-y^ (2^. ^/^^k^^^Z-^'-^z^ZKi^^z:?-^"--^
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 323
progress of California has naturally brought about a demand for Mr.
Adamson's services in the Chamber of Commerce; nor has he failed to
give his heartiest cooperation there.
In Pomona on July 1 1, 1892, Mr. Adamson was married to Miss
Margaret W. Reid ; and three children have blessed their union. John
Edgar was in the United States Medical Corps at the Presidio Base
Hospital; Helen Frances is attending the high school; and Dorothy R.
is in the Junior high school. Mr. Adamson is non-denominational,
but he and his family seek to support all Christian endeavor.
In national politics a Republican, Mr. Adamson seeks to make
civic duty something above partisanship. He served two terms as a
member of the Pomona School Board, and he has been president of
Orange Grove Tract Water Company since 1907. Fond of both fish-
ing and mountain climbing, Mr. Adamson favors the cultivation in
our popular education of "a sound mind in a sound body."
MRS. SYLVIA LUCILE POWERS MANLEY
The American people proudly boast that the public school is the
cradle of their free institutions, but it is to the pedagogue who rocks
that cradle that credit must be given for the potent influence in shaping
the future of American manhood and womanhood.
Among the pioneer teachers in Los Angeles County, Mrs. Sylvia
L. Powers Manley is a worthy representative, for she has taught in
the public schools of Pomona for twenty-three years. She is a native
of Green Lake County, Wis., and is of Scotch lineage. Her father.
Dr. James MacNish, was a physician who came from Philadelphia via
Fort Dearborn, now Chicago, to Wisconsin in pioneer days, crossing
the country by ox team, and was one of the first medical practitioners
in Wisconsin. He took up land upon which the town of Geneva now
stands. His father before him was a physician and surgeon in the old
country. Mrs. Manley was educated in the public schools of Berlin,
Wis., graduated from the high school and took a three years' course
in the Berlin, Wis., Normal School. She taught in the high school
of Bay View district in Milwaukee, and also in the high school at
Omro, Wis.
She was been twice married. Her first husband, S. W. Powers,
was a native of Ohio, who located at Kearney, Nebr., where he was
general stock agent for the Union Pacific Railroad. He was killed
in a railroad accident in 1887. He was the father of her three sons,
James McNish Powers, deceased, who founded the Powers Shoe Com-
pany of Pomona, and who left a wife and two children, Marlyn and
Maxine; Sihon W. Powers, who attended Pomona College and is now
associated with the Santa Barbara Daily News; and Walter F., who
is manager of that publication.
324 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Mrs. Manley was a widow when she came to California, in 1890.
In 1891-92 she taught school in Ontario, San Bernardino County, and
in 1893 came to Pomona, where she taught school until June, 1915,
and left a record to be proud of. She was principal of four different
schools at Pomona, and has served under all of Pomona's school
superintendents except the first one. She made a specialty of physiology
and history. She was a deaconess of the Congregational Church for
a number of years, and for ten years was treasurer of the Pomona
Chapter of Eastern Star. She is a member of the Ebell Club and
takes an active interest in educational matters and in all affairs per-
taining to the welfare of Pomona, where she has many stanch and
warm friends.
SAMUEL SANDERS BECK
Among the newer population being formed in the state, it is
becoming more and more of a rarity to find a family descended from
the old Argonauts of the "days of '49"; that interesting and romantic
period in the state's history when men and women braved the perils
and hardships of the long journey to the land of their dreams. Some
realized their visions; others settled down to the more prosaic callings
of agriculture and business, and these were the real builders of the
state, who laid the foundation for its present ranking as one of the
richest in the Union.
Samuel S. Beck is the representative of one such family. Born in
San PVancisco, July 29, 1861, his father, Nathaniel A., came around
the Horn in a sailing vessel, in '49, from Boston, Mass., and followed
mining for a time, later engaging in the tanning business in San Fran-
cisco. His mother, Elizabeth Field before her marriage, crossed the
plains to California in 1 847, and here their marriage occurred, a young
couple starting in life in a new and totaly different surrounding from
that of their rearing in the older cities. Samuel S. was educated in the
public schools of San Francisco, attending the Lincoln Grammar
School. He later came south toPorterville, Tulare County, and there
followed the mercantile business for three years. He then went to
San Bernardino, and there followed his trade of painter, which he had
learned in San FVancisco and worked at in his native city for a time.
From San Bernardino. Mr. Beck came to Pomona, in 1887, and
worked for the Oakes Brothers, painting contractors, and later engaged
m painting contracting for himself, and for a nimibcr of years he did
practically all of that sort of work done in Pomona, employing from
twenty-two to twenty-five men. He contracted for the painting of the
First National Bank Building, and many of the fine homes and build-
ings in the city and surrounding territory. In Claremont, he secured
the contract for the painting of the Pomona College buildings.
Since 1905 Mr. Beck has been engaged in sign painting in
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 327
Pomona, doing everything in that line of work, including window
lettering, store signs and banner illustrations.
The man-iage of Mr. Beck united him with Miss Naomi Witfield,
a native of England, and they reside in the home which Mr. Beck
erected on North Gordon Avenue, where he also owns five building
lots. Fraternally, Mr. Beck is a member of the Foresters and of the
Pomona Lodge, No. 789, B. P. O. Elks. A man of substantial aims
and sound business judgment, he has matured two series of shares in
the Mutual Building and Loan Association, considering this system
of investment both safe and profitable and worthy of support. Mr.
Beck is one of Pomona's most loyal citizens, and in his estimation the
Valley is unsurpassed as a place of residence, providing as it does both
an ideal climate and home surroundings, and with progressive and
enterprising business establishments to form a nucleus for the fertile
Valley. He is public spirited and takes pride in furthering the
upbuilding of this section of his native state.
JOHN HENRY LEE
In nothing more perhaps, and with swifter strides, has Cali-
fornia come to the front than in the science of horticulture, for which
rapid advancement and definite accomplishment it must thank, among
others, John Henry Lee, the well-known fruit grower of San Dimas,
who takes pride in the fact that he is a native son of the Golden State
and who has always proved his loyalty to the land of his birth. He
was born in Blucher Valley, Sonoma County, on November 20, 1852,
the son of William G. and Alethea A. (Ross) Lee, both natives of
Ohio and early settlers of Oskaloosa, Iowa. They came across the
plains in 1849, the glorious year of the Argonauts, traveling slowly
by ox teams, and once in the Promised Land, settled at Placerville.
Later they went to Sonoma County, and for a while they underwent
all the gripping experiences, hard times, privations and suffering of
the '49ers.
Mr. and Mrs. Lee were the parents of ten children, ainong
whom John Henry was the eighth in order of birth. The lad attended
the public school in Bloomfield for a while, but having to go to work
early he learned the printer's trade on the Salinas Standard, beginning
at the early age of fifteen, and he assisted in getting- out the first edition
of the first paper published at Salinas. He also worked at Bakers-
field in 1871 on the Southern Calif ornian, now the California)!, and
wherever he followed his trade he won a reputation for thorough and
superior work. He next started the Kern County Record at Bakers-
field, which he edited and published until 1883, when he sold out to
the Bakersfield Gazette. When he came to Pomona Valley in 1883
he established the Pomona Courier, a live newspaper of its time.
328 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Later it was merged with the Times and published as the Pomona
Times-Courier and Mr. Lee was connected with its publication for
thirteen years. He was then engaged in the real estate business for
a period of five years and for twelve years was city recorder of Po-
mona. He has always been a tireless and uncompromising worker
for the cause of temperance and as city recorder or police judge he
had some of the most bitter trials in connection with the illicit sale of
liquor, in all of which he was true to his oath of office and the decisions
he rendered were the means of ousting those engaged in the illegal ■
traffic. His record was that of a far-seeing, painstaking and strictly
reliable official who believed that "public office is a public trust" and
allowed nothing to interfere with his discharge of his duty as he saw it.
As the years went by Mr. Lee acquired valuable acreage in the
heart of the city of San Dimas, and in the intervening period of nearly
twenty years he has developed a fine orange grove. Although well
known among the old-timers of Pomona, and enjoying many ties such
as would naturally bind him to the city, these San Dimas interests led
him, about 1911, to remove to that growing city; and with its affairs
he bids fair to be more and more associated in an important way.
In 1874, at Bakersfield, Mr. Lee was married to Miss Belle
Gage, a native of Stockton and the daughter of Orris Charles and
Ann Eliza ( Earner ) Gage, born in Kentucky, who were pioneers of
Stockton, where the mother died. The father afterwards removed to
Kern County and passed away at Kernville. The youngest of a family
of four children, Mrs. Lee was educated at Stockton and Modesto,
and when seventeen years of age she came to Bakersfield, where she
met and married Mr. Lee. Mr. and Mrs. Lee are the parents of
four daughters: Mrs. Ora Mills of Lawndale, Mrs. Winnie John-
son, Mrs. Hazel Williams, and Mrs. Gretta Foresman of Los An-
geles. One of the agreeable rewards of so many years of strenuous
activity is the high esteem in which Mr. and Mrs. Lee and their
family are held.
CAPT. FRANKLIN COGSWELL
It is true that when an individual is endowed by nature with the
valuable traits of determination and perseverance their success in life
is usually a foregone conclusion. These characteristics were dominant
in the character of the late Franklin Cogswell, veteran of the Civil
War and pioneer of Pomona Valley. He was born in Connecticut,
November 14, 1838, and brought up in his native state. He served
with the Thirteenth Connecticut Regiment throughout the Civil War
with distinction and was advanced to the rank of captain. After the
war closed he saved up $3000, with which he went South, bought mules
and hired eight negroes, intending to raise cotton. The negroes died
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 329
of cholera and he lost all of his money in the venture, having nothing
left of value but his shotgun.
His brother and father came to California in 1854 via Cape Horn
and located in Lalce County. Franklin wrote them of his misfortune
and the brother sent him money with which he joined them in Lake
County. After spending six months there he located at Sacramento
and taught school for eleven months. With the money thus saved he
went to Montana and invested in a band of sheep, but ill-fortune still
pursued him, and in three months' time he lost all of the sheep by
death. He realized $300 from the wool that he picked from the dead
sheep, and with this money came to Pomona Valley in 1874. Despite
the reverses that he had experienced, he was determined to succeed,
and perseverance and determination won the day. He passed through
the Valley to Chino (and once remarked that he would not have given
fifty cents per acre for the land at that time), and engaged in sheep
raising.- This time he met with success. In the early days there were
few houses in the Valley and they were far apart, and he herded his
sheep all over the Valley. From that time he prospered and increased
in store. After a few years he sold his sheep and located in Pomona,
where he became a stockholder in the First National Bank, of which
he was also director. In the meantime, he bought thirteen acres of
land south of Pomona, which he planted to alfalfa and later set to
walnuts. This was the family home for more than twenty-five years,
or until the children were ready to enter Pomona College, when he sold
this property and moved to Claremont, where he built a home and
passed the rest of his days in retirement from the active duties of life.
He was married in Pomona, March 24, 1886, to Miss Mary
Florena Vultee, a native of New York, who came to California in
1885. Two children were born of their union, a son and a daughter.
Theresa, a very talented young woman, graduated from the Pomona
High School and from Pomona College, after which she attended the
Emerson College of Oratory, Boston, Mass., and was teacher of read-
ing and dramatics in the Los Angeles Normal School for three years.
During the World War she went to Camp Kearny in Y. M. C. A.
work, and later went to France as a canteen worker in the Y. M. C. A. ;
still later, she was with the Army of Occupation in Germany. The
only son, Franklin, Jr., attended the Pomona High School and is a
graduate of Pomona College, supplementing this with a business course
in Harvard College. He entered the One Hundred Forty-fourth Field
Artillery at San Francisco and was with them at Camp Kearny. Later
he was transferred to Battery E, Seventh Field Artillery, U. S. A., and
sent to France in June, 1918. He took part in the late battles of the
war, was at the front in active service up to the close of the war, then
became a member of the Army of Occupation in Germany. After his
discharge, in Germany, he engaged in Y. M. C. A. work there, where
he now is.
330 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Fraternally, Mr. Cogswell, Sr., was a Master Mason, and in
his religious associations was a member of the Unitarian Church. He
died at Pomona in 1911. Mrs. Cogswell is a member of the First
Baptist Church at Pomona and also a member of the Order of Eastern
Star, and active in Red Cross work.
B. A. WOODFORD
The life work of B. A. Woodford of Claremont, former general
manager of the California Fruit Growers Exchange, is so closely
interwoven with the history of cooperative marketing as exemplified
by that body, that his name will always stand out clearly and promi-
nently as one of the earliest and most forceful leaders this great move-
ment has had. The work of these public-spirited men has made
possible the present prosperous condition of the citrus industry in
Southern California, and no praise is too great in recognition of their
unselfish labor in bringing to completion this gigantic scheme for the
protection of the citrus industry.
Born at Westhaven, Hartford County, Conn., in 1860, Mr.
Woodford was educated in the public schools of Hartford, and we
next hear of him in the Ozark district of southwestern Missouri.
There he engaged for eight years in farming and stock raising. The
New Englander, however, could not "be shown" by Missouri that
corn at twenty cents a bushel and fat hogs and cattle at three cents per
pound pointed the high-road to fortune, and he turned toward the West
as a more promising field for his endeavors.
Coming to California in 1888, Mr. Woodford first settled at
Upland, then North Ontario, and the next five years, being a period
of great citrus planting in the state, we find him engaged in grading
lands and planting orange groves for himself and others. He soon
saw that the marketing of the products would be the big business of
the country, and with others organized the Lemon Growers Exchange
at Upland, the first association of lemon growers in California and
which has been in continuous operation ever since. At that time the
commercial packer would not handle lemon shipments East, claiming
that the fruit would not keep and could not be successfully sold in
competition with the Sicilian lemon.
In 1896, on the election of President McKinley, Mr. Woodford
saw the opportunity for obtaining an adequate duty on oranges and
lemons as a help to a struggling industry, and through his activities
a mass meeting of citrus growers was called and a committee of seven
appointed, one from each of the southern counties. As a result, a flat
duty of one cent per pound on citrus fruit was obtained. In that same
year the Ontario-Cucamonga Fruit Exchange was formed, with Mr.
Woodford as manager, and during his term of office the citrus
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 331
output in the district was increased from virtually nothing to some
2500 cars annually.
In September, 1904, the California Fruit Growers Exchange
resumed operations, with Mr. Woodford as general manager, and for
eight years he held this position, in which the work of a lifetime was
crowded, with the usual penalty, impaired health for the worker, and
he retired to devote his time to developing several groves in the La
Verne district, his ambition being to produce one and one-half cars
per acre, and he has very nearly reached this productiveness in his
orchards; using the most scientific methods of cultivation and sparing
no expense to get results.
In 1908, Mr. Woodford assisted in getting the upholding of the
citrus industry in the country again before Congress, and the duty on
lemons was increased to one and one-half cents per pound, which
helped materially in further development in the state, the output now
reaching 10,000 cars annually. This effort was put through by the
Citrus Protective League.
The marriage of Mr. Woodford, on May 8, 1889, united him
with Miss Emma B. Harwood, and five children have been born to
them: Alfred, an instructor at Pomona College; Mary; Marjorie;
James ; and Katherine. Mr. Woodford has joined no fraternal organ-
izations, but has devoted himself exclusively to the upbuilding of the
citrus industry in the Valley, and his life work has been crowned with
a success of the faith of the pioneers in the industry now being demon-
strated by ever-growing proportions. In political issues he supports
the Republican party.
JONATHAN V. BOWMAN
When Jonathan V. Bowman closed his eyes to the scenes of this
life the Pomona Valley lost one of her stanch upbuilders. He was
a descendant of a Virginia family who settled in Indiana in pioneer
days. A native of Ashland County, Ohio, he was born January 16,
1839, and as an infant he was taken by his parents to Kosciusko
County, Ind., where he attended school. When a young man he went
to Henry County, that state, and followed the trade of carpenter. He
enlisted for service during the Civil War, responding to the last call
for troops, in an Indiana infantry regiment, and served till the close
of the conflict. He then went to Coffey County, Kans., followed his
trade of carpenter, was elected justice of the peace at Burlington,
Kans., and became a member of the school board.
In July, 1887, Mr. Bowman came to Southern California, with
Pomona as his objective point, thereby carrying out a long-felt desire
to come West. He invested in a tract of land on South Garey
Avenue, set out trees and while they were coming into bearing he
raised sweet potatoes on the place, which he marketed with success.
332 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
He was joined by his wife the following September, and ever since
then Pomona has been their home and the scene of his activities, until
his death on February 16, 1916.
In 1885 Mr. Bowman was united in marriage with Miss Sarah
Veach, born in Indiana, and who still lives on their home place in
Pomona. Not having children of their own, they adopted a niece of
Mrs. Bowman's, whom they reared with care and love as an own
daughter. The niece, now Mrs. Lavina Kirkman Penley, is connected
with the Pomona Library and has been active in library work for
several years.
Mr. Bowman was affiliated with the Masonic order and with
Vicksburg Post No. 61, G. A. R. He was a supporter of all move-
ments for the upbuilding of his adopted city and state.
MRS. CORNELIA A. SPENCE
As a city of high musical talent and taste Pomona has long
enjoyed an enviable reputation, and, in Mrs. Cornelia A. Spence,
possesses a musician of exceptional versatility. Mrs. Spence was
before her marriage Miss Cornelia A. Soule, and is a descendant on
the maternal side of an old Knickerbocker family, and on the paternal
side traces her lineage back to the landing of the Pilgrims. She was
born near Rochester, N. Y., but reared and educated in Fond du Lac,
Wis. A natural musician, at an early age she evinced her predilection
for the art, and began the study of music at the age of eight. For
eleven years she played the pipe organ in the Presbyterian Church
of Fond du Lac, where she also taught piano and organ.
The marriage of Miss Soule united her with J. A. Spence, a native
of Ireland, who came to Ohio as a young man. He engaged in the
merchandise business in Chillicothe, Ohio, and continued to follow
the occupation in Fond du Lac, Wis. During the country's need in
the stress of our great civil conflict, he enlisted as a private and came
out with the rank of major, lieutenant-colonel by brevet. He also
served as acting judge advocate of his division. In 1899 he came to
Pomona, where he held the position of bookkeeper for the San Dimas
Water Company up to the time of his death, which occurred in 1909.
A son was born to Mr. and Mrs. Spence, Jay Spence, a native of
Chicago, 111., who came to Pomona in 1889 at the age of nineteen to
accept a position in the First National Bank. He learned the banking
business and for eleven years was with the First National Bank of
Pomona. Later he became cashier and president of the Bank of
Oxnard, Ventura County, Cal., and from that position was called
to the position of cashier in the Los Angeles Trust & Savings Bank
at Los Angeles, Cal., and in 1919 was made vice-president. He is a
young man of talent and has made rapid strides in the business world.
He married Estelle Minier of Cincinnati, Ohio, and three children
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 335
have been born to them: Dorothy, a student in the University of
California at Berkeley, and the twins. Jay, Jr., and Jayne.
Mrs. Spence has been a factor in the musical world since coming
to Southern California. She played the pipe organ in various churches
of Los Angeles, and in Pomona she has substituted in several of the
churches, and also taught piano and organ in Pomona. She estab-
lished the Spence Orchestra at Pomona, consisting of Miss Willa Kent
and Miss Jean Kent, both talented musicians, and plays at concerts,
dances, weddings, receptions, etc., and has used her art, in which she
has been so signally successful, not only in a commercial way, but in
giving pleasure to her friends. For a periodof fifty years Mrs. Spence
has played in churches in different cities in the United States, repre-
senting nearly every denomination. She is active in Pomona's musical
circles, and in Red Cross work during the World War.
JOSEPH P. BAYNHAM
The steady and rapid growth and the Increased prosperity of
Pomona Valley is directly the result of the pioneer settlers in this lo-
cality who have spent the better part of their lives in developing its
latent resources and in building up a community which, socially, eco-
nomically and In civic progress ranks with any in the state, and has
during the years attracted the better class of citizenry to help In the
further advancement of this ideal home community. Among the old
settlers in the Valley Joseph J. Baynham stands well to the front in
the roster of names of pioneer orange men here. Born in P'ulton,
Mo., September 28, 1857, he was a son of G. H. and Martha E.
(Games) Baynham, the former born in Halifax, Va., August 17, 1814,
and the latter a native of Georgetown, Ky., born December 5, 1821 ;
their marriage taking place December 4, 1839, at Fulton, Mo., and
in that locality Joseph J. was reared and received his education in
the public schools and Westminster College at Fulton, Mo. After
school days were over Mr. Baynham engaged in farming and stock
raising, making a specialty of pure-bred and high-grade horses, cattle
and sheep — a business he greatly enjoyed. However, wishing to seek
a milder climate he disposed of his holdings In Missouri and removed
to Pomona Valley, Cal., In 1886. This was at the very beginning of
a settlement here, and during the formative years of the Valley he
aided materially In developing the citrus Industry and In laying the
foundation for its present day phenomenal state of cultivation. He
was one of the first men to engage in orange growing in the La Verne
district, and from the beginning had great faith In the future possi-
bilities of the culture here. For the first five years he hauled water
in barrels and tanks to Irrigate his growing orange grove, and his per-
severance during those years of working against obstacles, when the
336 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
present day irrigating facilities were as yet only dreams, met with
success and he became one of the prominent orange growers of the
district. He gave his orchard the same care and attention that had
made him so successful in stock raising in the East, and he succeeded
in developing and growing what has become one of the finest orange
groves in the Pomona Valley. He was one of the prime movers in
the organization and development of the La Verne Land and Water
Company, of which company he was vice-president and director.
The marriage of Mr. Baynham occurred in Fulton, Mo., as had
that of his father before him, and united him with Katherine De Groff,
a native of Paris, Ky., the ceremony taking place August 2, 1883.
Mrs. Baynham was a daughter of A. P. and Margaret E.
(Robnett) De Groff, natives, respectively, of Rochester, N. Y., and
Paris, Ky. Her grandfather on the paternal side was born in France
and migrated to New York State, where A. P. De Groff was reared.
After graduating from college he followed the vocation of teaching,
later removing to Paris, Ky., where he was engaged in educational
work and there he married. In 1860 he removed with his family to
Paris, Mo., where he followed farming until his death.
Great-grandfather Robnett came with two of his brothers from
their native France to Virginia. The name was originally Robinette,
but the emigrant changed it to Robnett, so as to establish a particular
and distinct spelling of the name by his branch of the family. His son,
Moses Robnett, was an early settler of Kentucky, locating in the fa-
mous blue grass region near Paris, where he married Miss Maria
Kenney, a native daughter of Kentucky.
Mrs. Baynham is the fourth oldest in a family of ten children and
is the only one in California. Four children blessed the union of Mr.
and Mrs. Jos. J. Baynham: Charles Robnett, a successful orange
grower in the Claremont district; Willa De Groff Is Mrs. Rickett of
Pomona; Joseph Robnett Is a successful orange grower in the La Verne
district; James De Groff was a member of Company D. Seventh
California Infantry, National Guard. On the declaration of war on
Germany by the United States Congress he enlisted with his regi-
ment and was mustered into the One Hundred Sixtieth Infantry, later
being transferred to the Forty-first Engineers and went with them
overseas February, 1918, serving with the first army until the armis-
tice, after which he was transferred to the Twentieth Engineers, assist-
ing in the cleaning up and rehabilitating of the country. His last three
months overseas was spent as a student in the Law Department of the
American Expeditionary Forces University at Beaune.
Returning to San Francisco June 1, 1919, he was mustered out
In that city June 17, with the rank of sergeant, and he is now attending
Pomona College. He Is a member of the Chas. P. Rowe Post of the
American Legion at Pomona.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 337
During his many years of residence here Mr. Baynham was
active in all good works in the community; a Democrat in politics, he
exerted his influence to further civic betterment in his district, and in
church work he served as deacon of the First Baptist Church in Po-
mona for over thirty years, and held that office at the time of his death.
Fraternally he was a member of the A. O. U. W., and of the Fraternal
Aid. His passing, which occurred June 1, 1918, removed from the
community a man in whom reposed the sincerest respect and admira-
tion of all, and ended a life which was an inspiration to everyone who
knew him. Since the death of her husband Mrs. Baynham continues
to reside at the family home, 228 College Avenue, Claremont, which
they built in 1906. The children are very kind, loving, and devoted
to her and assist her in looking after the affairs left by Mr. Baynham.
She is hospitable and charitable and has a large circle of friends by
whom she is held in the highest esteem.
THEOPHILE CORBEIL
The pioneer among his countrymen in the Pomona Valley, Theo-
phile Corbeil stands a unique figure. The success he has achieved in
life has been entirely the result of his own effort and application. He
was born May 10, 1859, in Hautes-Alpes, France, of French parents,
and was fortunate in having a father that attached importance to the
benefit of a good education. He was kept in school until twenty-one
years of age, then entered the French Army, and after serving for five
years accepted the call for volunteers and went to Africa, where he
served eight months during the uprising of the Arabs. After his return
to France he was employed in the paymaster's department of the army
as a messenger, and in 1885 renounced the life of a soldier and was
soon afterward united in marriage with Rosalie Sarazin.' Two years
later, in 1887, he and his wife sailed for America, and arrived in Los
Angeles, Cal., April 21, 1887, with but thirty-five cents in his pocket.
Undaunted by the vicissitudes of life, he and his wife worked
for a time in a restaurant, and later he found employment with the
Southern Pacific Railroad in road construction work, and in May,
1887, arrived at Pomona. He was in the employ of the Southern
Pacific Railroad nine years, and in the meantime built a home in
Pomona and later purchased a twenty-acre unimproved ranch near
Chino which he planted to apricots, peaches, prunes and grapes. This
land, for which he paid fifty-seven dollars an acre, he sold in twelve
years' time for $450 per acre. This gave him his start to success and
prosperity. He next bought twelve and one-half acres of unimproved
land on East San Bernardino Avenue, Pomona, planted the land to
Navel and Valencia oranges and installed an irrigating system. This
grove produced over $ 1 0,000 worth of fruit for the season of 1918-19.
338 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
His next real-estate venture was the purchase of nine acres on Kingsley
and Alexander avenues. This he also planted to oranges, and the
trees are now three and five years old. In 1916 Mr. Corbeil bought
five acres in the Charter Oak district. The crop on this last piece of
property yielded 2,000 boxes of fruit for the season of 1918. He
bought five acres on Alexander, adjoining his twelve and one-half
acres, in November, 1919.
Mr. and Mrs. Corbeil are the parents of four sons, Denne,
Silvan, Theophile, Jr., and Fred. Silvan served seventeen months at
the submarine base at San Pedro; Fred was in San Pedro four months,
and at Mare Island five months, when he was discharged. They were
volunteers in the United States Navy during the World War.
Mr. Corbeil is a man of superior business ability, and it is to his
business perspicacity that a large share of his financial success and the
competency he has amassed is due. He is a member of the Roman
Catholic Church.
HANS B. HANSEN
A very successful fruit grower who arrived in the United States a
poor boy and, having become a self-made man, has risen to a state of
comfortable affluence, is Hans B. Hansen, who was born at Schleswig-
Holstein, on January 19, 1851. He learned the trade of a shoemaker
and then, in 1871, at the age of twenty years, came to the United
States, as so many of his fellow-countrymen had done before him, in
the expectation of finding here a larger field, and in this he was not
disappointed. For a while he worked on a farm in Warren County,
Illinois, and later engaged as a shoemaker at Monmouth, near by,
afterward removing to Burlington, Iowa, where he plied his trade for
one year; then he went to Lenox, that state, where he had a shop of
his own and carried on business until coming to California.
In 1883 Mr. Hansen came to California and for three years
busied himself with farming near Santa Rosa, in Sonoma County. In
September, 1886, however, persuaded that Pomona offered still
greater advantages, he came south and bought five acres of land on
Grand Avenue, east of Garey. It was raw land, but he planted it to
apricots and prunes, and during the ten years that he was there, he
developed it along scientific lines, so that he was able to sell some of
the acreage at a decided advance.
Meanwhile, Mr. Hansen had bought his present ranch of ten
acres at the corner of Garey and Grand avenues, and here he planted
apricots, walnut trees and peaches, an orchard so well laid out and
attended to that, when only three years old, it produced twelve tons
of green fruit. Indeed, in 1917 his apricot crop brought $1,250 in the
open market; and the following year, forty walnut trees yielded $400.
b^
&^
5:
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 341
As the result of continued hard, honest labor, Mr. Hansen owns a
business block on East Second Street, one on West Second Street, and
one on South Main Street. He is also a stockholder in the Irrigation
Company of Pomona, having encouraged that laudable enterprise to
his utmost ability. He is a member of the Walnut Growers Associ-
ation at Walnut.
At Lenox, Iowa, on November 15, 1877, Mr. Hansen married
Nannie J. Landon, a native of Virginia, but who was reared in Iowa
from the age of four years, by whom he has had five children, all
girls. Annie B. is the wife of William Capper, of Perris, Cal.;
Maggie M. lives at home; Hattie E. is the wife of R. E. Damon, of
Perris; and Mabel C. and Viola R. are also at home. The family
are members of the First Christian Church; Mr. Hansen is a Mason.
JOHN A. FENDER
A veteran of many campaigns, civil and military, who saw much
of the vigorous life of the great plains and frontiers, and took part In
all the excitement of the early gold discoveries, witnessing events now
a part of our most stirring national history, is John A. Fender, a native
of Yancey County, N. C, where he was born on September 22, 1842.
He started from home on January 1, 1859, and stopped in Missouri
until March, when he outfitted with ox teams to cross the plains for
the Golden West in quest of gold; from Salt Lake City he drove a
band of cattle and mules for Ben Halliday to California. He went
back to Nevada. There, In the Gold Hill district, he mined near the
farm with the Comstock vein, arriving soon after the big vein was
discovered; and he was in that vicinity during all the famous excite-
ment. The place was called Virginia City, but there were no buildings
to designate the place, just a number of tents.
After mining In Nevada for two years, he came back to Cali-
fornia and located at French Town, nine miles below Placerville, in
El Dorado County, where he worked at mining from the fall of 1862
to 1864. He also worked in the old Hubbard Copper Mine, and
helped build the wagon road across the Tehachapi Mountains in the
winter of 1863-64.
In 1864 he returned East and for a short time saw service in the
Civil War, fighting with Van Fleet's brigade in Sheridan's army for
two months in the Shenandoah Valley. Later, he teamed for a while
at the national capital. From 1867 to 1885 he farmed in Missouri,
for the most part In Linn and Bates Counties, and there he owned
a fine farm of 160 acres.
Selling out in 1885, he came to Pomona for his health, and
opened a harness shop on West Second Street, and later he moved
to the corner of Second and Thomas streets, where he did a large
342 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
business. He next bought two ranches of ten acres each in Charter
Oak district, and then he traded these ranches for the Oxford Hotel,
at the corner of First Street and Garey Avenue, Pomona, which he
soon greatly improved, adding another story and making $18,000
worth of improvements. He conducted this hotel for a number of
years, and now has leased it to others to operate. He owned a ten-
acre ranch on Ramona Avenue, which he recently sold at a good profit,
and he also sold a ten-acre alfalfa ranch on North Street. Now, retired
from active life, he devotes his time to looking after his real-estate
interests. He has made a success of his business ventures, and claims
that the climate of Pomona Valley has greatly prolonged his life.
In Yancey County, N. C, Mr. Fender was married to Miss
Linda Taffa, a native of North Carolina, by whom he has had five
children. Besides a son, Joseph, the four daughters are Mrs. Julia
Wheelan, Mrs. Lyna Overman, Mrs. Mary Alford and Mrs. Kate
Lewis. Mr. Fender is one of the leaders in the Holt Avenue Meth-
odist Church, South, and, in his usual public-spirited manner, gives
freely to the same. Especially is he pioud of being a California
pioneer, and "boosts" for California and Pomona Valley first, last
and all the time.
CHARLES H. CHAIN
An official of Pomona who has been very loyal to both the town
and the Valley is Charles H. Chain, foreman of the Pomona city
schools. He was born in Portage County, Ohio, September 12, 1862,
the son of William and Matilda (Case) Chain, natives of New Balti-
more, Stark County, and Portage County, Ohio. In 1865 the family
went to Oil City, Pa., at the time of the first oil discovery, and there
the father engaged in teaming for a time; later he engaged in the
retail business of ice and soda water until the panic of 1877. The
following spring they moved to Jefferson County, Kans., where
Charles H. assisted in developing some prairie land into a productive
farm. The Chains were certainly pioneers there, and the best educa-
tional advantages that the son had were supplied by the country school.
On October 23, 1884, at Nortonville, Kans., Mr. Chain married
Miss Laura A. Slane, the daughter of George and Elizabeth (Rogers)
Slane, who were born in Illinois and Virginia, respectively. After
establishing himself in domestic comfort, Mr. Chain farmed in eastern
Kansas, in Jefferson County. In 1885 he took up a Government claim
of 160 acres in Gray County, and the spring of the next year he
brought his family, consisting of wife and baby, overland by wagon
to their new home. Little by little he added to his holdings, until he
had three quarter-sections of land. He began with nothing, but by
hard work, self-denial, thrift and economy succeeded In getting a start
and built a sod house and barn for his needs. In order to make a
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 343
living while he was developing his place he did teaming, hauling
freight from the Santa Fe Railroad to Texas and Indian Territories.
After living on his claim two years he moved into the new town of
Montezuma, into which he had hauled the first load of lumber, and
there he established a small general store, which he conducted one
year; but the hot winds ruined the corn crop that year and Mr. Chain
went under, with the other hard-working folks who had ventured all
they had. While living here he participated in the county-seat war
between the towns of Cimarron and Ingalls.
Having to begin all over again, Mr. Chain went to Topeka,
where he worked for the street railway a couple of years, then returned
to Alliance, Stark County, Ohio, where for eleven years he followed
the trade of carpenter, which he had learned in his younger days. For
seven years of that time he was with the wrecking crew, and also in
the car-building department of the Pennsylvania Railroad. On account
of leading such a strenuous life and the rigorous climate of the East, in
November, 1902, Mr. Chain and family came to Pomona, Cal. He
arrived here with limited capital, but went to work as a carpenter,
operating in Long Beach, San Pedro, Huntington Beach and Pomona,
working on many of the fine residences in those localities. He later
became a contracting builder In Pomona, following that calling for
many years, during which time he erected many of the fine homes
here. In 1905 he bought ten acres of land on West Fifth Street, which
had been set to grapes, walnuts and fruit. He erected a comfortable
home and greatly improved the property, so that in 1918 his walnut
trees produced three tons of nuts, and he had six tons of peaches
from 300 trees.
In 1914 Mr. Chain became foreman of the Pomona city schools,
and has had charge of the janitors, buildings and grounds. Since
assuming the position he has systematized the duties of the office and
thereby saves time and labor in carrying out his ideas. He has been
especially Interested In beautifying the different school grounds and is
particular In seeing that the buildings are kept in good repair, for
a "stitch In time saves nine." His work Is dignified by responsibility
and his many friends are pleased that he gaves perfect satisfaction.
Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Chain : Clodlne J.
is the wife of Henry Ingram, an attorney In Gridley, Cal. She was
born October 30, 1885, in Jefferson County, Ivans., and is the mother
of t^YO children, Phyllis Dean and Mary Elizabeth; Opal M. is the
wife of A. T. Richardson, part owner of the Pomona Progress. She
was born August 24, 1887, In the sod house In Kansas, and has one
son, Charles T. ; Harold S. was born in Alliance, Ohio, March 2,
1899, and is a salesman for Smart & Final. Mr. and Mrs. Chain are
members of the First Christian Church. Mr. Chain belongs to Po-
mona Lodge No. 246, I. O. O. F., and he and Mrs. Chain are members
of the Brotherhood of American Yeomen.
344 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
HARRY RANDOLPH WHITE
A descendant of an old pioneer family of the state, and himself
a native son of California, Harry Randolph White was born at Court-
land, Sacramento County, January 2, 1864, a son of Caleb E. White,
whose life story is given on another page of the history. As a young
man he was on the range with his father, doing his share toward the
development of the state, and also sharing in the hardships of agri-
cultural life in those days of more primitive methods and surroundings.
Leaving the range, he later found employment in a grocery store,
and was next manager of a large wholesale fruit house in Los Angeles.
On the death of his father, September 2, 1902, he assumed the care
of the home place in Pomona, and his early training has stood him in
good stead, for he has made a most efficient and thorough horticulturist,
having learned the fruit industry from the ground up in the school
of experience. He makes his home on the old ranch and keeps it in
splendid condition. His mother's death occurred December 12, 1910.
The marriage of Mr. White, which occurred in 1897, united him
with Miss Mary Blaney, a native of England, and four children have
been born to them: Rebecca A.; Helen May; Irene M., and Mar-
guerite. Mr. White is a Republican in politics, and gives his support
to all movements tending toward the advancement of his district, with
a patriotic interest in the commonwealth as a whole and particularly
in his own community. He was one of the charter members of the
Moose Lodge in Pomona.
EVERETT HASKELL WELCH
One of the representative citizens of Pomona and active in the
life of the community for the past twenty-eight years, Everett H.
Welch is a native of La Salle, La Salle County, 111., born October
4, 1858. At the age of eleven, he moved with his parents to Gales-
burg, 111. His father, William Wallace Welch, was a doctor, and
served throughout the Civil War in the Fifty-third Regiment, Illinois
Volunteer Infantry, except for a time when he was medical director
of the Army, Department of Tennessee. Everett H. studied medicine
with him for four years. He decided, however, to take up railroad-
ing, and in 1881 started in with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy
Railway as night operator at Abingdon, 111. Later he was agent and
operator at Cromwell, Iowa, for two years. For seven years he was
agent and operator for the Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway at Brown,
Clinton County, Iowa.
September 6, 1891, Mr. Welch came to Pomona. For a time he
worked in Major Driffil's nursery and at setting out fruit trees on
different ranches. June 5, 1892, he became station agent for the
Santa Fe Railway at North Pomona, and has been agent and operator
there since that date, a period of faithful service which speaks for
HISTORY AXD BIOGRAPHY 345
itself. At that early date the postoffice was in the station, and Mr.
Welch was assistant postmaster, besides his other duties. He has seen
many change in this section of the Valley during his long residence
here; has seen all the orange groves set out and brought to their
present state of productiveness. When he became agent the Richards
Orange Ranch was just coming into bearing and the next year they
shipped nine cars of fruit, and this increased to 200 cars yearly, until
the property was subdivided. A part of the railway station was at
that time used for packing and storing the fruit, as this was before the
days of the packing houses.
The marriage of Mr. Welch, in Dubuque, Iowa, December 25,
1884, united him with Florence R. Marugg, of French and Swiss
descent; she was born in Menominee, Wis., January 25, 1868. Mr.
and Mrs. Welch are the parents of three children, the two oldest born
in Brown, Iowa, and the youngest at the family home in Pomona :
Esther B., born October 23, 1885, is the wife of Charles V. Gillette
of Pomona, and the mother of two sons; she is an active member of
the Eastern Star in which she is a past district deputy, and she is a
Daughter of the American Revolution. Edward Everett, born March
13, 1888, a graduate from Pomona High School, began in 1909 as
telegraph operator with the Santa Fe at Hanford, and continued as an
operator in various points on the Pacific Coast; from 1912 to 1914 he
was radio operator in the United States Navy; and when the United
States entered the war, he went into training at Camp Lewis, joined
the Ninety-first Division, Three Hundred Sixteenth Field Signal Bat-
talion, United States Army, served in France and Belgium and saw
action in the Argonne, and other battles; he returned to the United
States after the armistice was signed and was discharged at Camp
Kearny, and is now with a reclamation surveying corps in the Sacra-
mento Valley. The youngest son, Elwyn H., born June 28, 1895, was
educated in the public schools of Pomona, and was graduated from
Pomona College, June 17, 1918, with high honors, and during his last
year in college was class president. He became a member of the
Fortieth Division, attached to the One Hundred Fifty-seventh Field
Hospital Corps, United States Army, which was later detached and
operated independently of the Fortieth, being stationed at Mars Le
Tours, France. He became a sergeant, was discharged at the Pre-
sidio in San Francisco, and is now taking a medical course in the
University of California at Berkeley.
Mr. Welch has been prominent in fraternal organizations in the
city; in the Masonic orders he is a past master of Pomona Lodge No.
246, F. & A. M.; past high priest, Pomona Chapter No. 76, R. A.
M. ; past commander of Southern California Commandery No. 37,
K. T., and past worthy patron of Pomona Chapter No. 110, O. E. S.
He is active in the Odd Fellows as well, is past noble grand and past
D. D. G. M. of Pomona Lodge No. 246, I. O. O. F., and is a member
346 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
of San Antonio Encampment No. 88. He also belongs to Heliotrope
Lodge No. 183, Daughters of Rebekah. Mrs. Welch has also been
an active worker in both the Eastern Star and the Rebekahs; she has
been worthy matron of the Eastern Star and she is past noble grand
and district deputy of the Rebekahs.
The Welch family has been represented in all of the wars of this
country, and their ancestry is traced back to the early Colonial days.
This loyal and patriotic family is representative of the community
which has grown up around Pomona, and as such deserve all honor
for their public and patriotic labors for the upbuilding of our great
commonwealth.
ASA G. WHITING
Thirty-four years have rolled down time's corridor since Asa G.
Whiting, in search of a climate for his health's sake, less rigorous
than that of the old Pine Tree State, cast his lot in the Pomona Valley.
There is certainly a great contrast between the climate of the state
located in the extreme northeastern part of our Union and that of
Southern California, situated in the extreme southwestern part, and
in the afternoon of life Mr. Whiting enjoys the unsurpassed climate
of the Pomona Valley under the genial California sunshine, and is
still an active man for his years.
He was born February 9th, 1843, at Skowhegan, Maine, his
father and mother's natal state also. The Pacific Slope has been
largely populated with sturdy New England people whose thrift and
reliability give tone to our cosmopolitan population and whose enter-
prise has added materially to the wealth of the State of California.
Mr. Whiting was educated in the country schools of his native
state, attending school In his early years in a log cabin schoolhouse,
and at the age of eighteen worked In the lumber woods at Norridge-
wock, Maine, and In the saw mills, cutting timber and floating logs
down the Kennebeck and Penobscot rivers. As a boy he learned the
trade of stonecutter. Later he was engaged in railroad building in
his native state and helped build the Somerset Railroad in Maine, the
Ware River Railroad In Massachusetts and the Cayuga Lake Rail-
road in New York State. He was a member of the State of Maine
Grange many years, and also engaged In timber cruising In the woods
of Maine. In those early days of his life he mined for gold in the
Province of Quebec, Canada, on the Chandler River, and he wears a
gold nugget as a watch charm which he dug in the early Sixties.
When Mr. Whiting came to California In 1885 the city of Mon-
rovia had not been started, and not a brick had been laid In Pasadena.
He settled in Pomona Valley and purchased twenty acres of fruit
land which lay between Second and Fifth streets on the east, and
of.^.M^^.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 349
Reservoir Avenue and San Antonio Avenue on the south. He after-
wards disposed of this property and bought ten acres west of Eleanor
and north of Grand Avenue, his present place, and also ten acres east
of his present ranch. He planted the land to apricot, orange and wal-
nut trees, planting the orange trees from seed and afterward budding
them. He has been raising apricots thirty years and in that time has
had only two apricot crop failures. One year he produced eighty-one
tons of green fruit from 578 apricot trees. He has a fine irrigation
system on his ranch, which at the present time comprises seven and
one-half acres and is one of the best looking and best kept ranches in
the Valley.
He has a number of valuable relics and ancient pieces in his
home which he brought from Maine, among them a grandfather's
clock over 100 years old, the works of which are made entirely of
wood; a chair over 100 years old; a history of Norridgewock and
Canaan, Maine, printed in 1849, and an English dictionary printed in
England in 1790.
His marriage united him with Mary Mosher in 1883, a native
of Unity, Maine, whose parents were also born in the State of Maine.
Mrs. Whiting is greatly interested in raising chickens, and has four
pens of fine blooded white Leghorn and Anconas.
Mr. Whiting was president of the Irrigation Company of Po-
mona for twelve years and was a charter member of the company.
He and his good wife are highly respected by their friends and neigh-
bors. In political affairs Mr. Whiting casts his vote for the best man,
regardless of party afiiliations.
FRANK OSCAR SLANKER
One of the few pioneers left, and second to none among those
who are highly respected for their known public spirit, is Frank Oscar
Slanker, the vigilant yet considerate constable, who was born at Read-
ing, Burks County, Pa., on October 12, 1857. His father was Daniel
A. Slanker, a stockman and breeder of high-grade, fancy horses, who
owned a half-interest in Dan Rice's Circus. During the Civil War he
served for three and a half years in Company A of the Seventh Illinois
Ca\'alry Regiment, and he died in Clinton, Henry County, Mo., where
he had a large farm after the war. Mrs. Slanker was Elizabeth
Leonard before her marriage, and she also passed away, the mother
of twelve children.
Frank was educated at the public schools of Paris and Clinton,
Mo., and then he helped his father until his fourteenth year, when he
left home. He went to Illinois and lived with acquaintances; and
while there he attended school for another three years.
Shortly after that, in 1875, he came to California with a family
named Webster, and set'led at San Jacinto; but they died a few years
350 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
later, and a year after that he returned to Illinois. He came back to
California, however, and this time located at Compton; and with this
closer acquaintance with the Southland, he began to associate himself
more permanently with California.
In 1877 — a long time ago in the history of Pomona Valley and
its rather recent development — Mr. Slanker came to Pomona, and
for a while he worked on a farm. With Mr. Burlingame and a set
of well tools, he was for four years in charge of a crew drilling artesian
wells, and so helped more extensively to introduce this great French
device that has been of such service in irrigation. Then he learned the
blacksmith trade and worked at that for six years, and afterwards he
bought a shop and carried on the trade until 1886.
Fortunately for Pomona, as well as for himself, he was elected
constable in 1886, and during the years when he has cared for the
observance of law and the safety of the community, he has seen the
town grow from a few shacks to its present size. He is a Repub-
lican in politics, but he has many a friend who belongs to another
political camp.
In Pomona, on April 12, 1885, Mr. Slanker was married to Miss
Sadie Keller of Ohio, and by her he has had five children: Leria
married Lloyd Clark, and has one son, Lloyd; Penelope, Mrs. Russell,
has one daughter. Fern; Etta, Mrs. Ryan, has one son, Richard;
George ; and Richard. He belongs to the Elks and the Maccabees and
the Fraternal Brotherhood and Fraternal Aid. He is fond of fishing
and also hunting, and by these outdoor recreations keeps himself in
excellent trim for his work.
CHARLES MIDGLEY
The descendant of a famous English family, and himself a well-
read, interesting man, well posted on topics of the day and a fine
conversationalist, Charles Midgley made many firm friends during his
years of residence in Pomona, and his passing left a clean and active
record on the book of life. A native of Vermont, he was born in
Northfield, June 5, 1839, of English descent and, on his mother's side,
a descendant of the Whitworth family of England. When a young
man he went to Canada, later to Minnesota, and at the outbreak of
the Civil War he enlisted in the Ninth Minnesota Infantry and served
to the end of the war with distinction.
After the close of that great conflict, Mr. Midgley farmed for a
time in Minnesota, then moved to Gadsden, Ala., and was in the lime
and rock business there. In 1891 he came to Pomona, and here he
bought ten acres of land near town and engaged in ranching, but soon
after retired from active duties. He was a member of Vicksburg
Post No. 61, G. A. R., of Pomona, and had hosts of friends in the
community. His death occurred December 31, 1911.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 353
July 11, 1865, Mr. Midgley was united in marriage with Luella
Tuttle, born in Moline, 111., and who came to Minnesota at age of two
years, when that state was a wilderness and infested by Indians,
Minneapolis consisting of only a few houses, and while living on the
east side, the present site of the State University was a part of his
farm, and he donated the land for the site. Three sons were born to
Mr. and Mrs. Midgley: Arthur, who died in the East, leaving a wife
and two children; Col. W. W. Midgley, who was well known in
Pomona as a rancher and member of the Seventh Regiment, National
Guard; he is now in the cattle business in Clarksdale, Ariz.; and
Robert B. of Berkeley, Cal. A grandson, Roy Midgley, son of the
late Arthur Midgley, served as a mechanic with the home forces
during the late war. Mrs. Midgley is a member of the Eastern Star
and she attends the Congregational Church.
EDWARD D. SHAW
A descendant of thoroughgoing American pioneer stock whose
immediate forbears were among the first settlers of Pomona Valley,
Edward D. Shaw carried on the work so nobly started by his ances-
tors in different parts of the country, that of developing and upbuild-
ing the communities in which they made their homes. Born in Glen-
shaw, Pa., in 1860, he is a son of W. C. and Eliza Jane (Matthews)
Shaw, the father of Scotch-Irish extraction and the mother of English
descent. She was a cultured and refined woman and was a teacher
in a ladies' seminary at Cadiz, Ohio, previous to her marriage. The
Shaw family were among the early settlers of Pittsburgh, Pa., being
large property owners in that city, owning a garden on what is now
Fifth Avenue, in the heart of the city of Pittsburgh. Afterwards the
family settled in Glenshaw, which takes its name from the family, a
place eight miles out from Pittsburgh.
W. C. Shaw was a miller and a very prominent man in the affairs
of his vicinity. Several years after Mrs. Shaw's death, Mr. Shaw
decided to come to California, and he arrived at Pomona in 1887.
In 1889 he set out an orange grove at Harrison and Mountain ave-
nues, but finally returned East and resided at his old home in Glen-
shaw until his death.
The second of six children born to his parents, Edward D. Shaw
was educated in the public schools of Pittsburgh. After his school days
were over he entered the office of the Lewis, Oliver & Phillips Com-
pany, at Pittsburgh, iron and steel manufacturers, and then with the
Charlotte Furnace Company at Scottdale, Pa., where he continued for
four years, and here he learned the manufacture of iron. Going back
to Pittsburgh he was with the Jones & Laughlin Steel Company, where
he learned the Bessemer process of manufacturing steel under Phin-
354 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
neas Barnes, remaining there two years, after which he entered the
employ of the Carnegie Steel Company as inspector of steel, and soon
afterwards he was made superintendent of the Cold Drawn Steel De-
partment for the Carnegie Steel Company at Beaver Falls, Pa. Re-
signing his position, he went with the Panhandle system of the Penn-
sylvania Railroad Company as assistant bridge inspector on those
lines, where he spent four years traveling over their railroad system.
In the spring of 1893 he again accepted a position with the Car-
negie Steel Company as inspector in the field for the Bridge Company
Department in the erection of the Metropolitan Elevated Railroad in
Chicago, and immediately removed to the Western metropolis, taking
up his duties with the same vim and energy that had made him so
valuable in former positions. However, the strenuous life and severe
climate of the East had told on Mr. Shaw and impaired his health,
and he was advised to seek a milder climate, so in November, 1893, he
came to Claremont and for eighteen months devoted his time to
citrus culture. But the call of the bustling Eastern manufacturing
centers was too much for him and the old desire for activity along
those lines became so strong that he returned to Pennsylvania and re-
entered the employ of the Panhandle at his old desk as assistant
inspector of the southwest system of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and
traveled over the system as inspector of bridge steel.
After six months of this work he found that he could not stand
the climate, so in 1895 he returned to Claremont, since which time he
has devoted himself to citrus culture. He purchased the ten-acre
orange grove on Harrison and Mountain avenues which his father
had set out in 1889 and began its care and development. He found
the water supply inadequate for the growing orchards, so with others
organized the Claremont Cooperative Water Company; they put
down four wells and installed four pumping plants, so that they now
have an ample supply of water to irrigate the area covered. This
ten acres formed the nucleus of his present holdings. The first few
years were hard, uphill work, but he persevered, aided by his faithful
wife, and they eventually weathereti the difficulties and made a suc-
cess, so that about 1903 he purchased twenty acres one and one-half
miles north of his place, also on Mountain Avenue. It was covered
with sage brush and he cleared it, leveled it and set it to oranges, hav-
ing raised the nursery stock on his own place, and the whole tract is
now a bearing orchard of Navel and Valencia oranges and lemons.
In 1910 he bought forty acres on Upper Mills A\enue, a wilder-
ness of sage brush. He brought water on it, cleared and improved it
and now has twenty acres of it in a thriving orchard of Valencias and
Marsh Seedless grapefruit, and is rapidly developing the balance.
He is building a large, modern residence on the place and it is the
consensus of opinion that it is one of the most sightly places in
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 355
Claremont, commanding a magnificent view of the mountains and a
beautiful view of the Valley. Mr. Shaw is president of the Montclair
Water Company that furnishes his and two other ranches with water.
The marriage of Mr. Shaw occurred at Glenshaw, Pa., October
8, 1889, uniting him with Miss Belle Richey Miller, also a native of
Glenshaw, the daughter of John B. and Caroline (Richey) Miller,
both born in Pennsylvania, and who were prominent agriculturists of
Glenshaw. Mrs. Shaw received a good education in the schools of
Alleghany City. Mr. and Mrs. Shaw have three children: Marjorie,
born in Chicago, graduated from Pomona College in the class of
1917 and is now the wife of Carlos S. Mundt of Alameda; Courtney
Miller and Edward Richey were both born on the Harrison Avenue
ranch ; the former, a graduate of the Claremont high school, is now
attending the Oregon Agricultural College at Corvallis, Ore., and
Edward attends the Claremont high school. The family are members
of the Congregational Church at Claremont.
Mr. Shaw has seen this section grow from a few acres of orchard
newly set out, to one of thousands of acres of full bearing citrus
groves. In the early days there were no packing houses and oranges
were packed on the depot platforms at the stations. Now there are
large packing houses In every community. Mr. Shaw is a member of
the College Heights Orange Growers Association. He is a Republi-
can and a protectionist. Deeply interested in the development of the
citrus industry in Southern California, he has proven himself a valu-
able and enterprising citizen.
WILLIAM T. MARTIN
A noted apiarist who has had a very interesting and honorable
part in the development of the Pomona Valley, is William T., pop-
ularly called "Toots" Martin, of 362 East Third Street, Pomona. He
was born in Red River County, Texas, on October 8, 1844, the son
of William C. Martin, who was born in that same state when Texas
was under Spanish rule. He married Miss Rebecca A. Miller, a native
of Alabama, and in 1853 crossed the great plains to California, travel-
ing with ox teams, and settled at El Monte, Los Angeles County.
William attended school in the El Monte school district, anil
afterward studied at the Sotoyome College at Healdsburg. Thus well
equipped, he began to teach school at the age of eighteen, and he still
has in his possession a teacher's certificate of grammar school grade.
In 1865 he married Miss Nancy M. Thompson of Texas, and the
daughter of Samuel S. Thompson, who located in Los Angeles County
in 1852 and were thus among the early pioneers of the country.
Pitching his tent at Downey, Mr. Martin bought fifty acres of
land from the Governor, and farmed the same until 1867. Then-he
356 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
returned to El Monte and ran the old El Monte Tavern, although
from 1868 to 1871 he raised bees m the San Dimas section. In 1871
he moved his 200 hives of bees to where Claremont now stands, and
there took a preemption claim of 156 acres, and he was in the bee
business there until 1884, when he sold out. This relation to the bee
industry leads him sometimes to tell of an experience, in the Centennial
Year, with a bear. Proverbially fond of honey. Bruin came down from
the mountains and robbed him of eight stands of bees, eating honey,
bees and all. About six weeks afterward Mr. Bear again visited him
and robbed him of four stands more, bees and honey.
After selling out his ranch in 1884, Mr. Martin removed to
Pomona and bought fifteen acres at the corner of Fifth and Towne
avenues, and these he planted to deciduous fruits. Two years later
he was elected one of the supervisors of Los Angeles County, running
on the Democratic ticket against a strong Republican ticket, and he was
the first and last supervisor to be elected who resided in the extreme end
of the Pomona district. He served for four years, and during his term
of office more bridges were built in the east end of the county than ever
before, among them being the old El Monte wooden structure, half
a mile long, and San Gabriel bridge. During his term also the County
Court House was built in Los Angeles, and the County Farm on the
Downey Tract was also started. The Supervisors bought 112 acres
from the same person, Andy Ryan, paying $100 per acre; houses were
built and the land developed, and later more land was bought, and
this was the first County Farm. Mr. Ryan is the same interesting
character referred to by the pioneer, Harris Newmark, when he says
in his "Sixty Years in Southern California: 1853-1913": "Andrew
W. Ryan, a Kilkenny Irishman commonly called Andy, after footing
it from Virginia City to Visalia, reached Los Angeles on horseback
and found employment with Phineas Banning as one of his drivers.
From 1876 to 1879, he was county assessor, later associating himself
with the Los Angeles Water Company, until, in 1902, the city came
into control of the system."
Mr. Martin also served for eight years as justice of the peace
in the San Jose Township, when he resigned. He was a member of
the school board of Pomona in the early eighties, and three times he
ran for assemblyman in his district, and at one election, in a strong
Republican district, was beaten by only seventeen votes. For two
years he was street superintendent of Pomona, and for another two
years he was a night watchman in Pomona, and since he never slept
on the job, during that time not a house nor a store was broken into.
Three months after he resigned, Gerard's Butcher Shop at the corner
of West Second and Main streets, was burglarized, and the safe was
stolen and taken to an empty lot west of the town and opened.
In _ those early days, he shot wild duck and geese where Pomona
now stands.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 359
Selling out his East Fifth Street ranch in 1896, Mr. Martin
bought a home on Fifth Street, near town, where he lived a number
of years, and took up the bee industry on a ranch where Claremont
is now located. He recently sold his ranch in Antelope Valley, but
he is still interested in bee culture.
Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Martin, and five are
still living: Thomas C, Hugh, Robert A., and Maggie, now Mrs.
Mark Piercy of El Monte, and Floretta Caroline, now Mrs. Ed-
ward Ward of Pasadena. Mr. Martin Is past master in the Lexington
Lodge of Masons, No. 104, of El Monte, and with eight others
organized Pomona Lodge No. 246, F. & A. ^L, in 1876, and he was
their first master. He served five years and is now the only living
charter member. The lodge held its meetings in the old Central
School in a room rented from the Odd Fellows. He was also Scribe
of the Royal Arch Masons and the Eastern Star.
ROBERT M. TEAGUE
Occupying a distinctive place In the history of the citrus industry
of Southern California, Robert M. Teague has made an Invaluable
contribution to the fruit growers throughout the state through his
many years of painstaking and skillful work in the propagation and
improvement of nursery stock. He was born in Davis County, Iowa,
on May 6, 1863, the son of Crawford Pinckney and Amanda (May)
Teague, referred to In more detail in the sketch of D. C. Teague, an
older brother of Robert, who was next to the youngest In a family of
eight children; he was brought to California by his parents across the
great plains in a wagon drawn by horses, being six months en route.
Robert grew up at Santa Rosa and there attended school, sur-
rounded by an environment peculiar to the Golden State and which
undoubtedly appealed, and not in vain, to his every faculty. P>om a
lad he learned farming as practiced in those days, driving the big
teams In the grain fields, much of this work now being done by trac-
tors. When seventeen years of age he came to San DImas, In 1880,
and with his father and brothers engaged in raising grain on the San
Jose Rancho; all this time he was studying the soil and climate, so he
was prepared, therefore, for the general awakening in 1889, just
after the great "boom" here and took advantage of the conditions by
embarking in the citrus nursery business, in which from the first he
was unusually successful. In 1889 he purchased twenty acres of the
San Jose tract on Cienega Avenue, where he raised nursery stock and
also set out oranges for a grove of his own. Then in 1901 he pur-
chased twenty-five acres on Bonita Avenue in San DImas, then a
hay field and with no water on the place. He secured water and
piped It to the land and started a nursery on the place as well as
360 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
setting out an orchard, with a border of palms, the consensus of
opinion being that his grove presented the most beautiful appearance
of any place in the district. He also purchased forty acres of bottom
land, developing water on it and installing an electric pumping plant
and this he set out to lemons, later selling this land but continuing the
growing of trees in his nursery.
Mr. Teague now owns ninety acres on La Habra Heights, which
he will devote to nursery stock and citrus orchards. In his nursery
his stock includes oranges, lemons, pomelos and limes, as well as sub-
tropical trees, such as avocados, Feijoas, Cherimoya and Jujubes. His
experimenting in subtropical fruits has proven them a commercial suc-
cess. He is preparing and setting out the whole of his La Habra
Heights holdings in orchards and nursery, and in the budding of his
nursery stock he takes buds from record trees only. His headquar-
ters continues on his home place at San Dimas, the business now being
conducted as the R. M. Teague Citrus Nursery. He is the owner of a
half interest in the California CtiltiviUnr, published in Los Angeles,
and at one time was a half owner of the Pacific Rural Press, but sold
his interest in the publication in 1909. A firm believer in coopera-
tion, he is a member of both the San Dimas Orange Growers Asso-
ciation and the San Dimas Lemon Growers Association, believing it
the only way to make a success of citrus culture.
Mr. Teague was one of the organizers of the California Associa-
tion of Nurserymen, in which he has taken an active part. When bud
selection started he saw the feasibility of it and that it meant better
stock and naturally a greater success for the grower. With others he
was instrumental in organizing a bud selection department of the
association for the purpose of keeping records, thus having a reliable
bud supply in all lines, and at the same time to standardize the varie-
ties. He was at one time a member of the Pacific Coast Association
of Nurserymen. So steadily fortunate was he in obtaining the de-
sired results that he has remained an active leader in that field for
thirty years, and year by year has built up such a trade that he had the
largest citrus nursery in the world, employing from thirty to 150 men
and during the season of 1912 shipping some 286,000 trees. One may
imagine the mental labor alone involved when it is considered that
quality and not quantity has always been one of the undeviating stan-
dards of this dependable house, and that every tree is well tested
before being disposed of to the patron. Mr. Teague's fondness for
nature has, of course, been one of the fundamental reasons for the
marked success he has made.
On November 29, 1892, at Pomona, Mr. Teague was united
in marriage with Miss Minnie E. Cowan, a native of Thornton,
Ind., the daughter of E. A. Cowan, a pioneer of Pomona. He had
been married in Indiana to Sarah Turner, of whom he was bereaved
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 361
when Mrs. Teague was only five years of age. Mr. Cowan removed
to Mahomet, Champaign County, 111., and in 1889 came to Pomona,
where he resided until his death. Mrs. Teague, who was the only
child of this union, was educated in the public schools of Indiana.
Gifted and gracious, she has proven a real helpmate, taking the keenest
interest with her husband in the many problems he has met and mas-
tered, and so sharing with him the credit for the splendid results.
She is very popular In social circles and is a member of the Wednesday
Afternoon Club of San Dimas, and has taken an active part in the
work of the Red Cross.
Mr. Teague is a member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Com-
merce, the Pomona Lodge of Elks and the Los Angeles Athletic Club.
It is readily seen that the careful work and experimenting that he has
accomplished during his years of raising nursery stock has been of
the greatest importance to fruit growers. His honest, straightforward
policy of allowing none but the best and most perfectly budded trees to
be sold and shipped has been the means of raising the standard and
quality of fruit groAvn, to the great satisfaction of his patrons. His
reliability and integrity is unquestioned and it is the consensus of
opinion that when "Bob" Teague, as he is familiarly called by his
many friends, says a thing is so, it is so, and in any transaction his
word is as good as his bond. It is to men of his type that Southern
California owes much of its greatness, for by his research and careful
work in the line of the propagation of trees he has been the means of
contributing a great share to the abundance of wealth of its peoples.
. JAMES M. MITCHELL
Few if any pioneers have left behind them, on closing the book
of life, a more enviable record than the late James M. Mitchell, for
his clearly-cut ideal was to serve others besides himself, and in his
laudable ambition he reached his goal. He was born in Franklin
County, Ohio, November 1, 1835, a son of John Mitchell, a native of
Ireland of Scotch parents. When James M. was five years old the
family removed from Ohio and settled at Cumberland, 111., and
there the lad grew up and attended the country schools, while he
worked on the farm with his father. Later he became a farmer on
his own responsibility, and raised cattle and hogs with success. In 1853
he returned to Ohio with the family and there he owned a farm of
200 acres.
In .1869 Mr. Mitchell took a trip to California but, although
much pleased with what he saw here, went back to Ohio and farmed
until 1874. Once more he visited this state and for ten years had
a dairy ranch near Los Angeles. Ohio again drew him to her borders
and he farmed there for three years, then gave his 200-acre farm to
362 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
the Ohio Wesleyan College at Delaware, for which he received an
annuity of four per cent, for the rest of his life. On coming to Cali-
fornia in 1877 to remain, Mr. Mitchell located at Pomona, and here
for many years followed orange growing. He owned sixty-nine acres
of Navel and Valencia oranges, all developed by himself, and was well
and widely known as an authority on citrus culture. He was also inter-
ested in a marmalade factory, and was one of the incorporators of the
Pomona Sanitary Laundry. He also owned valuable real estate here.
Mr. Mitchell was first married in 1860 to Miss Anna Phillips,
now deceased. In 1904 he was again married, this time to Mrs. Anna
Lindsay, a native of Iowa. She was the mother of four children by
her first husband. Mr. Mitchell was a member of the Methodist
Church and for forty years was a class leader, and he filled other
offices in the church. He was active in the prohibition movement and
all other movements for the general good in the county and state.
He died, mourned by a large circle of friends, in 1908.
LEWIS C. MEREDITH
A far-seeing, experienced pioneer rancher who helped convert the
barley fields of the San Jose tract, a part of the old San Jose Rancho,
into the blooming orchards of oranges and lemons of today, is Lewis
C. Meredith, a pleasant and affable Quaker gentleman who was born
on a farm in Wayne County, Ind., September 17, 1847, the son of
James and Mary (Malsby) Meredith, both of whom are now de-
ceased. The father was born in Chester, Pa., and the mother in
Maryland and they moved westward and became pioneer farmers in
Indiana. They were the parents of three boys and two girls and
Lewis C. was the third child and he is the only son now living. He
has two sisters now living, Mrs. Margaret M. Samuels of La Verne
and Mrs. Lydia Russell of Oneida, Kansas.
Lewis was seven years of age when his parents mo\ed to Jay
County, Ind., where he received a good education in the public
schools. From a boy he had assisted on the home farm, so after his
school days were over, he continued to be of much assistance to his
father until 1870, when he decided to go West, his first location being
on a farm in Mills County, Iowa, where he was successfully engaged in
husbandry until 1877. He then moved still farther west, locating in
Nemaha County, Kans., where he also followed farming for a period
of ten years. In both states he was a pioneer at farming and helped
break the paths of civilization.
In the fall of 1877, when the Coast was agog with the sudden
development of California and Easterners were pouring in on every
train, Mr. Meredith decided to come to the Golden State. He located
at San Dimas and bought property. When he came here his intention
HISTORY AND RIOGRAPHY 365
was to retire, and without a thought of going into horticulture, but
after building a residence, he purchased six acres in the San Jose tract,
paying $200 an acre. It was raw land when he started improvements,
set it out to oranges and lemons and prepared to cultivate and care for
them. He made a success and soon after bought twenty-seven acres
at $100 per acre. This was also raw land, but Mr. Meredith, nothing
daunted, cleared and leveled it. He saw the value and great need of
water, sunk a well and obtained a good flow of water and installed an
electric pumping plant; this enabled him to grow a splendid orchard,
now all full-bearing Navel and Valencia oranges, and lemons. His
ranch with its comfortable modern residence is beautifully located on
Bonita and Grand avenues. Believing in cooperation, he was one of
the original members of the San Dimas Orange Growers Association,
as well as the San Dimas Lemon Growers Association, having served
as a director in both. He is a stockholder in the First National Bank
of San Dimas and is one of the original stockholders and directors of
the American National Bank of Pomona. Aside from his activity in
horticulture in Southern California, Mr. Meredith set out and im-
proved a twenty-acre orange ranch in Edison, Kern County, which he
still owns.
In Jay County, Ind., on March 4, 1875, occurred the first mar-
riage of Mr. Meredith, when he took for his wife Miss Amanda
Griest, of whom he was bereaved January 20, 1910. After remain-
ing a widower for six years, he was again married, February 12, 1916,
the ceremony occurring at Los Angeles, where he united with Miss
Grace E. Swerdfeger, a native of Brown County, Kans., and a daugh-
ter of Charles and Eliza (Spencer) Swerdfeger, born in Canada and
Indiana, respectively, who became pioneer settlers in Brown County,
Kans., where they aided in developing that country, emerging from
its early ups and downs of droughts and grasshoppers to well-to-do
farmers and stock raisers. Mrs. Meredith came to Pomona in 1895
and graduated at the Pomona High School and the Los Angeles State
Normal, after which she attended the University of California at
Berkeley. She then engaged in educational work, following the pro-
fession of teaching for twelve years. A cultured and refined woman,
possessing much business ability, she encourages her husband in his
horticultural and business enterprises. Two lovely daughters, twins,
have blessed this latter union and they bear the names of Mary Louise
and Lois Elizabeth.
Mr. Meredith is a member of the Society of Friends, but is
broad and liberal in his views. There being no church of his denom-
ination in the neighborhood, with his wife he attends the Methodist
Episcopal Church of La Verne, of which she is a member. Mr. Mere-
dith is a Republican and an Elk, being a member of Pomona Lodge
No. 789. Being very optimistic for the future greatness and possi-
366 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
bilities of the soil and climate of this section, he has always had a
live interest in both the progress of Pomona Valley and the preserva-
tion of its historical annals.
JAMES ARNOLD BLAISDELL, D. D.
California may vi'ell be proud of the caliber and inspiring ideals
of so many of the educators attracted to her rapidly-expanding com-
monwealth, and few of such builders of the great American Republic
deserve more prominent mention than James Arnold Blaisdell, D. D.,
the scholarly and aggressive President of Pomona College. He was
born at Beloit, Wis., on December 15, 1867, the son of James Joshua
Blaisdell, born in Caanan, N. H., a graduate of Dartmouth in 1846,
for forty years professor of philosophy in Beloit College — that insti-
tution of learning so influential in the development of Wisconsin society
and, therefore, an effective, splendid memorial to its founders, among
whom, it may be remembered, was the self-denying missionary, the
Rev. Aratus Kent, who once begged to be sent to a field of labor "so
hard that no one else would like it." Mrs. Blaisdell was Susan Ann
Allen before her marriage, a native of New Hampshire, a graduate of
Mt. Holyoice Seminary in the class of 1847, a pupil of Mary Lyon.
She survives her husband and makes her home with President Blaisdell.
Having been graduated from Beloit College in 1889 with the
degree of B. A., Mr. Blaisdell entered the Hartford (Conn.) Theo-
logical Seminary, where he pursued his theological studies from 1889
until 1892, when he was ordained a minister of the Congregational
Church, receiving in the same year from Beloit College the additional
Master of Arts degree. On December 29 of that year, also, he was
married at Beloit to Miss Florence Lena Carrier, of that city and
a graduate of the Mt. Holyoke (Mass.) Seminary, in the class of '92.
From 1892 until 1896, Rev. Mr. Blaisdell was pastor of the Congre-
gational Church at Waukesha, Wis., while from 1896 to 1903 he was
in charge of similar work at Olivet, Mich., the seat of Olivet College.
Returning to his native city and his Alma Mater in 1903, he spent the
next seven years as professor of Biblical literature and ancient Oriental
history in Beloit College; and in 1910 came West to Claremont as the
leader of the faculty of Pomona College.
Since his advent in California Doctor Blaisdell has participated
more and more in the intellectual and educational life of the state, and
especially of Pomona and the Valley, and through his professional
work, his addresses and contributions to the advanced press has steadily
built up a reputation of much value to the aspiring institution com-
mitted to his guidance. Four children — J. Brooks, Paul C, Allen C.
and Florence Barbara Blaisdell — have one by one added to the life
of the president's family circle, and both Doctor and Mrs. Blaisdell
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 367
have been untiring in their efforts to elevate both the standards of
young Christian manhood and of decent American citizenship, so that
during the recent crisis of the Nation, no one was ever in doubt as to
the attitude and the activity of Pomona College, its trustees, instruc-
tors and students in the great work of supporting the government in all
its war programs. During the war he was sent abroad by the Con-
gregational Churches on a tour of investigation of conditions in Japan,
particularly in regard to educational values. He had the privilege
during the war of traveling all over Japan and of addressing audi-
ences, universities and other assemblies in regard to America's attitude
toward the war. He also visited Korea and China. After four months
spent abroad he returned home, and since that time has been in con-
tinual demand for addresses regarding the situation in the Far East.
In 1910, the year when Professor Blaisdell was made President of
Pomona College, Beloit College, in recognition of his accumulating
scholarship during years of epoch-making work for the advancement
of truth and the assurance of a better humanity, conferred upon him
the degree of Doctor of Divinity; nor would anyone, familiar with the
personality, the accomplishments and the influence of this zealous rep-
resentative citizen, who has done so much to extend the fame of Po-
mona, deem the honor otherwise than worthily and wisely bestowed.
RICHARD BARRETT WHEELAN
The memory of those who have so lived that they have blessed
the world by their living, their work and their striving, is always held
dear by all who know the source of such blessings, and this is certainly
true in the case of the late R. B. Wheelan, who was born at St. Louis,
Mo., on August 4, 1858, and reared in Pike County, 111. Later he
removed to Hume, Bates County, Mo., where he lived on a farm.
In 1885 Mr. Wheelan first came West to California, and fortu-
nately cast his lines in the pleasant waters of Pomona, securing work
with the Pomona Land and Water Company. Next he moved to Los
Angeles, where he was first a motorman, and then a conductor, on the
Los Angeles Electric Railway. After six years' service with that
company, he bought an orange grove of twenty acres at San DImas.
and there he erected a home. Later, he came back to Pomona and
established here a wholesale and retail cigar business. He became
very popular, made many friends, was always willing to help anyone
in distress, and prospered as the result of his large-heartedness, fidelity
and enterprise. When he sold out his business, he bought a brick block
in Pomona, which he later traded for a ranch of 100 acres six miles
southeast of Chino.
At Butler, Bates County, Mo., on July 27, 1881, Mr. Wheelan
married Miss Julia Fender, a native of North Carolina and the
daughter of John A. and Malinda Fender. Two children blessed
368 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
their union, Ethel H. Wheelan and Hattie L., wife of L. W. Seney.
On March 28, 1912, Mr. Wheelan died, mourned by many circles and
especially by his fellow members in the Pomona Elks, the Odd
Fellows, the Foresters, the Loyal Order of Moose and the Fraternal
Brotherhood. Mrs. Wheelan is a popular member of the Women of
Woodcraft, the Fraternal Brotherhood and the Fraternal Aid, where
her charming personality is highly appreciated.
After the lamented death of her husband, Mrs. Wheelan was
afforded an excellent opportunity to display her unusual business
ability, and in 1912 she took the apartment house at 145 East Pearl
Street, which she owns and conducts, while she resides in a pretty,
modern bungalow in the rear.
ELMER STRALEY
An expert rancher especially well-versed in orange culture is
Elmer Straley, who was born in Fayette County, Ohio, on April 12,
1861. In time he removed to Van Wert County in the same state
and located at the town of Van Wert, thirty miles east of Fort Wayne,
where he engaged in the manufacture of drain-tiling, for which he
employed from nine to thirty-four men. He put in thousands of miles
of drain pipe in the state and built up a reputation for quality that was
capital itself. At the same time he followed grain farming on his
farm of eighty acres, and he also was manager of a farm of 160
acres near by.
In 1894, Mr. Straley came out to California and was fortunate
in choosing Pomona for his home and new field of operations. For
the first two years he picked oranges, in the employ of others; and
later he contracted to pick the fruit, making up his own crew of from
thirteen to twenty men. This line of activity he followed for fifteen
years or more, and during that time he hauled o\'er a million boxes
to the packing houses.
Mr. Straley bought his present ranch of ten acres, at the corner
of North Garey and Cucamonga avenues, in North Pomona, in 1899,
and set the land out to seedling stock which he budded to Navels
and Valencias, devoting half of the acreage to each. He also, little
by little, assumed charge of the development of other orchards in the
district. His crop in 1919 made up 4,000 picked boxes. He also owns
a ten-acre ranch of Navel oranges in the San Dimas district. More
than that, being well versed in orange culture, he has bought and sold
a number of good orange groves. He is a member and stockholder in
the Pomona Fruit Exchange.
On March 7, 1889, and In the town of Van Wert, Ohio, Mr.
Straley was married to Minnie Philllpy, a native of Ohio, by whom he
has had six children. Lola is Mrs. E. E. Bozeman of Madera; Gilbert
(3:)
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 371
Is an expert on irrigation and pruning, and lives at Pomona; he
served in the U. S. Army about six months; Bernard served for
eighteen months in the U. S. Army in the World War, stationed at
Camp Kearny; and Thurloe, Verda, and Vesta. All but Lola and
Gilbert were born in California. Gilbert and Bernard are members
of the Elks Lodge.
ABRAM BAKER
As one of the Argonauts who were led to California by the tales of
her gold mines, Abram Baker made the long, perilous journey around
Cape Horn on a sailing vessel, landing at San Francisco in 1849,
when thousands of gold seekers were on the way to reach the mines,
there to endure untold hardships in their search for gold. Mr. Baker
followed mining here for a period of five years, and ciuring this time he
traveled the whole length of the State, and that at a time when journey-
ing was not the pastime that it is today.
Of English descent, Abram Baker was born in New York City on
December 26, 1 825. He was the son of James Baker, also a native of
that city, and for years prominent there in merchandise circles as a
wholesale cloth merchant. His mother was Mary Greene, a descend-
ant of General Greene of Revolutionary fame. Abram received a thor-
ough education in the excellent schools of the Eastern metropolis, a
training which stood him in good stead in the mature years of his life.
After his five years in the land of gold and sunshine, Mr. Baker re-
turned to his native state, and soon afterwards he met the lady who
later became his wife. Miss Mary Jane Blauvelt, with whom he was
united in marriage on December 6, 1855. She was also born in New
York City on August 13, 1831, a daughter of Richard and Mary (De
La Montaigne) Blauvelt of old Knickerbocker and French Huguenot
stock. Mrs. Baker was reared In an environment of culture and refine-
ment. It is an interesting fact that in her girlhood when, as was the
custom, she was playfully teased about sweethearts, she always replied
that hers was in California, and, strange to say, she married a returned
gold seeker and forty-niner.
Abram Baker was for some years engaged as a coal merchant in
New York City, but being desirous of having the freedom and enjoy-
ment of country life, he sold his business and purchased a farm at
Bound Brook, N. J., where he applied himself scientifically to his
chosen life of husbandry and made a pronounced success, finally retir-
ing and removing to Asbury Park, N. J. After nineteen years of resi-
dence at that famous resort he determined to come to California. His
son. Dr. Vincent Baker, preceded him, and selected the La Verne dis-
trict, where he purchased a fifty-eight-acre ranch on the Base Line
Road, fifty acres of which was already set out to citrus trees. Abram
Baker, with his family, arrived at La Verne in September, 1901. He
372 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
improved the remainder and was deeply interested in his son's care of
the Navel and Valencia oranges and lemons which comprised the grove.
He built a beautiful large residence and named his ranch "Thistlecroft"
on account of his admiration for the Scotch. However, he was not
long permitted to enjoy his California home, being called by death
November 13, 1905. Mr. Baker was a Methodist and an active and
loyal supporter of that church. He was always intensely interested in
California and enjoyed recalling those early days of gold seeking,
although their hardships were to a great extent erased by the mellowing
hand of Time, and only the daring and prowess of those early pioneers
remained vivid. He was happy to spend his last days in this sunny land
and ever delighted to see the wonderful progress the years had brought.
Mr. and Mrs. Baker were the parents of four children: Mary
Estelle, now Mrs. Gaston, resides on the Base Line Road; Harriet is
Mrs. Joseph C. Pierson of La Verne; S. Louise, who gracefully as-
sists her mother in presiding over the home, and Vincent Washington,
who was graduated as a D. D. S. in New York City, and now lives in
Claremont, devoting his time to citrus culture. Mrs. Baker is a woman
of charming personality, well read and well informed and an ardent
Christian Scientist; and at the age of eighty-eight years is hale and
hearty and in full enjoyment of all her faculties. She continues to
reside at the old family home, "Thistlecroft," and here with her
daughter, Louise, she still dispenses a gracious hospitality.
ELLIOTT HINMAN
One of the representative men of the Valley, who during his life
in the state was prominent in every enterprise for the good of the
people, and supported churches, charities and all public welfare work,
making his friends by the score and keeping them through a long life,
Elliott Hinman was a citizen of whom any community might well be
proud, and it could not fail to have benefited from his being a part
of It. A native of Illinois, he was born in Henry County, on the old
Hinman homestead, for which the family have a patent direct from the
Government, and the place is still in their possession.
Educated in the public schools, Mr. Hinman early decided upon a
business career, and entered the lumber and grain business at Cam-
bridge, 111. This he continued until his health failed, when he came to
Pomona, and soon recovering In the balmy climate, embarked in the
fuel and feed business, bought out different firms from time to time,
until he had created an extensive trade and maintained the leading
establishment in that line In the Valley. Interested from the beginning
in the horticultural development of the section, he bought and sold
various orange tracts during his lifetime, and always retained from
twenty to thirty acres of oranges under cultivation for his own recrea-
7> /^ Ta^l^^'^—
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 375
tion. A man of broad and liberal views, ready to help the human
being in trouble and sorrow, Mr. Hinman endeared himself to ail wno
came in contact with his splendid character, and his popularity was not
confined to any one circle. A Republican in politics, he served as mayor
of Pomona for a time, and in fraternal lite he was a member of the
rhe Masons and of the Odd Fellows; while as a member of the
Chamber of Commerce he cooperated with the business men of the city
in promoting its best interests. In religious belief he was a member
of the Episcopal Church.
The marriage of Mr. Hinman, which occurred in Henry County,
111., united him with Nora Nolan, and three children blessed their
union: Frances, Mrs. F. G. Vaughn of Pomona; Susan E., iVlrs.
G. M. Bonham of Pomona; and Harry H., manager of E. Hinman
& Son of that city. On November 7, 1917, Elliott Hinman passed to
his reward, and his loss was keenly felt in a community which had
come to know his real worth and his kindly charity towards all.
DAVID CLINTON TEAGUE
Few men, probably, in all Pomona Valley are better known than
"Dave" Teague, the sturdy old-timer who had the wisdom, some years
ago, to say that when he had amassed sufficient for old age he would
retire, and the good fortune to succeed in the amassing, so that he was
able to carry out his sensible and highly creditable resolution. He
was born on a farm near Salem, Ind., on October 23, 1847. His
father, Crawford P. Teague, was a native of Indiana, born in 1823;
and Grandfather John Teague was born on the Great Pedee River in
Rowan County, N. C, whose father came from the north of Ireland
and settled In North Carolina. John Teague served in the war of
1812 and soon afterwards he was married to Mary Thomas, who was
of Scotch descent, the two removing to the territory of Indiana in
1817, locating in what was then considered a wilderness, and engaged
in farming on the White River in Green County. In 1851 he with other
families of his clan removed to Davis County, Iowa, where he and
his wife spent their last days.
Crawford P. Teague after reaching manhood married Amanda
Reed May, who was a native of Kentucky. Grandfather Benjamin
F. May was a Marylander and removed from Baltimore to Kentucky,
and thence to Indiana, where he died. It was in 1857 that C. P.
Teague sold his farm in Indiana and removed with his family by
horse teams and wagons across the state of Illinois to Iowa, locating
on government land near Troy, Davis County, Iowa. He broke the
raw prairie with ox teams and went through all the hardships of the
early settlers. Becoming greatly interested in the Pacific Coast coun-
try in 1865 he disposed of the farm he had improved and moved
with his family to California. Outfitting with horse teams and wagons
376 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
he joined a large ox train and thus crossed the plains. Crossing the
Missouri River May 1 they proceeded up the south side of the Platte
until almost to Colorado, when they crossed to the north side and
made their way via Fort Bridger and Salt Lake City and Austin,
Nev., and then came into California by the Lassen and Hot Creek
trail into the beautiful, broad Sacramento Valley, arriving October 13,
1865. They remained two years in Tehama County, then they moved
to a farm near Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, and here his wife died.
In 1878 he removed to San Dimas, where with his sons he engaged
in wheat growing on the San Jose Rancho, and when it was sub-
divided he was one of the first to set out an orange orchard and
subsequently planted a second orchard, becoming an enthusiastic citrus
grower. He died at San Dimas March 10, 1910.
Dave Teague, as he is familiarly called by his many friends, when
four years old was taken to Iowa, where he obtained his schooling,
such as it was, during the winters in a rural log schoolhouse. In
1865 he set out to cross the great continent for the Pacific Coast,
when a lad of seventeen years, reaching the smiling Sacramento Valley
after a journey of six months. After two years spent in Tehama
County we find him located near Santa Rosa, Sonoma County. There
he began farming for himself and there he was married in November,
1875, being united with Miss Annie Runyon, who was born in Hickory
County, Mo., a daughter of Robert B. Runyon, the family removing
to Sonoma County in 1871. Mr. Teague removed with his family to
San Dimas in 1878, where with his father and brother he was among
the early grain raisers on the San Jose Rancho. When the ranch was
subdivided in 1887 he purchased forty acres and began citrus growing.
In 1888 with his father he set out the first orange grove in the San
Dimas district and with his brother, Robert M. Teague, he set out
and grew the first nursery stock in San Dimas. He lost the first crop
of oranges In 1891 through the great wind storm that scattered the
fruit everywhere. The second year he shipped East and was charged
back for freight, so the sale of his nursery stock was of great aid to
him and saved the day for him. After a few years in the nursery
business he quit it and devoted his time to his orchards. He improved
in all forty acres of oranges and lemons that are now full bearing and
fine groves.
When he with others found that the profits from their crop were
overbalanced by the excessive freight charges, they began to look
about to find some way to relieve the producer and determined on co-
operation In marketing the fruit, and since then he has been active In
the various cooperative fruit associations In his district. He was an
original member of the Indian Hill Orange Growers Association until
the San Dimas Orange Growers Association was started, when he
was its president for many years. During this time he was an active
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 377
member of the San Antonio Fruit Exchange for sixteen years and
president of its board of directors for many years. Wishing to retire,
he sold all of his horticultural holdings August 4, 1911, since which
time he continues to make his home in San Dimas in the full enjoy-
ment of health, an inveterate reader along historical and scientific
lines, in which he is deeply interested. Mr. Teague was one of the
organizers of the First National Bank of San Dimas and a member of
its board of directors from its organization until June, 1918, when he
resigned. He was also an organizer and was a director in the San
Dimas Savings Bank until the same date.
Mr. Teague was bereaved of his faithful wife September 11,
1890, who left him five children. Walter is a landscape gardener in
Santa Barbara and is married and has three children. Hattie M.
became the wife of John B. Brubaker and she died leaving one child.
Elmer E. is a horticulturist in San Dimas who is also married and
has two children. Edith is the wife of John F. McLean, residing in
San Dimas, and has three children. Russell W. is a nurseryman in
San Dimas as well as at Yuma, Ariz., and is now the largest nursery-
man in Arizona. He married Helena Kirkelie, who was born in
Minnesota, and they have four children.
Mr. Teague was made a Mason in Pomona Lodge No. 246, F.
and A. M., from which he afterwards demitted and became a charter
member of San Dimas Lodge No. 428, F. and A. M. He was ex-
alted in Pomona Chapter No. 76, R. A. M., and knighted in the
Southern California Commandery No. 37, K. T., Pomona; he is a
member of Pomona Council No. 21, R. & S. M., and of Al Malaikah
Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., Los Angeles. His membership in the
Order of the Eastern Star is in Pomona Chapter No. 110. He is a
charter member of Pomona Lodge No. 789, B. P. O. E. Always
interested in the cause of education, he was active in starting the first
schools in the vicinity, first in the La Verne Heights district, and in
1887 they organized the San Dimas school district, of which he was a
member of the first board of. directors and was active in building up
the excellent schools of this section.
A Republican in national politics, Mr. Teague was for three years
a member of the Los Angeles County Highway Commission, and he
therein accomplished much in public improvements, continuing the
good work long ago done by him and his brother when, as among
the earliest settlers, they found the country more like a wilderness,
with plenty of work cut out for the pioneer. He has always been
public spirited, and laid his hand to the plow with right good-hearted-
ness. He is now one of the oldest settlers in San Dimas and few men
are more highly respected, for he is much admired for his liberality,
kindness and sterling worth, and his example is well worthy of
emulation.
HIST(1RY AND P.IOGRAPHY
LEWIS LEWISON
In these days of strenuous effort the man who hopes to acquire
success in any calling must be one of brains and persistency, with a
thorough knowledge of the work to which he is devoting his atten-
tion, to "make two blades of grass grow where only one grew before,"
and to develop the resources of his section of the state. Such a man
is Lewis Lewison, whose orange grove in Pomona is an example of
what intensive methods can accomplish in this fertile region. He is
a native of Denmark, born near Wiborg, Jutland, September 9, 1863.
The second oldest in a family of six children, he attended the public
schools of his native land, and when sixteen years of age was appren-
ticed to the trade of blacksmith, and followed it until reaching his
twentieth year. He entered the Danish Army, in the Sixth Regiment,
Fourth Company, and served six months.
In 1887 the young emigrant came to the United States, and first
located on a farm near Dannebrog, Howard County, Nebr., two years
later removing to Wyoming, where he worked on a cattle ranch. In
the spring of 1891 he came to Pomona, and for the next eight and
one-half years worked for Fred J. Smith on his orange ranch, for the
last three years acting as foreman of the ranch.
After this thorough training in citrus development, Mr. Lewison
bought his own ranch, in 1900, situated on the corner of East Kingsley
and Washington avenues, and consisting of four acres, two acres at
that time being in prunes, one acre in apricots and one acre devoted
to oranges. He took out the deciduous fruits, and also replanted one-
half acre of the oranges, raising the nursery stock from seed -stock,
planted and budded the trees himself, and watched it grow into a fine
producing orchard; his long experience and excellent care made success
a foregone conclusion, and in the 1918-19 season he marketed 2300
boxes of oranges from his acreage. In 1917 Mr. Lewison bought
another orange grove of four acres, one block east of his home place
on Kingsley Avenue. This place was badly run down, and he has
improved it to the extent in two years' time that his 1918-19 crop
netted him 1100 boxes from this acreage. In 1900 he set out a ten-
acre grove at La Verne for Doctor Bateman, and has also set out a
number in the Valley, his knowledge as to planting and developing
making his services valuable along these lines.
The marriage of Mr. Lewison united him with Christine Jorgen-
sen, born on the Island of Laaland, Denmark, and two sons have
blessed their union, both educated in the Pomona schools: Alfred
enlisted in 1917 for service in the World War, and served as mechanic
in the aeroplane division in France; he was discharged in San Fran-
cisco, on June 14, 1919, and is now an employee in the Opera Garage,
Pomona. Julius enlisted at the same time with his brother, as
chauffeur, but was discharged after three months' time on account of
1
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 381
Ill-health. In fraternal orders Mr. Lewison has been prominent in
Pomona. He is a member of Pomona Lodge No. 246, I. O. O. F.,
the Encampment, Canton and the Rebekahs, all in Pomona, and also
belongs to the Fraternal Aid. In politics he is a Republican. For-
merly a director in the Kingsley Tract Water Company, Mr. Lewison
has taken an active part in all matters which have for their object
the further development of Pomona Valley, and, a self-made man
from the ground up, his opinions and advice in such matters are
always practical.
MRS. ELIZABETH LAMB
An extensive land owner, well endowed with this world's goods,
and highly respected and loved for her many beautiful and sterling
traits of character is Mrs. Elizabeth Lamb, widow of the late Wil-
liam D. Lamb, prominent pioneer citizen of Southern California.
Her life has indeed been rich in varied experiences in that sort of inter-
est and adventure that was the accompaniment of pioneer days, nor
has it been unmixed with hardships, some of them being almost
unbelievable.
Mrs. Lamb is a native of England, her birthplace being at Bill-
ings, Lancashire, June 24, 1850. Her parents were John R. and
Sarah (Jolley) Holt, also of English birth. The father was a wheel-
wright and joiner and he followed this line of work for a number of
years in his native land. They were the parents of nine children, and
when Elizabeth was thirteen years of age she came to America with
two sisters and a brother. They sailed from Liverpool in May,
1863, and even then Elizabeth's adventurous experiences began. After
seven weeks of storm and calm they finally landed at Castle Garden,
New York, coming across on the old condemned sailer "Antarctic,"
which was sunk on the return voyage. Their destination was Utah
and they made their way across the country as far as Omaha by train,
thence to Salt Lake City by ox team, arriving there six months after
their departure from Liverpool. Here they located and later Eliza-
beth made the acquaintance of William D. Lamb, to whom she was
married on October 12, 1868. Mr. Lamb was then only nineteen years
of age, but his life had been filled with arduous experiences, even at
that time. Born in Onondaga County, N. Y., he was left motherless
at the age of four, and lived for a time with an uncle near Grand
Rapids, Mich. When he was eleven years old he set out to make his
way alone, working his way through to Omaha on railroad grading
work. When he was about fourteen years old his father came up
from the South and the two crossed the plains in a Mormon freight
train. At that time he had not even learned to read, for his life had
382 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
been so full of toil that there had been no time for schooling, but after
reaching Salt Lake City he managed, even in the midst of many duties,
to learn the alphabet and acquire the rudiments of an education.
After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Lamb remained in Salt Lake
City for a time, and there their eldest daughter, Mary, now Mrs. E.
J. Levengood, was born. Then they decided to locate in California
and when they arrived here Mr. Lamb earned a living by chopping
and hauling wood on what was later the Lucky Baldwin Ranch, Mrs.
Lamb and her little one making their home in their covered wagon.
They then moved on to El Monte and tried farming there, but there
was a long season of drought and all their corn and other produce was
dried up. Their next move was to Azusa, where they lived in the
canyon, afterwards named Lamb's Canyon for Mr. Lamb. Here
two of their children were born, but they lost both of them and they
were buried there. Mr. Lamb next bought a squatter's claim of 160
acres four miles from Huntington Beach, but in 1879, after they had
lived there four years, litigation arose and he and other claimants to
acijoining tracts were dispossessed, the Los Bolsa Company winning
the suit. His next purchase was forty acres of the Stearns Ranch at
Newhope; here they settled, made many improvements and prospered.
They subsequently added to their acreage and Mrs. Lamb "still owns
120 acres there. The next purchase was 220 acres at Garden Grove
and, in 1892 he closed the deal for a ranch of 720 acres at a very
reasonable price, and here Mrs. Lamb now makes her home. At
first they only ran cattle on these lands, but they have now been
brought up to a high state of cultivation. They were always among
the most progressive farmers of the community, as their place was
always equipped with the latest inventions in farm machinery that
could be obtained, and the example of their enterprise meant much for
the progress and welfare of their neighborhood.
F'or several years Mr. Lamb was the resident manager of the
Los Bolsa Land Company and other large ranches, and through his
work much improvement was made on the tracts under his charge. He
early saw the necessity for drainage and irrigation and with several
associates purchased a dredger, the first of its kind in this territory,
and thus completely revolutionized the early methods of carrying on
this work. In no instance, perhaps, is his perseverance and progres-
sive spirit more plainly shown than in the fact that after he had em-
barked in business for himself he employed a man to keep his books
and paid him an extra salary for his personal instruction in reading,
arithmetic and the general principles of business, this arrangement
continuing for three years; after that he was able to superintend
every detail of his extensi\e business interests for himself and with
marked success. Mr. Lamb passed away in March, 1911, and is
buried at Santa Ana. Like her husband, Mrs. Lamb had only the
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 383
most limited opportunities to secure an education, but this was fully
made up through the practical business experience and "hard knocks"
of pioneer days. She has always been a woman of great business and
executive ability, and ever shared with her husband the burdens and
responsibilities of their great undertakings and much of his success
was due to her splendid judgment and management.
Mr. and Mrs. Lamb were the parents of nine children, five of
whom are living: Mary, now Mrs. Edward J. Levengood of Pomona,
was first married to William Hamner, by whom she had two children,
Jessie M. and Anson; Wm. Anson and Vina died in childhood;
Arthur, now deceased, married Mary Stephens and had one son, Leo
Ford Lamb, who resides in Los Angeles; Walter D., a rancher near
Santa Ana, married Gertrude DuBois, a daughter of Valentine Du-
Bois of Santa Ana, and they have two children; Laura is the wife of
Gregory Harper and they have two children, Ivan H. and Harold L. ;
Hugo J., a rancher near Huntington Beach, married Efiie Stockton,
and two children have been born to them, Lois and Alice; Earl A. is
also engaged in ranching near Huntington Beach; he married Etta
Bradley and they are the parents of three children, Rachel E., Wm.
G. and Alvan; Robert died at the age of four months.
Mrs. Lamb still makes her home on her 720-acre ranch south-
east of Huntington Beach, her son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs.
Gregory Harper, living with her, and she is active and interested in
the management of her properties and extensive business interests.
A woman of great force of character, withal kind and considerate, she
is greatly beloved by her family and a large circle of friends. A true
type of the pioneer woman, her life is a record of accomplishment and
good deeds that will leave their beneficent influence on the genera-
tions to come.
DAVID C. CROOKSHANK
In the life of this successful citizen of Pomona are illustrated the
results of perseverance and energy, coupled with strict integrity. Men
possessing the fundamental characteristics to which he is heir hav^e ever
been regarded as bulwarks of the communities in which they have lived,
and Pomona has been most fortunate in having among her citizens so
many real builders and public-spirited men. Born January 10, 1851,
in Butler County, Pa., David C. Crookshank is a son of William and
Jane A. (Hayes) Crookshank, farmer folk, both now deceased.
Twelve children were born to this worthy couple, five boys and seven
girls, all reaching maturity but one.
The eighth child in the family, David C. received a common school
education and gained a practical knowledge of agricultural work on
the home farm; his two brothers were in the Civil War, and David had
384 HISTORY AND lUOGRAPHY
to stay at home and help his father, remaining thus engaged until twen-
ty-two years of age. He then married and went to Michigan, where he
learned the carpenter's trade, and in a few years engaged in manufac-
turing sash and doors and interior finishings, and also was in the lumber
business, later becoming manager of a furniture factory employing
some 300 men.
January 1, 1904, Mr. Crookshank arrived in California, and first
located in Ocean Park, where he engaged in real estate, building and
selling. After two years there he moved to Los Angeles, and remained
there one year. In 1907 he located in Pomona. One year previous to
that he had traded his Ocean Park property for the Ambrosia grove
of forty acres in Pomona.
Since 1894 Mr. Crookshank has been associated in business with
F. L. Somers, and almost all of his enterprises since that date have
been in partnership with this old-time friend and business associate.
They bought the M. L. Sparks tract of ISO acres at La Verne, fifty
acres of it fruit, and sold all but eight acres of this property, one of the
choicest bits of acreage in Southern California. Later he formed a
private company and purchased the Seth Richards orange grove of 450
acres, and improved 150 acres of this, known as the Mesa tract. Later
the company went out of existence and with Mr. Somers he bought the
remainder of the tract and they still own this acreage. He has bought
and sold numerous ranches, putting them in good condition and selling
at an increased price. He was the first man to sell orange land at
$2000 per acre; this same land is now held at a refusal of $5000.
Probably one of the largest contracting firms in Southern Califor-
nia, the two partners have built many large buildings, both in Pomona
Valley and elsewhere; they erected some of the buildings of the Sol-
diers' Home at Sawtelle; many of the Pomona College buildings, and
are now engaged in building the Women's Building for that insti-
tution ; and have built many large buildings in Los Angeles and vicinity.
On February 11, 1873, occurred the marriage of David C. Crook-
shank and Mary A. Unger, the ceremony taking place in Butler County,
Pa., and two children bless their union: Mrs. Clara J. Steele of Lft
Verne, and Mrs. Mary Ethel Elder of North Pomona. One grand-
child, Carnes, brings sunshine to their lives. Mr. Crookshank is a
Republican in politics, and in religious belief he is a Presbyterian.
Fraternally he belongs to the Masons.
Prominent in most of the associations which have helped in the
building up of the Valley, Mr. Crookshank is a charter member of the
La Verne Orange and Lemon Growers Association, and has been presi-
dent of the company since it was formed; maintaining one of the finest
packing plants in the state, this organization in its beginning shipped
250 cars of citrus fruits, and now sends 1500 carloads over the roads
to their different destinations. He has been a member of the San An-
tonio Fruit Exchange, and a director in the Southern California Fruit
HISTORY AXD BIOGRAPHY 385
Growers Exchange, also a director In the Orange Products Company.
As a director in the Fumigating and Supply Company of Pomona, the
Lemon By-Products of Corona, and the Fruit Growers Supply Com-
pany of Los Angeles, Mr. Crookshank takes an important part in the
fruit industries in this section of the state, and has, since his first locat-
ing in Pomona, been a factor for progress and an incentive toward the
amalgamation of the citrus growers' interests for mutual benefit. Gifted
with the faculty for seeing into the future as regards the growth and
expansion of a district, he has given of his time and influence with that
end In view and has done as much as any one man for the advancement
of Pomona Valley along these lines, the backbone of its prosperity.
Mr. Crookshank was one of the organizers of the Chamber of Com-
merce, Is a charter member, served as president one year, and has been
a director since the start of the organization.
In the midst of his business cares Mr. Crookshank has found time
to devote to the social and educational upbuilding of the community
and has been active in Y. M. C. A. work, in donating and collecting
for the new building In Pomona, and in various other ways has shown
his public spirit and broad humanitarian Ideals.
ELMER W. HART, L.L.M.
A gentleman of broad education and special scientific accomplish-
ment who has come to devote his attention and experience to the
many and important problems of citrus growing, is Elmer W. Hart,
L.L.M. , who was born in Racine, Wis., on February 8, 1863, the son
of John S. and Susan (Hawkins) Hart, both natives of Meredith
Village, N. H., who migrated to Racine, where John S. Hart was a
successful woolen manufacturer. Enjoying the balmy climate of South-
ern California, he was in his later years accustomed to spend each
winter in Pasadena. During this time the wisdom of his judgment
caused him to purchase an orange orchard, in the culture of which he
took much pride. His demise occurred in Pasadena In February,
1901, his estimable wife having preceded him to the Great Beyond
several years before, the mother of six children, four now living, of
whom our subject is the fourth eldest.
Elmer W. Hart was educated at Racine Academy, after which
he entered the George Washington University, Washington, D. C,
from which he was graduated with the class of 1889, when he received
the degree of Master of Laws. Following that excellent preparation,
he practiced his profession in Chicago. He had made several trips
to California to visit his aged parent and then in the fall of 1900,
on account of his father's serious Illness, he came again to be with
and cheer him. Having enjoyed the climate and country more and
more each time, he concluded to locate here and a-fter his father's
386 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
demise, he took up his residence in San Dimas and began the growing
of citrus fruits, in which he has been so successful, applying the same
zeal that characterized him in his profession, resulting in his becoming
one of the best-posted men in the care and cultivation, as well as the
marketing of oranges and lemons. He came to own two orchards,
which he sold in 1909. This left him free to fulfill a cherished desire
of visiting Europe, so with his wife, he spent two years traveling in
the British Isles, as well as on the Continent. After his return, he
again purchased an orange ranch and since August, 1911, has resided
on his present place on Cienega Avenue. He has thirty acres devoted
to citrus fruit and having applied the latest and most approved meth-
ods, he has obtained results commensurate. As a result of his general
experience in this field and in the locality, Judge Hart has come to
have great faith in San Dimas and its promising future. His influ-
ence for progress is recognized, and at present he is the president of
the San Dimas Orange Growers Association as well as the San Dimas
Fruit Exchange. To this latter position he was elected when the
Exchange was organized in 1912, at the same time being elected by
the Exchange as representative to the California Fruit Growers Ex-
change with headquarters in Los Angeles, and was by them in turn
elected a member of its board of directors. In the deliberations of
this body he is active, deeply conscientious, working for the growers'
interest and doing all he possibly can to build up the citrus industry of
the state of his adoption.
Judge Hart has been twice married. His first wife was Miss
Esther Grey of San Francisco and the daughter of John Grey, a mer-
chant of that metropolis, to whom he was wedded in 1902, and who
died on January 15, 1918; while for his second marriage he chose for
his companion, Miss Stella Lucas of Kansas City, an accomplished and
attractive woman.
Mr. Hart was made a Mason in Home Lodge No. 508, F. & A.
M., Chicago, from which he was demitted and he became a charter
member of San Dimas Lodge, F. & A. M. ; he is a rnember of Pomona
Chapter, R. A. M., Chicago Consistory, thirty-second degree Scottish
Rite Masons, and Al Malaikah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., Los
Angeles. He is a past exalted ruler of Pomona Lodge of Elks and is
a popular member of the Jonathan Club in Los Angeles.
His veracity and integrity are unquestioned and his word once
given is as good as his bond. For six years, Judge Hart was special
examiner in the U. S. Pension office in Washington during the admin-
istration of President Harrison. Being a firm believer in protection,
he is an ardent Republican, and is justice of the peace of his district,
having accepted the office for the good he may do and not for its
emoluments. Judge Hart is an inveterate worker and is never idle,
always striving for the greatest good in the cooperation of the fruit
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 387
men. His energy, ambition, as well as years of valuable experience
make his advice much sought after and this, coupled with an amiable
and pleasing personality, makes it little wonder that he has been
selected as a director in an association that has done the greatest good
and brought the most wealth to California of any association of its
kind. He is a truly good, kind and considerate man, being highly
esteemed and much honored, and his example is worthy of emulation.
IRA F. WHITE
The preservation of pioneer history in the state has become more
and more ^'aluable as the years \'anish into the distance, and the life
stories of the men and women who have helped to make it are so
woven into the warp and woof of the progress made here within the
past fifty and more years that to get the real history of California and
her different localities we must write of their early struggles and devel-
opment work, carried up to the present hour. It is they who have
made possible our present and future prosperity and we are anxious
to give them full credit for their achievements.
Ira F. White was born on a farm in Warren County, 111., Jan-
uary 15, 1836, the son of William and Charity ( Oglesby) White. The
father was a building contractor, and his death occurred when Ira was
ten years of age, which made it necessary for the lad to go to work
on a farm. In the meantime the family had removed to Iowa, and
William White died in Burlington, of that state.
Remaining on the farm until reaching the age of seventeen,
Ira F. then learned the trade of tinsmith. In Illinois, and went to
Minnesota, and for fifteen years he remained there, going into business
for himself in 1861, at Hastings. In 1865 he moved to Owatonna,
that state, where he remained for four years. In the year 1869 he
came to San Jose, and for four months he traveled over California, at
the end of that time returning to Minnesota, and early in 1870 he
engaged in the hardware business In Hampton, Iowa, continuing for
eight years.
The West proved too strong a lure, however, and 1878 found
Mr. White back in California. He first located on a ranch In the foot-
hills near Sacramento and engaged in raising fruit, a pioneer In that
Industry, and for seven years he remained in that location, then for
one year resided In Solano County.
In 1885 Mr. White came to Pomona, and that same year he
bought out John Johnson, taking possession on January 1, 1886, under
the name of Ira F. White and Son. He was a member of the first horti-
cultural society formed In California, joining in Sacramento, and since
coming to the Valley has also engaged in ranching, now having dis-
posed of his Interests in that line. In 1898 he sold out his business
to J. W. Wilkinson and Son and has since that time lived retired from
388 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
active cares. The marriage of Mr. White, which occurred in 1868,
united him with Miss Mary L. Downing, a daughter of George
Downing of Minnesota, and two children have been born to them, Dr.
Mabel E., and Alice.
Mr. White has always realized the importance of preserving
the early history of this wonderful country, and has taken an especial
interest in that of California; he was one of the organizers of the'
Pioneer Society in Pomona, which has for its object the gathering
together of such history before it is too late, and the society gave their
first picnic in 1919, a meeting which is to be an annual affair.
ETHAN H. EARLE
A pioneer of Pomona, both in respect to his long years of resi-
dence in this fa^'ored section and also in the introduction here of
superior workmanship in painting, is Ethan H. Earle, who was born in
Dubuque County, Iowa, on February 3, 1847, and was reared on a
farm while he attended the country schools. When eighteen years old
he moved with his parents to Clinton County, Mo., and there, as
a young man, took up the trade he has followed ever since, that of
house painting. All in all he has been over half a century at his trade,
a fact that adds to the interest of his early work in Los Angeles
County.
In 1886, at the beginning of the great boom in California realty,
Mr. Earle came from Missouri to California, and through excep-
tional fortune was at once directed to Pomona, then a small town, but
one that had the unmistakable marks of promise, of about one thou-
sand people. He has personally witnessed, therefore, all the impor-
tant changes of the passing years, and is never at a loss to relate an
interesting and sometimes an absorbing experience.
He started to contract on painting and interior decorating soon
after his arrival, and his first job was to paint Brown's Hotel, one of
the old landmarks of the city, now called the Commercial House, on
West Second Street. He also painted many of the homes of the early
settlers in pioneer days, and among these were-the Armour residence,
the James Beckett place, and the L. W. Pierce residence. He also
painted and decorated the First Methodist Church. He is the pio-
neer in his line in Pomona Valley, and although past seventy-two
years of age, he is still very active in his work. Besides the display of
his art and craftsmanship in Pomona Valley, Mr. Earle has worked on
some of the finest residences in Los Angeles, and has painted a number
of houses for J. S. Stewart in Long Beach. He ran a paint store at
122 South Thomas Street for about four years.
Not only have long years been granted this ^'Igorous path breaker,
but he has been privileged to rear a large family. In the year 1872 and
^&t0m ^ ^a^U^
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 391
at Cameron, Mo., he married Miss Ellen Smart, a native of Missouri,
and by her he has had ten children. Lena became Mrs. John Schu-
man and died, leaving eight children; Cora B. died in 1898; Charles
W.; Olie died in 1898; Nellie has become Mrs. Sidney White and has
one child; Maude is Mrs. Riley Gillenvvater, the mother of three
children; Gertrude is Mrs. Harry Collins; Lela ; and Alfred. The
oldest of the family died in infancy.
Mr. Earle made a unicycle about thirty years ago and has run it
all over the Valley, and in Second Street when the mud was eight
inches deep. This was on display in the parade on October 30, 1919,
in the March of Progress.
WALTER MOORE AVIS
A rancher. who, identifying himself with town life, has come to
fill important offices of public trust, and has done much to improve
this part of Los Angeles County, is Walter Moore Avis, the extensive
farmer who resides on East Holt Avenue. He was born at Lincoln
Mills, N. J., on March 24, 1863, the son of Paul Avis, who was a
farmer and had a flour mill. He took an active part in politics, and
was full of patriotic zeal during the Civil War, but he was too old to
serve in the army. A son, Harry M., however, served for four years
during the war. Later the father was United States Land Com-
missioner. He was of Moravian stock, and his ancestors donated land
for the first Moravian church built in New Jersey, still standing at
Swedesboro, the oldest church in that vicinity. Paul Avis married
Sarah Benezette, a worthy representative of a F>ench Huguenot family
that came to America with William Penn. The elder Avis died on
March 18, 1896, while Mrs. Avis passed away on June 3, 1891. She
was the mother of twelve children, and eleven lived to maturity.
The ninth child, Walter was educated in the public schools and at
Bacon Academy; and when he reached the age of nineteen, he engaged
in the milling business with his father. In that field he continued until
he was twenty-five, and as it was customary in those days to do things
thoroughly, and his father was the best of counselors, he profited
greatly by the experience. In the spring of 1888, during the height
of the excitement over land values and their appreciation, due to the
sudden "boom" in California, Mr. Avis came to the Golden State, and
for a year he located at San Diego. Attractive as the extreme South-
land proved to be, he saw in Pomona a still more promising field; and
the following February he came here. For three years he busied him-
self with truck gardening, and then he went into the wholesale produce
and fruit trade. He bought in large quantities and rather daringly,
and he became the largest dealer in this locality.
On December 21, 1903, Mr. Avis was appointed postmaster of
Pomona by President Roosevelt and reappointed in 1907, and In that
392 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
responsible office he served for ten years and ten days, directing tiie
postal affairs of the district in the most economical and yet the most
progressive spirit, effecting both reforms and economy. Pomona has
been fortunate in her postmasters, but never more so than when
Walter Moore Avis was appointed to that department of public trust.
While postmaster, Mr. Avis moved the postoffice from its
Second Street location to its present place on Thomas Street, in 1909,
and superintended the building of it; thus by moving the postoffice
to the side street it opened up a new business district, making a great
improvement, since formerly all business had been concentrated on
Second Street, thus rounding out the city. Retiring with the esteem
and good-will of everyone, Mr. Avis and his wife set out from Pomona
in January, 1914, and made a tour of the world, returning in the fol-
lowing October. Perhaps as the result of this broadening travel Mr.
Avis saw the necessity for a modern hotel and when requested to do
so by his fellow citizens, started the desired improvement and built
the Avis Hotel. The work was commenced on July 1, 1914, and by
January 1, 1915, it had been completed, furnished and occupied at a
cost of $100,000 — a fine fireproof structure of five stories, including
sixty rooms. He has built more business houses than any other indi-
vidual and has been the largest taxpayer in the city; among the build-
ings are the Belvedere Theater, Avis Block, Postoffice Block, Avis
Hotel, and he plans to build one more structure on a lot adjoining the
Avis Hotel. He has owned and improved other valuable property.
He was one of the original stockholders of the Mutual Building and
Loan Association of Pomona and has been on the board of directors
for twenty-five years. He has also been a director of the American
National Bank for many years.
The day before Christmas, 1901, at Mullica Hill, N. J., Mr. Avis
and Miss Abigail Sherwin, an accomplished lady of English descent,
were married; and since then the Avis residence has been a center of
most acceptable hospitality. Although a member of the Society of
Friends, Mr. Avis was active in war work and so did his bit toward
the great triumph for universal peace through which the world hopes
for much. Mr. Avis has been very prominent In Odd Fellowship;
on March 29, 1893, when Odd Fellows Hall was dedicated, he affil-
iated with Pomona Lodge No. 246, L O. O. F. He is also a mem-
ber of San Antonio Encampment No. 88, Canton Pomona No. 3, and
Heliotrope Rebekah Lodge No. 183. He has devoted much time to
the order, has filled all the chairs and had all the honors that could be
conferred by the order. Including Grand Patriarch of the Grand En-
campment of California. He instituted the Canton in Pomona as
well as many subordinate lodges in the Valley. He also holds mem-
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 3US
bership in Pomona Lodge No. 789, B. P. O. Elks, and in the Wood-
men of the World.
Mr. Avis is fond of hunting and fishing, being a good shot, and
when serving as a commissioner, charged with the preservation of
State game and fish, he put new game into the country and stocked the
creeks with fish, all at his own expense. He has a home in the moun-
tains, and so happily combines town and rural life. He organized
the Pomona Recreation Club, built the new club house on the Santa
Ana River, and has been secretary of the club. All in all Mr. Avis
is a very interesting and modern type of citizen.
WILLIAM W. BOWLER
Spending the declining years of a profitable life amidst the orange
groves of the Pomona Valley, William Wilson Bowler, octogenarian
orange rancher, has lived to see many changes in the United States
since he was born in Decatur County, Ind., July 29th, 1835. In those
days Indiana and Illinois were frontier states, and when he was a year
old occurred the death of ex-President James Madison and that of
Aaron Burr — events that seem to belong to the remote past in the
history of our comparatively young nation.
Mr. Bowler was reared on the farm and remained at home until he
attained his majority, during which time attended the country school,
and had three terms at Asbury University, now DePauw University, of
Greencastle, Ind. He then began teaching school when eighteen and
followed the profession for about twenty years, teaching winters and
farming summers. He removed to Clay County, 111., where for
thirty-eight years he farmed with success. He was a member of the
Farmers' Mutual Benefit Association, a school director and a town-
ship trustee, alternating between the two for nearly thirty years. He
was also township assessor and highway commissioner of Harter
Township, Clay County, and an active worker in Illinois in the cause
of temperance. He was a member of the Sons of Temperance and
the Good Templars.
In 1894 he came to Pomona, Cal., and purchased his present
place at 1214 East Fifth Street. The place was set to oranges, prunes
and peaches. Later he took out the prune and peach trees and planted
oranges. He also owns six and one-half acres of alfalfa land in the
Chino District.
He has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Theresa Dye
before her marriage, a native of Ohio, by whom he had three sons,
James H., now living in Phoenix, Ariz.; Robert L. of Escondido, Cal.,
and Charles E. resides in Pomona, but is a rancher in Chino District.
After the death of his first wife he married Mary Alice Downing, a
native of Indiana, by whom he had six children, Paul D., who lives
in Memphis, Tenn. ; Mary T., living at home; Mrs. Julia E. Wilson
394 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
of Tulare County, Cal. ; William E. of Phoenix, Ariz. ; Albert G., who
liv'cs in Texas, and Eva A., who died in 1909. His present wife's
parents were pioneers of Kentucky and descendants of Daniel Boone.
Mr. Bowler has twenty-five grandchildren, three of whom are mar-
ried, and three great-grandchildren. He is a member of the Unitarian
Church of Pomona. He served on the board of directors of the Irri-
gation Company of Pomona. In the twenty-five years that he has been
a resident of Pomona Valley his worth has been tested and he is de-
servedly respected and beloved by his many friends.
THOMAS A. WILLIAMS
Perhaps no man has done more toward the actual building up of
Pomona than has Thomas A. Williams, contractor and designer of
high-class residences. His work is in a distinct class by itself and
the many beautiful homes he has built in the Valley stand as a tribute
to his artistic ability, and competent business methods. He has built
approximately 500 homes in Pomona and \icinity, his record at one
time being the contracting for one home a week for a year. He was
born in Mt. Vernon, Texas, September 2, 1875, a son of John T.
and Mary (Stevenson) Williams, the former a native of Tennessee
and the latter of Texas. John T. Williams was a builder and contrac-
tor all his life and his field of operations ranged from Texas to Omaha
and to California, where he located in 1886. He erected many build-
ings and homes in Long Beach during the big boom there, and came
to Pomona Valley in 1891 as foreman in the building of the sugar
factory at Chino. He bought a ranch east of Pomona, and soon after
returned to building operations.
Thomas A. Williams was reared in Pomona and educated in
Los Angeles, and for a time worked on ranches, and was foreman of
the I. W. Lord ranch at Cucamonga. Like his father, however, he
was a natural builder and learned that trade in all its branches, from
the blueprints up, under his father. A natural architect and designer,
he has met with remarkable success and has drawn the plans and
designed some of the most artistic homes in the Valley. In 1906
he started his contracting business and there is hardly a street in
Pomona that he has not erected a fine home on. He built all the
artistic residences in the Kenoak tract, the finest residence section of
Pomona; among them are the Fred H. Baringer residence; Paul
Higgs home; John I. Yeend; and Mr. Williams' own beautiful resi-
dence, one of the finest in the city. Besides his local work, Mr. Wil-
liams has built sixteen fine residences in Redlands, nine in La Verne,
and many in Uplands, San Dimas, Claremont, Anaheim, Rivera and
Lankershim. He has erected twenty-four houses for himself in Po-
mona, three of which are in the Kenoak tract. One outstanding fea-
^^^^2^^.^
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 397
ture of his work is the fact that he will not contract to build a cheap
home alongside of a fine residence, but is consistently a designer and
builder of high-class homes, of distinct architecture, and in this respect
has done much to make the residential section of Pomona one of the
most beautiful in Southern California, the place renowned for its
wonderful streets full of homes which compare with any in the N^'orld.
The marriage of Mr. Williams united him with Anna May Pal-
lett, who was born in Rivera, Cal., a daughter of a pioneer of the
state, James R. Pallett; he crossed the plains with ox teams in early
days and located in Rivera, Los Angeles County, where he was a large
landowner and walnut grower; he also owned a part of the land on
which Long Beach now stands, and at one time ranched at Cuca-
monga. His wife, Mary Whitfield before her marriage, was one of
a family who were among the first settlers at Spadra. Mrs. Williams
died, in Pomona, June 7, 1918, leaving three daughters: Helen, Lota;
and Violet, all natives of Pomona.
Li fraternal organizations Mr. Williams is a member of Po-
mona Camp No. 7425, M. W. A., and of Pomona Lodge No. 789,
B. P. O. Elks. He is a member of the Pomona Security Company and
is developing the Ganesha Park tract for the company. In the midst
of his many business interests he has found time to take part in the
social and fraternal life of the Valley, and in civic affairs has proven
a man of worth to the community, interested in everything that makes
for local reform, improvement and expansion.
JOSEPH L. COLVIN
To have lived a life of real experiences, full of good works for
humanity in general and contentment in his lot on earth, Joseph L.
Colvin has been an example of such endeavors in the communities in
which he lived and his passing has left a vacancy in the ranks of
Pomona's public-spirited men. He was a Kentuckian by birth, born in
Covington, April 30, 1844, a son of John and Amelia E. (Newport)
Colvin, of Quaker parentage on both sides, the father a lawyer in the
Southern State, and a farmer in Illinois, whither he had moved about
1850. Joseph L. received his education in the public schools in Mt.
Palatine, 111., and graduated from the law department of Wesleyan
University of Bloomington, 111., in 1876.
Moving to Iroquois County, he farmed there for fifteen years,
and also practiced law in the meantime. Always active in public af-
fairs, he was a strong advocate of the temperance movement and was
equally opposed to tobacco in any form. His marriage, which oc-
curred in LaSalle County, December 27, 1882, united him with Miss
Ada Bassett, a daughter of Barzilla Bassett, and they farmed in Iro-
quois County ten years, and in 1893 came to Pomona Valley and here
3Q8 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Mr. Colvin Invested In ranch properties and became well known
throughout the Valley for his Interest In public affairs as an advocate
for advancing the educational and moral life of the community, as well
as Its civic and financial progress. A Democrat In politics, he voted,
however, for the man best suited for office, regardless of party affilia-
tions, and he served on the jury In many cases, his law training causing
him to frequently be chosen foreman of that body, and It was while
serving In that capacity that he contracted a cold and died from the
results.
During his many years of residence here Mr. Colvin passed
through all the experiences of the early settlers, discouragements were
numerous, but he stuck to his task and was successful in the end; a very
companionable man and fond of young folks, he was popular in the
community, and his death, occurring on Easter Sunday in 1912, was
sincerely mourned by all who had come in contact with his fine
character.
Since his death Mrs. Colvin has continued In her place in the com-
munity life, where she is active In social affairs, and is also successfully
carrying on the ranching activities, which comprise twenty acres in
walnuts and ten acres In alfalfa, and Is a member of the Walnut Grow-
ers Association.
EDWY M. DAY
A pioneer citizen of Pomona Valley, who, during his more than
a quarter century residence here, has contributed his share In the de-
velopment of this section of the Golden State, Is Edwy M. Day. He
is a native of the Empire State, having first seen the light of day on
January 28, 1851, in St. Lawrence County, N. Y.
At the age of thirteen he moved to Henry County, 111., where he
lived on a farm until 1868, when he migrated farther west, locating
In Nemaha County, Nebr., where he followed farming and stock rais-
ing. Having a desire to see more of the great West, especially the
Golden State, Mr. Day came to Pomona, Cal., In 1891, where he pur-
chased seventeen acres of land west of Chino; later he bought forty
acres more. He Improved and developed his Chino ranch and Installed
a pumping plant for Irrigating his land, upon which he raised alfalfa
and fruit. After living on his ranch for twenty-one years he moved to
Claremont, where he remained five years, when he located In Pomona,
where he has since resided.
In Nemaha County, Nebr., E. M. Day was united In marriage
with Eliza Wagner, a native of New York state, who is now deceased.
This union was blessed with three children : Albert C, of Chino ; Mrs.
Blanche A. Neibel, of Pomona, and Claude M., who resides at Ocean
Park.
' ^^^z^<^
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 401
The second marriage of Mr. Day united him with Hattie Palmer,
a native of Nebraska, the ceremony being solemnized in Los Angeles.
Mr. Day is a member of the First Christian Church at Pomona. Dur-
ing his long residence in the Pomona Valley he has always been inter-
ested in those mo\'ements that had as their aim the upbuilding of the
best interests of the community.
JASPER N. TEAGUE
Although he has passed his sixty-third milestone, Jasper Newton
Teague, a. Pomona Valley pioneer of the seventies, is still in the vigor
of life. He was born in Davis County, Iowa, August 20, 1856, and
is the son of Crawford Pinckney and Amanda (May) Teague. The
father was born in Washington County, Ind., November 6, 1823,
and was a son of John and Mary (Thomas) Teague, natives of
North Carolina, of Scotch descent. Greatgrandfather Alexander
Thomas served in the Revolutionary War under General Washington.
C. P. Teague was married October 8, 1846, to Amanda R. May, who
died in California in 1881.
In 1865 C. P. Teague, with his wife and eight children, crossed
the plains by teams and wagons, arriving in the Sacramento Valley
after a weary trip of six months, enduring many hardships and dan-
gers. When he ferried across the Sacramento at Reading and paid
the ferry charge he had thirty-five cents left — all the capital he had
to start with in a new country. Three weeks later he rhoved to a
farm on Deer Creek, six miles south of Tehama, where he farmed
for two years; then he removed with his family to Sonoma County,
near Santa Rosa, and engaged in farming on Mark West Creek until
1878. In 1878 he became interested in farming on the San Jose
Rancho in Los Angeles County and moved here in 1881. His death
occurred at San Dimas in 1910. Mr.^and Mrs. C. P. Teague were
the parents of eight children: David C. of San Dimas; Drusilla is
Mrs. Theodore Staley of Orange County; Lodema A. is Mrs. Willis
Gaulden of Santa Rosa; Harvey T. died at the age of forty-five; Jas-
per N., the subject of this review; Olive A., Mrs. S. I. Allen of
Sebastopol; Robert M. of San Dimas; Flora E., Mrs. Harry New-
man of San Francisco.
Jasper Newton as a lad attended the log schoolhouse in Davis
County, Iowa, and when nine years of age crossed the plains with his
parents, riding horseback most of the way. He attended school in
Sonoma County, topping off his education at Christian College in
Santa Rosa. In 1878 he came to Southern California as his father's
representative in Azusa, working with the engineer corps in the sur-
vey of Mound City for the old Mound City Land and Water Com-
pany, subdividing 4,000 acres of the Dalton ranch. He returned to
402 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Sonoma County for teams and implements and he was then accom-
panied by his brother, David C, and they located at what is now San
Dimas, then Mud Springs, and here they started in grain farming.
There was an old adobe chimney left standing on the creek and
Mr. Teague and his brother built a California house up against it
and lived there for two years. They bought two hogs and cured the
meat but had no place to smoke it, so placed a box containing the
meat over the chimney of an old bake oven left on the place, and this
improvised affair was the first smoke house in San Dimas. They ran
a ditch from the cienega to the house, which gave them an ample
supply of good water. They hauled lumber over the sandy roads
from Los Angeles to build the house and continued raising grain until
the California Southern Railroad was built in the fall of 1886. In
that year the brothers dissolved partnership and divided their hold-
ings. Jasper N. took the Pomona land and set out an orange grove on
Mountain Avenue; he obtained water from the old Loop & Meserve
ditch brought from the San Antonio Canyon. He also followed gen-
eral contracting, leveling and excavating, doing much of the early
leveling and excavating for orange groves in the locality. During the
grain season he engaged in threshing until 1902, when he sold his
holdings and moved to Los Angeles, and there he now makes his
home in his beautiful residence at 1649 St. Andrews Place. During
these years he has been making a specialty of raising cauliflower,
having 320 acres devoted to the growing of this vegetable, his being
the largest cauliflower ranch in the world, and for the past ten years
he has been known as the Cauliflower King. Shipping to all the large
Eastern cities, but principally to New York, always in precooled cars,
he has his own packing house. On his ranch he raises two crops a
year, first raising potatoes or corn and then cauliflower, employing
twenty or more hands in the growing, picking and packing. Mr.
Teague also owns an orange and walnut ranch of 130 acres in the San
Fernando Valley near Mission Acres, under water from the Los Ange-
les aqueduct. Here he has splendid orchards of Valencia and Navel
oranges and both Eureka and Placentia Perfection walnuts. On his
ranch he employs the latest machinery and makes use of two tractors,
as well as twenty head of horses. Aside from horticulture, Mr.
Teague also raises beans, lettuce and melons.
On November 3, 1883, at Los Angeles, Mr. Teague was united
in marriage with Miss Anna C. Burdick, who was born at First and
Broadway, Los Angeles, the daughter of Cyrus and Amanda Burdick,
who were pioneers of Los Angeles when the present court house site
was a cow pasture. Cyrus Burdick removed to Pomona about 1870,
where he built his home and resided with his family. He built the
first schoolhouse there; before this his children had gone to school on
the Phillips ranch near Spadra. Mr. Burdick also had the first spring
HISTORY AXD BIOGRAPHY 403
wagon In town. Mr. and Mrs. Teague are the parents of seven chil-
dren: Lena R., Mrs. Burrows, resides in Los Angeles; Pearl E. is
Mrs. George Retzer of Hollywood; Ross is on his father's ranch in
the San Fernando Valley; Harry C. is with Company B of the Three
Hundred Sixty-fourth California Regiment of the Ninety-first Di-
vision who went to France and had the honor of seeing much fight-
ing and going over the top three times, being commissioned a first
sergeant; George J. was also in France in the photographic depart-
ment and is now a photographer at White Salmon, Wash.; Claude A.
is a cauliflower farmer, residing on a forty-acre ranch near Los An-
geles; Bernice is attending Los Angeles high school.
Mr. Teague has made an unqualified success of raising \ege-
tables, accomplishing it by close application and personal supervision
of all his holdings. The wonderful results he has obtained, working
on a large scale as he does, have proven the falsity of the idea that
Americans cannot compete with Japanese in growing and marketing
vegetables. He also raises a large acreage of spinach, and for har-
vesting this crop he has invented a machine like a bean cutter that
cuts four rows at once. Thus a car can be cut, packed and loaded in a
day. Always a very busy man, with his extensive interests to super-
vise, Mr. Teague has always kept abreast of the times, being a leader
in all progressive movements; he is well read and well informed and
is a very interesting con\-ersationalist. He has made a success of life
financially and has gained a high place in the esteem and confidence
of his fellow citizens. Politically he is an ardent protectionist and
hence a strong Republican.
MOSES PETTY
One of the earliest pioneers of the Valley, who came here when
Pomona was but a small settlement and has taken an active part in
both the upbuilding of the city and in making it an ideal home environ-
ment, Moses Petty can rightfully be called a representati\'e man of
this district. He is a native of Illinois, born in Petty Township, Law-
rence County, April 8, 1839, a farmer and carpenter by occupation.
On April 20, 1861, he enlisted for service in the Civil War, in Com-
pany I, Eighth Illinois Infantry, under General Prentiss and Colonel
"Dick" Oglesby, and served in the Sixteenth Western Division. After
three months' service he was discharged for disability and returned to
Illinois to engage in farming in his native county.
In 1887 Mr. Petty came to Pomona and built his present home,
1124 West Second Street, where he has since resided; at that time his
and two other houses were the only houses west of White Avenue. For
seven years he was street and park superintendent and graded many of
the streets in Pomona, about forty miles yearly. He assisted in laying
out Ganesha Park, and was also active in the development of the
404 HISTORY A\D lilOGRAPHY
Service P'arm, planting forty acres to walnuts. In addition to this
public development work, Air. Petty bought thirty-five acres of land
on Towne Avenue and Reservoir Street, and this he planted to alfalfa
and cut 350 tons of hay yearly; this land he sold after fourteen years
of operations there. He was later inspector of nine and one-half
miles of road work built in Pomona, and among other public duties
served two years on the city council. He is now a half owner of the
Cooperative Business Block on West Second Street, and has other real
estate interests; he also is superintendent of the Service Farm.
Always an active temperance worker, both in Pomona and in the
state as well, Mr. Petty helped materially to drive the liquor traffic
out of Pomona, which elimination was a most important factor in the
rapid growth and prosperity of this section and making it an ideal
educational center.
The marriage of Mr. Petty, occurring in May, 1862, united him
with Jane Wagner, a native of Ohio, but raised in Illinois, and five
children, three of whom are dead, blessed their union. The two living
are: H. H. Petty, manager of the Cucamonga Packing Company, and
Mrs. Elizabeth Freymonth. Mrs. Petty is a member of the Presby-
terian Church. Mr. Petty is a member of Vicksburg Post No. 61, De-
partment of California and Nevada.
WILLIAM HENRY ARNOLD
The biographical history of California is made up of the life
stories of men which read like romances of a different world from that
of the cultivated and populated state of today. Many of our worthy
pioneers suffered hardships and privations unknown to this genera-
tion, in order that their descendants might reap the reward of their
forebears' bravery and endurance. Such a pioneer was William Henry
Arnold, a native of Shelby County, Ala., where he was born February
1, 1826. He followed farming in his native state until the gold days
of the early fifties, when stories £if fortunes awaiting the adventurous,
in far-away California, reached the Southern plantations, and he
joined the trail of Argonauts to the coast, and with his wife, who was
before her marriage Adeline Pridgeon, a native of Georgia, he crossed
the plains in an ox-team train, a long and hazardous journey in those
days. They arrived safely in Sacramento, and Mr. Arnold engaged
in freighting to the mines as a first occupation, while getting his bear-
ings in the new country. He later sold his teams and mined for gold
in El Dorado County, and finally bought a tract of timber land in
Shady Creek, Nevada County, and there ran a sawmill.
After these various pioneer enterprises, Mr. Arnold came south
to Los Angeles, in 1868, and from that city drove down the Valley
where Pomona now stands, and farmed for thirty years at Spadra,
^S^,^^ l/ C^^i^-r^e^
HISTORY AXD BIOGRAPHY 407
cultivating a twenty-seven-acre ranch, which is now owned by his
daughter, Mrs. Ida F. Collins of Pomona.
No praise is too great for these sturdy pioneers, who gave of
their best years to the upbuilding and development of our wonderful
state. They lived to see Pomona grow into the beautiful city it now
is, surrounded by a Valley of prodigal fruitfulness and beauty; their
efforts were rewarded and their lives are an example for future genera-
tions. Mr. Arnold passed to his greater reward December 23, 1918,
aged ninety-three years, and his wife to hers in 1908, leaving two
children, Mrs. Ida F. Collins of Pomona and Frank Arnold of
Victorville, Cal.
EDWIN T. REISER
A resident of Pomona Valley for the past twenty years, Edwin
T. Reiser has watched the march of progress through this wonderful
region and has kept up with the trend of events in every way possible
to a man of business acumen and initiative. Born in Woodford
County, 111., June 29, 1875, Mr. Reiser is the son of William T.
and Elizabeth (Stoner) Reiser, the father, a farmer in the Eastern
state, fought in the Civil War with the Confederate Army, and a
brother of his was with Stonewall Jackson in \^irginia.
Three children were born to William T. and Elizabeth Reiser:
Edwin T., the first in order of birth, was educated at Mt. Morris
College, at Mt. Morris, 111., graduating from that institution in 1898.
On the third of July, that same year, he came to California, locating
at La Verne, and with his brothers started in to develop thirty acres
of orange land. Later the whole family came West and the father
purchased 160 acres, then gave each of his boys ten acres to develop.
Having learned the orange culture by finding employment with Mr.
Palmer on his first arrival here, Edwin T. sold his interest in his
brother's ranch, and then taught three years at La Verne College
while developing his individual orchard, and was a member of the
board of trustees of the college during that time.
Later, Mr. Reiser came to Pomona and engaged in the fruit
business, representing the Citrus Union and the Fay Fruit Company.
He also reinvested in orange property, and four years ago took the
position of field agent for the California Fruit Growers Exchange,
which position he has creditably filled since that time. A man of adap-
tability and studious by nature, Mr. Reiser at one time took up the
study of law under the late Judge Garrett for three years, never, how-
ever, taking his examination for the bar. He is actively interested in
the upbuilding of Pomona, both educationally and along civic lines,
and has been prominent in Republican politics; he was chairman of
the Johnson and Eshelman Club and of the Pomona Valley Republican
408 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Club, and since 1911 he has been a member of the Republican State
Central Committee. He was elected president of the Pomona City
Board of Education in 1919 on a revisionary platform and has given
his personal attention to advancing the best interests of the schools.
He belongs to the Pomona Chamber of Commerce, and was one of
the "Four Minute Men" during the World War, and chairman of
the district.
The marriage of Mr. Keiser, on July 8, 1897, united him with
Miss Evelyn Teague, a native of Ohio. Theirs was a college romance,
for they met while both attending Mt. Morris (111.) College. Three
children have blessed the marriage : Helen, Edwin Terence, and Gaius
Leland. The family attend the Brethren Church. In 1911 Mr. and
Mrs. Keiser toured Europe on pleasure bent, but devoted some time
to educational purposes. Actively interested in the development of the
Valley since his first selection of it for a home, Mr. Keiser has done
all in his power to advance the best interests of Pomona and surround-
ing territory. He has seen it grow from a small beginning to a point
of development really remarkable in so short a time, and fully ex-
pects an equally rapid advance in the next decade. The environment
justifies such expectations, and also the manner of men who make up
the bulk of the citizenship in this section of our wonderful state.
CASSIUS C. JOHNSON
Few more consistent, practical or well-balanced careers have
contributed to the development of Pomona and Claremont than that
of the late C. C. Johnson, whose death, September 3, 1906, was
mourned by the citizens of both towns as that of a personal friend.
His remains were interred in the cemetery at Pomona, in which town
so many years of his active and useful life had been passed.
Indiana was Mr. Johnson's native state, and he was born in
Greencastle, April 1, 1854, one of the younger children in a family
of ten born to his parents, Dixon and Nancy (Sewell) Johnson, both
of the latter being natives of Kentucky. Among the early settlers in
Indiana who had crossed over the Ohio River from Kentucky was
Dixon Johnson, who settled down as a farmer in that new country, but
he was evidently not satisfied with the country for a permanent location
and some time after the birth of his son, Cassius C, he removed to
Vinton, Iowa, near which city he purchased a large farm. It was there
that his earth life came to a close, leaving to mourn his loss a widow
and a large family of children. The mother passed away some years
later In Willow Lake, S. D. As he was a mere child whenthe family
removed from Indiana to Iowa, C. C. Johnson was reared almost
entirely In the latter state, attending first the public school of Vinton
and later Vinton Academy. Although reared on a farm he had no
taste for farming himself, and as soon as his school days were over
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 409
he secured a position in a dry goods store in Vinton, with the idea
of learning the business. When one has definite ideas of a line of
business which he wishes to follow and with persistency applies himself
to its mastery, the victory is half won, and thus it was with Mr. John-
son, for in a short time he was enabled to start in the dry goods
business on his own account. The failure of his health, however,
brought about a change in his plans and after disposing of his interests
in Iowa he came to California in 1881. The following year he
purchased a ranch of thirty acres on the corner of San Bernardino and
Towne avenues. Here he developed water, set out orchards, and
later he subdivided the ranch into one-acre and four-acre tracts, also
opening Towne Avenue. In the meantime he had been employed in
the weighing department of the Southern Pacific Railroad for about
one year.
In 1895 Mr. Johnson removed to a foothill ranch east of San
Antonio, comprising several hundred acres. He gave this up, however,
in the fall of 1900 and removed to Claremont, in order that his
children could attend Pomona College. After locating here he engaged
in the real estate business, and among other transactions with which
his name was associated was the laying out of a forty-acre tract on
North Harvard Avenue, which he sold off as C. C. Johnson's Addition
to Claremont, and he also laid out another forty-acre tract adjoining,
known as College Avenue Addition. This business is still being carried
on under the name of his son, J. D. Johnson. In 1902 he erected the
fine residence now occupied by the family, located on North Harvard
Avenue. Far from being self-centered and interested in his own
private affairs only, Mr. Johnson was, on the other hand, broad-minded
and generous. He was a director in the Citizens' Light and Water
Company, was the organizer of the Cooperative Water Company,
which was located on his ranch, also assisted in the organization of the
Claremont Lumber Company, the Citizens' State Bank and the Clare-
mont Inn Company, of which latter he was president. For many
years he had served efficiently as school trustee of Claremont and also
served as selectman.
In Vinton, Iowa, May 19, 1880, C. C. Johnson was married to
Miss Louise Moore, who was born in Durand, 111., the daughter of
Hubbard Moore. From Vermont, his native state, Mr. Moore set
out with the '49ers for the gold region, but he did not remain long
in the West at that time. Later he removed to Beloit, Wis., and
afterwards to Durand, 111., and established himself in the dry goods
business, which he followed until removing to Vinton, Iowa, there
following the builder's trade. Removing from the Middle West in
1881, he came to California and the same year purchased a ranch
adjoining Pomona, upon which he lived the remainder of his life, and
in addition to its management he also carried on contracting to some
extent. Mrs. Johnson's mother, Emma L. Peck, a native of Massa-
410 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
chusetts, died in Durand, 111., when Mrs. Johnson was only nine
months old and afterwards Mr. Moore married her sister, who resided
with Mrs. Johnson until her death. Five children blessed the marriage
of Mr. and Mrs. Johnson: Albert, who is engaged with the Standard
Oil Company at Santa Barbara; James D., in the real estate and
insurance business in Claremont; Clarence was in the Ordnance De-
partment of the United States Army in the late war and is now
ranching at Claremont; Emma, deceased, and Katherine. Politically
Mr. Johnson was a strong Republican, and in his church affiliations
was an active member of the Congregational Church, of which at one
time he was a trustee. Thoroughly devoted to the interests of this
part of California, he was one of those citizens whose coming from
the East meant so much to the development and growth of the state.
JOSEPH CHRISTMAS PIERSON
Prominent among the names of the successful men of affairs of
Pomona Valley is that of Joseph Christmas Pierson, the scion of a
worthy American family of note in our country's history in early
Colonial days, who fought valiantly in the Colonial wars and served
with distinction in the Revolutionary War, also in the War of 1812
and the Civil War of the sixties.
Mr. Pierson was born at Newark, N. J., May 1, 1857. His
father, Joseph Christmas Pierson, was born in New York, of English
descent, the ancestors coming from England to Massachusetts. Rev.
Abraham Pierson was the first Presbyterian minister in Newark, N.
J., coming there in 1666. His son, also named Abraham, was the
first president of Yale College. Mr. Pierson's mother was Sarah A.
Blauvelt of old Knickerbocker stock, who were the founders of Blau-
velt, N. Y. Joseph C. received a liberal public school education in the
excellent schools of his native city, which was supplemented by a course
at the Newark Academy, and completed at the Pingree Preparatory
School, at Elizabeth, N. J.
In 1874 Mr. Pierson began his business career in New York
City as an office boy at 81 Beekman Street, at two dollars a week,
which was gradually increased until the fourth year, when he received
$800 for the year. In 1877 he came to California and spent two
years in San Francisco in the employ of the large mercantile establish-
ment of Huntington & Hopkins. He then returned to New York City
and became identified with the firm of Tennis & Wilson. In 1881
he began the manufacturing business on his own account in Newark,
N. J., being engaged in the manufacture of steel ^oods. Later he
became associated with Messrs. Flagler & Forsyth, incorporated as
Flagler, F'orsyth & Pierson at 298 Broadway, New York City, with
Mr. Pierson as vice-president. Later a Mr. Bradley bought his part-
H^^l
^^^^^^^
^^^Hft^^f^^ .
H
Ay^^-^UZ-trut^^
HISTORY AXD BIOGRAPHY 413
ners' interest and the company became the Bradley & Pierson Manu-
facturing Company, with Mr. Pierson as president. They were manu-
facturers of metal goods, tools and forgings. In 1887 he sold his
interest in the company and removed to Minneapolis, Minn., where he
was engaged in the hardware business for two years; selling out, he
continued to reside in that Western city for three years more. He
again returned to New York City and purchased an interest and be-
came treasurer of the FVasse Company, importer of tools and sup-
plies and one of the oldest firms in New York City, dating back to the
time when Robert Fulton purchased tools and supplies of them to
build his first steamboat. Retaining his interest and official position
with the Frasse Company, located at 38 Cortlandt Street, New York,
now the site of the Terminal Building, Mr. Pierson also became
interested in the Garwood Foundry and Machine Company at Gar-
wood, N. J., of which he was also president. They made all the cast-
ings for the Hall railway signal, some of the castings weighing four-
teen tons. He was also president of the Brock Wrench Manufactur-
ing Company of Garwood, N. J., makers of chain wrenches, and
continued actively in the management of the company until he sold
his interest to the J. H. Williams Company. At the same time he
sold his interest in the Garwood Foundry and Machine Company and
resigned as president of both companies.
Soon after this the Frasse Company office, factory and warehouse
burned down and after settling with the insurance company they sold
the firm name and business. After selling the Brock Wrench Com-
pany, Mr. Redfield of the J. H. Williams Company made a request
for Mr. Pierson to continue with them, and he accepted the offer and
was placed in charge of the New York office, where he continued ac-
tively for ten years, when he resigned after being for over forty years
in business in New York City. Mr. Redfield, ex-Secretary of Com-
merce in President Wilson's cabinet, was president of the J. H. Wil-
liams Company, the largest manufacturers of their kind in the world.
Before selling out the Brock Wrench Company Mr. Pierson was the
second largest manufacturer of chain wrenches in the United States.
In Asbury Park, N. J., in 1883, Mr. Pierson was united in mar-
riage with Miss Hattie C. Baker of Asbury Park and they became
the parents of four children: William B. of La Verne, who is married
and the father of one child; Marion E., the wife of D. M. Mauger of
Summit, N. J.; Helen Estelle, wife of Robert P. Yeager of Berkeley,
Cal.; and Joseph T., attending the University of California.
As early as 1907, while still living in New York City, Mr. Pier-
son became interested in California and purchased an orange grove in
La Verne, and later, in 1912, he bought another grove, which finally
culminated in his resigning his position and removing to La Verne in
1914, where he resides with his wife in a comfortable bungalow, from
414 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
which place he superintencls his orange orchards, one being a nine-
teen-year-old Navel grove from which he took 9,000 boxes of oranges
in 1917. His other grove of ten acres is devoted to Navels, Valen-
cias and lemons and is just coming into bearing. He is active in local
affairs and is a director of the La Verne Land and Water Company,
as well as a director of the Farmers and Merchants Bank at La Verne.
Mr. Pierson is very patriotic and justly proud of his distinguished
Colonial ancestors, being a member of the Sons of the American
Revolution. He is prominently identified with the social and business
life of La Verne and personally Is a man of wide popularity, whose
natural talents and acquired training make him a valuable addition
to the community.
DEWITT CLINTON BRYANT, A.M., M.D., F.A.C.S.
An eminent physician of pleasing, attractive personality who has
become a most successful specialist is Dr. DeWitt Clinton Bryant, who
was born near Cleveland, Ohio, on June 3, 1849, the son of David
Bryant, a merchant, and a nati\'e of Shortsville, N. Y. He came as a
young man to Cleveland and there married Miss Sarah Flanagan of
Ohio; and he died about 1872. Mrs. Bryant spent her last days with
her son. Doctor Bryant, in Omaha, and died in 1897. She had three
children, the subject of our review being the second eldest.
DeWitt Clinton Bryant received his education in the public schools
and at Chatham Academy, and after graduation there entered Oberlin
College, where he was a student until the close of his third year. Then,
on account of his father's death, he returned home to look after and
settle up the estate; after which he began the study of medicine, attend-
ing the medical department of Wooster University, now the Western
Reserve University, from which well-known institution he was gradu-
ated in 1875, with the degree of M.D., almost immediately engaging
in practice in North Ridgeville, Ohio. In 1879, he went to New York
City and attended Bellevue Hospital Medical College, after which he
crossed the ocean to England and entered the Royal Ophthalmic Hos-
pital at London, where he made a special study of the eye and ear. He
completed the course of study in 1881, and received his certificate of
graduation, so highly prized the world over. He returned to North
Ridgeville and again practiced medicine.
In 1884, Doctor Bryant located In Omaha, Nebr., then a city of
40,000, and there established himself In the practice of his specialty, the
eye and ear; entering upon a career of thirty-two years of uninterrupted
success, from which he turned only when the condition of his wife's
health made his removal to California a prime duty. During his resi-
dence in Omaha, he was one of the founders, in 1 892, of the Crelghton
Medical College, and for twenty-two years he was Dean of the Col-
lege, from Its Hrst session until he resigned to remove to the Pacific
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 415
Coast. During the same period, he was Professor of Ophthalmology.
The institution was very successful, with its $300,000 college building
and its hospital erected at a cost of $1,000,000. The attendance grew
from fifteen to more than 200 during Doctor Bryant's association there,
and he saw Omaha expand so as to boast of a population of over
225,000 persons. As a resultof his activity in Nebraska, Doctor Bryant
is an ex-President of the Omaha and Douglas County Medical Asso-
ciation, and also ex-President of the Nebraska State Medical Society;
and he is a member of the American Medical Association. He was one
of the founders of the American College of Surgeons with headquar-
ters in Chicago, and was a member of its first Board of Supervisors.
In 1892, the degree of Master of Arts was conferred on him by
Creighton University, and the American College of Surgeons conferred
on him the degree of Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
During all these years he has contributed liberally to medical literature,
particularly in the field of his specialty, and so has gradually become
widely known to the medical profession, both in America and abroad.
He made his first trip to California in 1891, and after that he came
west repeatedly. For his wife's sake. Doctor Bryant finally gave up his
prosperous practice and enviable position in the Creighton Medical
College; and having sent his wife here as early as 1914, to seek a
milder climate, he followed her in 1916. Soon after he purchased his
present place on Amherst Avenue, Claremont, which he improved and
beautified with a large modern residence; and besides the beautiful,
well-kept grounds, he has an acre devoted to the culture of all kinds of
fruit trees grown in California, and many from South America and the
Orient, and finds some of his highest delight in watching them grow.
He has continued his researches in the science of medicine, and is still
interested in Omaha medical affairs, maintaining a certain partnership
with others there.
At Chatham, Ohio, Doctor Bryant was married to Miss Sophronia
J. Peckham, a native of Ohio, although the Peckhams are of an old
New York state family, her mother being a Gridley, of good old Ohio
stock. Despite all of his loving ministrations. Doctor Bryant was be-
reaved of his devoted wife in July, 1918.
Doctor Bryant is a well traveled man. In 1899-1900, accompanied
by his wife, he spent a year in Europe, where he studied in the line of
his specialty in London, Berlin and Vienna. Some time was also spent
visiting the different countries of Europe, excepting Russia. In 1909,
again accompanied by his wife, he made a tour of the world. Leaving
New York City this trip was via Madeira Islands, Gibraltar, Cairo,
Borneo, Philippine Islands, China, Japan, Hawaiian Islands and back
to San Francisco, a trip of six months. During this trip he visited the
hospitals In the different countries and wrote articles on them for medi-
cal journals.
416 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
An ardent Republican, Doctor Bryant in 1917 was elected a city
trustee of Claremont and was immediately chosen president of the
board. He was made a Mason in Omaha Lodge No. 1, A. F. & A. M.,
as well as a member of the Royal Arch Chapter, Commandery and
Consistory, in that place, and is a member of the Tangier Temple, A.
A. O. N. M. S., of Omaha. He is also a member of the Omaha Lodge
of Elks. From a young man, his religious convictions have made and
kept him a member of the Congregational Church.
THOMAS ROSS TROTTER
One of the "old-timers" in Pomona whom everyone knows, and
who, to know, is to esteem and wish to know still better, is Thomas
Ross Trotter, the very popular city clerk. He was born at Youghal,
County Cork, Ireland, on December 29, 1850, the son of Edward
Jackson Trotter, a ship-owner and grain merchant, who owned and
operated large elevators. He married Miss Charlotte Ross, who be-
came the mother of thirteen children, among whom Thomas was next
to the youngest.
He was educated at the so-called national schools, and as a young
fellow, took up the study of architecture. After a time, however, the
lure of the ocean which he had inherited took him to sea, and for
four years, as a sailor before the mast, he was tossed about on the
briny deep. He touched at many of the leading ports of the world,
saw more or less of the life of the leading countries, and so wonder-
fully enlarged his vision of life and knowledge of other peoples.
In the early seventies, he came out to Canada, and for four years
was tow-boat agent on the St. Lawrence River and Gulf, with the duty
of meeting incoming ships and arranging to tow them to port — an
experience productive of no end of good stories, some of which our
subject occasionally tells. For two years, also, he was purser of the
steamer Marguerita Stevenson, a passenger and mail \essel sailing
between Gaspe and Campbellton.
Because of an accident, however, Mr. Trotter was compelled to
abandon the sea, so he made for Toronto, in which bustling city he
became known for the next three years in the gent's furnishing trade.
Then he took up a homestead in Manitoba, and later mo\-ed south to
Phoenix, Ariz., where he acted as clerk for a contracting company.
In 1886 he came to Pomona, Cal., remained a few months and
then went to San Diego, and there he was bookkeeper for contracting
firms for about a year. Returning to Pomona he located permanently,
engaging in the grocery business. He spent one season at Catalina in
the boating business.
On July 3, 1903, Mr. Trotter was appointed deputy city clerk of
Pomona, and in April, 1907, he was elected to the office, and has been
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 419
reelected ever since. He is a stanch Republican in politics, and' is a
member of Pomona Lodge No. 789, B. P. O. Elks, and in the circles
of both no one is more popular, for he has missed but one lodge
meeting in almost ten years.
In 1891, at Pomona, Mr. Trotter was married to Miss Nellie
E. Kuhn, who died on August 2, 1917. She was the mother of six
children, three of whom died in childhood. Those living are: Ada
Garnet, George W. and Helen Hazel. The family attend the Episco-
pal Church, Mr. Trotter being junior warden for twenty-five years.
ALTON B. HILL
A real pioneer of the Pomona Valley, one who has reclaimed
land from cactus and sagebrush and developed many acres into pro-
ductive and flourishing ranches, A. B. Hill deserves mention among
the representative men of this section. Born in Norway, F'ebruary
18, 1856, his people were large landowners and prominent in that
country. He received his education in the public schools and attended
a military college for three years. On reaching young manhood, he
desired greater opportunities than could found in his native country,
and the year 1883 found him in the United States. His first business
ventures in the new country were real-estate operations, which he
carried on in St. Paul, Minn., Buffalo and Rochester, N. Y., Cleve-
land, Ohio, and other Eastern cities, and met with success in these
enterprises, which were on a large scale of operation.
Before coming to Pomona, Mr. Hill had purchased land in the
Valley, and in 1900 he came here and began the development of his
holdings, consisting of 300 acres, all of it raw land. He spent large
surhs of money in removing rocks and sagebrush and cacti from the
land, and then planted, developed and produced from his extensive
holdings; some of the acreage was put to peaches, apricots and plums;
and a 120-acre ranch took the place of the wilderness. This property
was situated near First Street and Grand Avenue. Besides this devel-
opment work, Mr. Hill developed a forty-four-acre orange grove on
East Kingsley Avenue; twenty-six acres on San Bernardino Avenue, in
oranges, grapefruit and tangerines; and twenty acres on Grand Avenue
and Phillips Boulevard devoted to peaches, apricots and pears. His
present holdings consist of 250 acres, 130 of which he has given to
his sons. At one time Mr. Hill owned eighty acres in Pasadena, now
owned by the Pasadena Country Club.
Mr. Hill 'has taken an active part in advancing the civic interests
of this section; formerly president of the Eastside Dry Yard, during
the war he dried 325 tons of fruit under government supervision, and
was also an independent shipper of green and dried fruits to New-
York. President of the Palomares Water Company, he has interests
420 HISTORY AND BIOCxRAPHY
in four different water companies, and has spent thousands of dollars
yearly on the irrigation system of his property, and at a rough estimate
has spent over half a million on labor and improvements on his ranch
properties. He markets his crop through the Claremont Citrus Asso-
ciation. A real upbuilder and developer in every sense of the word,
Mr. Hill takes rank as one of the foremost citizens of the Valley and
a man of sterling character. He is the father of four sons: George
L., Thornwell, Robert and Conrad; and three daughters, May Grace,
Winnie and Stella.
J. MOSES WHITEHEAD
Although born and reared in a far northern clime, where the
orange industry is unknown, J. Moses Whitehead, well-known orange
grower of Pomona, while comparatively new to the culture of the
golden fruit, has made a success in that industry since he came to
Pomona.
Mr. Whitehead was born in eastern Ontario, Canada, October 2,
1878, and was reared in the timber country on his father's 190-acre
government claim home place. Logging and the lumber business are
the chief industries in that section of country, and in his early life Mr.
Whitehead was accustomed to the scenes incident to these vocations.
In 1899, the year he attained his majority, he sought his fortune in
the northwest territory, homesteading a piece of land in the newly
formed province of Saskatchewan, which in 1905 was formed from
the former districts of Assiniboia, Saskatchewan and Athabasca. After
farming for seven years the allurements of Southern California brought
him to Pomona, where he arrived July 4, 1906. He purchased his
present six-acre orange grove, paying $100 down, the remainder to be
paid withiii three years. He has taken the best possible care of the
place and the orchard is very productive. Its highest yield was 4,200
boxes of Valencia and Navel oranges in 1913, and the average yield is
from 2,500 to 3,000 boxes of fruit yearly. This grove is a part of the
Packard Orange Grove Tract. Mr. Whitehead also owns a twelve-
acre grove on West Holt Avenue, one-fourth of which is planted to
Valencia, one-fourth to Navel, one-fourth to walnut and one-fourth to
lemon trees.
On April 21, 1909, he formed domestic ties by his marriage with
Miss Laura Hardin, a native of Nebraska, and their five children were
all born in Pomona Valley. They are: Mildred Genevieve, Laura
Elizabeth, Margaret Ella, and the twins, Josephine E. and Joe A. In
his religious affiliations Mr. Whitehead is a member of the Pilgrim
Congregational Church at Pomona, of which he was deacon four years.
Mr. Whitehead has made a decided success in the orange industry,
is a young man of enterprise and energy and has many warm friends.
c>v
IIISTOKV AND IIJOGRAPHV 423
PORFIRIO J. YORBA
Fortunate in a name that awakens memories and fancies of early,
romantic California days, Porfirio J. Yorba was born at Yorba, in
Orange County, on May 28, 1876, the son of Trinidad Yorba, also
a native of that place and a member of the famous Yorba family once
playing such a picturesque role in this wide-sweeping Coast country.
His father — Porfirio's grandfather — was Bernardo Yorba, a native
of Spain and the holder of three grants, aggregating over 165,000
acres, given him by the King of Spain. These grants were La Sierra,
in Riverside County, and Rancho San Antonio, Canyon Santa Ana, in
Orange County; and just how historical character the founder of this
family was, may be gathered from the reference to him by his con-
temporary, Harris Newmark, the Los Angeles pioneer, who says in
his personal reminiscences, "Sixty Years in Southern California,"
beginning with the year 1853:
"Bernardo Yorba was another great landowner; and I am sure
that, in the day of his glory, he might have traveled fifty to sixty miles
in a straight line, touching none but his own possessions. His ranches,
on one of which Pio Pico hid from Santiago Arguello, were delight-
fully located, where now stand such places as Anaheim, Orange, Santa
Ana, Westminster, Garden Grove and other towns in Orange County
— then a part of Los Angeles County."
When Don Bernardo died, on November 20, 1858, adds New-
mark, with interesting exactness as to details, he bequeathed to nu-
merous children and grandchildren an inheritance of $110,000 worth
of personal property, in addition to 37,000 acres of land.
Trinidad Yorba married Josefa Palomares, a member of an-
other historic family long among the land barons of California, and
a descendant of Don Francisco de Palomares, Governor of the Castle
of St. Gregory at Oran, Spain. Coming down the generations, we find
another Don Francisco de Palomares, who was a well-known citizen of
Toledo, Spain. His children were Don Francisco, who was clerk of
the city of Madrid and died in 1795; Donicio; Maria Josefa; and
Juan Leocadio, who crossed the ocean from Spain to Mexico, married
Dona Maria Antonia Gonzales de Zayas (sister of Father Elias, an
influential priest), and established a home in Sonora. Their only son,
Juan Francisco, was born in Sonora and became the father of the fol-
lowing children: Herman, Antonia, Juana, Francisca, Procofio,
Almara, Tranquilina, Fiburcio, Manuel, Ignacio and Jesus. Among
the offspring of Manuel was Juan Leocadio, by whose marriage to
Maria Antonia Gonzales was born an only child, Cristobal. He
came to Los Angeles as a sergeant in the Mexican army and afterward
served as judge in that city, while he resided on the site of the present
Arcade Depot. By his marriage to Benedita Saiz he had the following
children: Concepcion, Barbara, Rosario, Francisco, Ygnacio, Louis,
21
424 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Dolores, Maria de Jesus and Josefa; and it was this attractive
daughter, Josefa Palomares, who became the wife of Trinidad Yorba
and the mother of Porfirio, our subject. There were eight children in
Trinidad's family, but besides Porfirio, only a daughter, Frances, now
Mrs. Frank Z. Vejar, is still living. These two well remember the
early days when much of the family splendor remained, and the Yorbas
raised cattle, which they shipped to San Pedro, together with hides.
Not much attention was then given to grain, for there was as yet no
grain market; but they cultivated the fields for potatoes, although they
had to sell them for five cents a sack.
Trinidad Yorba died during Porfirio's youth; the latter attended
the public schools of Orange County, then studied at St. Vincent's
College at Los Angeles, later attending La Verne College, where he
was graduated. In 1889, shortly after the great boom in Southern
California, he located in the Pomona Valley; he now resides
on the Lordsburg road at La Verne, and as the result of hard work
and sensible care of his investments, he has some of the best developed
ranch property in the Valley. One hundred six acres are situated
at the edge of La Verne, and twenty of these he has set out as a
young orange grove; sixty-five acres are in walnuts (twenty- four bear-
ing), and he has some fine ten-year-old trees, from which he took
nine tons of nuts in 1918, and eighteen tons in 1919. He has devel-
oped a good supply of fine water in two wells, and installed a modern
electric pumping plant, so that his ranch is well equipped in every
respect. On his La Verne ranch he has erected a large beautiful resi-
dence with well laid out and improved grounds, which make it one of
the finest places in the Valley. He also owns a grain ranch of 418
acres in Riverside County, a part of the original Rancho La Sierra
given by the King of Spain to Bernardo Yorba; and he holds title to
valuable Pomona city property, including the Hotel Pomona Block,
at the northwest corner of Second and Thomas streets, a two-story
building 65 by 120 feet.
At the Cathedral in Los Angeles, Mr. Yorba was united in mar-
riage with Miss Sarah Valla, on November 28, 1900, the ceremony
being performed by Bishop Montgomery. She is a native of Los
Angeles and a daughter of Antonio Valla, who for fifty years was a
citizen .of Los Angeles, occupying a prominent and influential position
in its commercial and financial development. A descendant of a
famous Italian family, Antonio Valla was born in Genoa, and in 1857,
while still in his early manhood, he turned his attention towards
America, and after a four months' journey by sailing vessel around
Cape Horn and up the coast of South America, he arrived in San
Francisco; two years later he came south to Los Angeles, where he
resided until his death, on September 26, 1908. In the early days he
owned the southeast corner of Seventh and Spring streets, Los Angeles,
where he had his residence for many years. Mr. Valla was actively
HISTORY AND PJOGRAPHY 425
engaged in the merchandise business until 1870, when he became inter-
ested in the wine industry, establishing one of the first wineries in the
vicinity. Always a firm believer in the future of Los Angeles, he was
a pioneer in the upbuilding of the business district; he built a business
block at First and Los Angeles streets at a cost of $47,000, when
bankers of the city prophesied his financial ruin, but his judgment was
proved to be well founded, and when he retired in 1888, he had accu-
mulated a fortune. Mr. Valla's marriage united him with Trinidad
Moya, a native daughter of Los Angeles, and a member of one of
the most prominent old Spanish families. Mrs. Valla spent her last
days at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Porfirio J. Yorba, her death
occurring on September 26, 1917, just nine years to a day after her
husband's decease.
Three sons have come to bless this union and are the pride and
ambition of Mr. and Mrs. Yorba, Gilbert, Marco and Edmund, and
all three attend the Pomona high school. Mrs. Yorba, a refined and
cultured woman, completed her education at Notre Dame College,
San Jose, and she presides gracefully over the household, aiding her
husband in his ambitions and dispensing the true, old-time California
hospitality. The family are members of the Rom.an Catholic Church
in Pomona, and besides belonging to the Knights of Columbus, Mr.
Yorba is a member of Pomona Lodge, No. 789, B. P. O. Elks.
JUDGE W. A. GARRETT
Prominent among the legal fraternity in Pomona and vicinity,
Judge W. A. Garrett for many years took an active part in public
affairs here and from the standpoint of honesty and integrity he was a
man whose high standards won for him marked honor and respect. A
native of Illinois, his birth occurred at Maquon, November 19, 1860;
when he was nine years of age the family moved to Iowa, and two
years later to Nebraska, and his early education was at Oxford, that
state. He later attended the Franklin Academy, and was fortunate in
being able to study law in the office of a very brilliant attorney named
E. A. Fletcher, and began practicing at Holdrege, Nebr. Although he
acquired a broad education, it was secured through his own efforts,
and he contributed much to every community in which he lived. In
1886 he was admitted to the bar, and for two years he served as county
superintendent of schools at Holdrege; and while still superintendent
was elected county judge of Phelps County, Nebr., serving in that
office for twelve years. Following this he practiced law for about four
years and then, his health being broken by overwork, he sought the
California climate, coming to Pomona to reside.
In March, 1905, Judge Garrett became a part of the public, edu-
cational and social life of Pomona; an attorney of unusual breadth of
426 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
knowledge, few men held the respect of clients and the members of the
profession as did he. Few attorneys had a better grasp of the subject
of law, and on its history and application he was an expert and was
continually consulted by his associates who sought his advice in un-
ravelling practically every difficult problem which came up. He was
of an analytic turn of mind and naturally adapted for the work, and
his loss was keenly felt in Pomona, for to the many who sought his
advice he willingly gave counsel. There was nothing in his character
which suggested ostentation or display, but as a public man he held a
position of unusual trust, and contributed largely, through his thought
and action, to the community's interests. Judge Garrett passed away
February 10, 1919.
CHARLES H. HARDON
Varied and interesting have been the experiences of Charles H.
Hardon; a man of education and talent, he has traveled widely, seen
much of the every-day world and real life and derived much valuable
experience. Born June 14, 1864, he is a native of Urbana, Champaign
County, Ohio. When he reached six years of age the family moved to
Contoocook, N. H., and there he was raised, on a farm, and received
his preliminary education in the public schools of that country district.
In 1875 he returned to Ohio and took a four years' course in Urbana
University.
Returning to New Hampshire, Mr. Hardon followed the lumber
business and farmed until 1888. That year he went to Washington,
D. C, as clerk in the Geological Survey; from here he became chief
clerk in the Department of Stone. During the taking of the 1 890 cen-
sus, and while in this work, he visited nearly all states of the East and
Middle West, gathering up the scattering ends of the work.. After
finishing these travels, Mr. Hardon located for a time in Fulton,
N. Y., and then, in 1894, came to Pomona. He entered the employ
of the Pomona Land and Water Company after his arrival, as engi-
neer. When the present pumping plant, owned by the Irrigation Com-
pany of Pomona and located at Pomona Junction, was erected, in 1900,
he assisted in its construction, and since that date has been chief engi-
neer of the plant, with the exception of three years from 1910 to 1913,
which he spent in Cuba as consulting irrigation engineer on a sugar
plantation, during which time he traveled all over the island, seeing the
beauties of that tropical country and gaining knowledge as well.
While in Washington in government work, Mr. Hardon met
Evangeline White, of New York, the lady Avho later became his wife,
and who was a clerk under him in the Department of Stone. She is a
native of New York state, and received a fine musical education. An
alto singer, she taught music in Ripon College, Ripon, Wis., and
IL S. P7£c^
HISir)RY AND BIOGRAPHY 429
studied voice and taught with Madame Seller in Philadelphia, Pa., in
which city she was a member of the first quartet in Trinity Episcopal
Church, and was also choir master and leader in the Congregational
Church at Meadville, that state. Mrs. Hardon also appeared success-
fully in different operas, among them singing the role of Buttercup in
"Pinafore." On coming to Pomona she taught music for six years
in Pomona College. One daughter, Helen, has blessed the marriage
of Mr. and Mrs. Hardon.
ULYSSES E. WHITE
A busy, influential attorney fortunate in a valuable experience
through private practice and responsible public service in various
capacities, is Ulysses E. White, a native of Howard County, Ind.,
where he was born near Tipton on April 4, 1867. His father was
J. J. White, whose life story is sketched in detail elsewhere in this
volume, the devoted husband of Miss Lucy J. Long.
The rural schools of Kansas, to which state the family had moved
In 1871, when Ulysses was four years of age, gave the boy his first
educational opportunities, and he continued his schooling in San Diego
County, Cal., when the Whites later came further west. They
returned to Kansas, and once more, as has been the case with so many
who have come to know the attractions of the Golden State, they
pitched their tent in California, this time near Escondido.
In October, 1883, J. J. White brought his wife and children to
Pomona, and Ulysses spent three years in the Pomona schools, and
then took a three-year course at the high school. He next took up
shorthand and graduated from the Shorthand School in Chicago.
After that, he entered the law office of P. C. Tonner, and for two
years studied pri\'ately with that well-established lawyer. For several
years, too, he acted as stenographer to W. A. Bell and C. E. Sumner,
and all this time he studied privately in law offices until 1897.
In the meantime, Mr. White was stenographer for the Assembly
Judiciary Committee, and in 1897 was clerk of the Senate Judiciary.
In 1897 he was appointed Justice of the Peace to fill the unexpired
term of H. S. Finney; and in 1898 he was elected Justice of the Peace
for a four-year term. Then he ranched for eight years, and acquired
robust health as well as a closer touch with the world of Nature.
Having resumed the study of law, Mr. White was admitted to
the bar in January, 1914, and has been practicing ever since. When
Judge Barnes resigned in 1918 Mr. White was appointed Justice of
the Peace to fill the vacancy, and in the fall of 1918 he was reelected
justice for a term of four years.
430 HISTORY AXD BIOGRAPHY
On April 15, 1897, Justice White was married to Miss Hattie H.
Dexter; and two sons, Gerald B. and George D., now bless their union.
He belongs to the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of
Foresters; and in national politics is a Republican.
HENRY LE BOSQUETTE RUNS
The president of the First National Bank of La Vei.ie, Henry
L. Kuns has been prominently concerned with the industrial and
civic development and upbuilding of Southern California, as was his
father, David Kuns, and is one of the most influential citizens of Los
Angeles County.
Henry L. Kuns was born November 19, 1847, on the old Kuns
homestead farm in Cass County, Ind., seven miles below Logansport,
situated on the banks of the Wabash River. He is a son of David
and Margaret S. (Lamb) Kuns, the father being born at Dayton,
Ohio, and the mother in the vicinity of Wheeling, W. Va. The orig-
inal representative of the Kuns family in America came from Holland
about 200 years ago and settled in Pennsylvania. They were Dunkards
in their religious faith, and thus opposed to war. The name of Kuns
has ever stood sponsor for the deepest Christian faith and has char-
acterized the lives and labors of the various generations of descendants
in the United States.
John Kuns, the grandfather of Henry L. Kuns, was a youth when
he accompanied his parents down the Ohio River, about 1815, to
establish a home in the wilds of Montgomery County, Ohio, in the
vicinity of the present city of Dayton. Li 1826 he removed with his
parents to Carroll County, Lid., where he secured a tract of land on
the Wabash River. He built the first grist mill that was operated
in that county, located in the pioneer village of Delphi. While en
route down the Ohio River he made the acquaintance of Miss Hannah
Wolf, and before he had reached his destination their wedding was
solemnized. Their eldest son, David Kuns, the father of the subject
of this re\'iew, was reared on a farm in Indiana, educated in the rural
schools and followed farming in Indiana until 1853, when he disposed
of his interests and moved to Piatt County, 111., where he acquired 400
acres of prairie land which is now owned by his only child, Henry L.
Kuns. David Kuns resided in Illinois until 1892, when he came to
California and established a home at Lordsburg (now La Verne).
With four others he established Lordsburg College, now La Verne
College, which today stands as a noble monument to the generosity
of this honored pioneer whose integrity of purpose and high ideals
of citizenship were unquestioned. He continued to reside there until
his death, March 12, 1906, having reached the age of eighty-six. His
life was gentle and gracious and was always animated by the must
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY • 431
lofty ideals and probity of purpose, and he left as a heritage a good
name, which the wise man of old said "was rather to be desired than
great riches," and his son deems it a great honor to uphold his name.
Mrs. Margaret S. Kuns passed away in October, 1905.
Henry L. Kuns was reared to the age of six years in Cass
County, Ind., when the family moved to Piatt County, 111., where
he grew to manhood. His early education was received in the district
school, after which he attended the high school at Monticello and
subsequently spent two years at Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Ind.
After leaving school he engaged in farming in Piatt County, 111. In
1874 Mr. Kuns came to California, where he spent six months touring
the state, then returned to his Illinois home, and four years later he
brought his family to California. He first located in the vicinity of
Gilroy, Santa Clara County, where he was successfully engaged in fruit
raising. In 1892 he moved to Merced County, having 5,000 acres
of land in the San Joaquin Valley between, Los Banos and Newman,
1,000 acres of it being planted to alfalfa. He made the preliminary
survey and engineered the construction of five miles of the outside
branch of the San Joaquin Canal, which was the means of bringing
6,000 acres of land under irrigation, and this was accomplished after
Henry Miller said it could not be done. After living fourteen years
in the valley, he sold his ranch and in 1906 moved to La Verne, where
his parents were then residing, and, being aged and feeble, he gave
them his devoted care until their death.
Possessing large and successful financial experience, and being
recognized as a leader in monetary affairs, a progressive and yet con-
servative man of business, it was but natural that Mr. Kuns was
prevailed upon to organize the First National Bank of La Verne, be-
coming the principal stockholder, and he served as its president for
many years, until he sold his stock, when he resigned. His broad
experience and mature judgment have made him a most valuable factor
in regulating the policies of the bank and have done much to make
it one of the most solid financial institutions in the county. He also
owns valuable orange groves in the La Verne section. Since 1912
Mr. Kuns has been interested in the Waterman Mining and Milling
Company, that owns a quartz lead on the central belt of the mother
lode, which extends one-half mile on the lode; later he purchased a
larger interest, and he is now president and manager of the company.
Soon after the close of the war, he began plans for developing it, and
in October, 1919, began sinking a shaft, and the mine is already
showing fine. His generosity and benevolent spirit are exemplified
in the founding of a noble memorial to his parents and his son David.
Mr. Kuns purchased a tract of about eighteen acres near La Verne,
which was improved with a building originally designed for a hotel,
during the boom days. This he fitted up for a home for orphaned
children and presented the property to the Women's Home Missionary
432 HISTORY AXD lilOGRAl'HY
Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The home is known as
the David and Margaret Home for Children, and an extended sketch
of this worthy institution will be found upon another page of this
volume. Mr. Kuns continues to give this noble charity his keen
interest and financial support, one of his recent donations being an
additional fifteen acres of land on which he expects to erect another
building, thus making it possible to give this loving care and training
to a larger number of children.
On March 28, 1870, Mr. Kuns was united in marriage with
Miss Mary E. Pearce, daughter of Joseph and Mary (Silcot) Pearce,
the ceremony being solemnized in Scioto County, Ohio. Four children
were born to them: Henry Arthur; Margaret M., who is now Mrs.
Warren Williams; David, deceased; and Ora, the wife of James M.
Johnson of La Verne. Mrs. Kuns passed away in 1915.
One year after the death of his wife, Mr. Kuns was married
again, being united with Mrs. Lillie (Pearce) Bartlett, born in Illinois,
who is a niece of his former wife. She is a daughter of Captain John
W. Pearce, who served in the Civil War, after which he was engaged
in the hotel business in Oakland, Coles County, 111., where he died
ten years ago.
While still looking after his landed interests, Mr. Kuns is at
present looking after and active in the management and development
of the Waterman Mine.
WILLIAM T. FLEMING
A native son of Pomona, born into the family of Peter Fleming,
whose life is sketched elsewhere in this history, and one who has grown
up with the town, William T. Fleming has reached a position of prom-
inence in the business, civic and social life of the community.
William T. Fleming, the first child born to his parents in Pomona,
received his education in the public schools of the city, in Pomona Col-
lege, and Santa Clara College, Santa Clara. On finishing his educa-
tion he was first employed in the pumping plant of the Consolidated
Water Company of Pomona, and later conducted a retail cigar store in
town for a number of years. In 1914 he established the Pomona Cigar
Company, factory and jobbing house, with R. B. Vaughn as partner.
They have a strictly modern manufacturing plant with an output for
1918 of half a million cigars, their leading brands being the K. of P.,
Claremont and Van Loo. The firm does a large jobbing business,
with a branch house at San Bernardino, and have built up an extensive
and far-reaching trade since they have been in business.
Public spirited, as was his father, Mr. Fleming served four years
on the city council, from the second ward. During that time many im-
provements were made in the city; a new city hall and city stables
erected; Garey Avenue and Second Street paved, as well as minor im-
HISTORY AND I5IOGRAPHY 433
provements. Fraternally, Mr. Fleming is a member of the Woodmen
of the World and of Pomona Lodge No. 789, B. P. O. Elks. A man
of broad vision and progressive spirit, he has taken an active interest in
all movements for bettering conditions and surroundings in his native
city and can be depended upon for substantial support at all times.
Mr. Fleming chose for his wife Theodora L. Loney, also a native
of Pomona, and daughter of James Loney, a pioneer orange grower in
the Valley. Two children have blessed their union, William C. and
Katherine, who will doubtless grow to be a credit to the family name
and home city.
WILLIAM W. McMULLIN
A particularly aggressive manufacturer of prominence in a town
long noted for its proportion of progressive, "big" men, William W.
McMullin, the brick manufacturer, was born at Toronto, Ontario,
Canada, on July 13, 1864, the son of William and Frances (Golding)
McMullin. Since he was twenty-three years old he has been engaged
in brick manufacturing, spending three years in New York City.
When Mr. McMullin returned to Toronto, he established a part-
nership with his brother, James H., and followed brick-making for five
years in that city. Then they removed, first to Victoria and then to
Nelson, British Columbia, and in each place continued the same line
of trade. They would establish a yard, put it on a paying basis, and
when it was in a first-class condition, sell, to the advantage of both the
vendor and the buyer. They followed this plan until 1900, when they
came to Pomona and located permanently. Mr. McMullin was in the
pottery business in Los Angeles for a year. James H. McMullin died
in 1910, closing a most useful career.
On coming here, the McMullins bought out the brickyard located
on Ninth Avenue that had been started by John Whyte, and they soon
had a daily capacity of 35,000 brick, the product of a clay bank, thirty
feet deep, on the property. Their plant was of modern machinery and
operated by steam power. This Mr. McMullin now controls, apply-
ing the patent rights for a cement brick with a waterproof facing which
is as satisfactory as if the brick were pressed and which may be sold
at a much lower price. He also makes a brown brick which is very
satisfactory, his whole output, in variety as well as quantity, contrib-
uting greatly to the important problems attending building in and
around Pomona, where lumber yards act as agents and dispose of most
of the stock within a radius of fourteen miles of the city. This brick
plant is the only one within twenty-five miles of Pomona, and practi-
cally all of the brick used in local building since 1900 has come from
this plant, and eight per cent, of the brick used outside in the Valley.
Mr. McMullin is a director in the Mutual Building and Loan Associa-
tion of Pomona.
434 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
In various ways Mr. McMullin has found it both possible and
agreeable to serve his fellowmen in a public-spirited capacity. For
four years he was city councilman from the second ward, his services
beginning with 1913, and during his term of office nine and a half
miles of pavement were laid and a storm dike built on San Antonio
wash, to prevent storm water from flooding the city. A Republican
high in the councils of that party, he has also been a member of the
Public Welfare League, and still serves there, and he is an ex-member
of the Pomona Board of Health. He was active in all drives of the
war, such as the promotion of the various bond loans, the support
of the Y. M. C. A. and the Red Cross, and thus attested to the full
his unswerving loyalty and Americanism.
At Toronto, Ontario, Mr. McMullin was married to Madge
Gamble, a native of Canada, who is a highly appreciated member of
the First Methodist Church and the Ebell Club and who was also
active in needed war work. Two sons have blessed their union: Arthur
E., who was a plastering contractor, and is now associated with his
father, has two children, Willis and Virginia; and William Hugh, a
dentist of Los Angeles. Mr. McMullin belongs to the Woodmen of
the World and the Odd Fellows, Pomona Lodge No. 246, and has
passed all the chairs in each. He is fond of fishing and enjoys the
outings in the mountains.
SELDEN L FORD
A rancher who, commencing life with little else in the way of
capital than character, good health, willingness to work and a fine
record for Civil War service, finally made a real success in several im-
portant lines of endeavor, is Selden L Ford, who was born at Bath,
Grafton County, N. H., on May 16, 1843, and reared in Illinois. At
the outbreak of hostilities between the North and South, he enlisted in
the Fifty-third Illinois Infantry, and was later changed to the Fifteenth
Illinois Cavalry, with which he served with distinction until the end
of the war. He saw hard service in Mississippi and Arkansas, and
in June, 1865, was mustered out at New Orleans.
On his return to Odell, 111., Mr. Ford entered a wholesale house
as bookkeeper, and in that position he remained for the period of eleven
years. Then he became a banker in the same town, enjoying the confi-
dence of the many who knew him, and for four years had charge of a
private bank.
In 1885 Mr. Ford came to Pomona and bought twenty acres
south of the town, which he planted to deciduous fruits and grapes;
but in time he sold the ranch and bought an orange grove of fifteen
acres, at the corner of East Holt Street and Central Avenue, and this
property he still owns. There he grows both Navel and Valencia
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 435
oranges, and such has been his good luck as the result of experience
and application to the study of the problems involved, that the ten
acres has at times produced 8,000 boxes. Through his output, in fact,
Mr. Ford has come to be known as one of the successful orange grow-
ers of today.
At Odell, 111., on December 4, 1871, Mr. Ford was married to
Mary L. Warner, by whom he has had three children. Besides a
daughter, Stella M., there is a son, Frank W., who is manager of the
Claremont Citrus Association, and another son, Harry G., who is in
charge of his father's extensive ranch.
Mr. Ford is a welcome member of Vicksburg Post, G. A. R., and
of the Blue Lodge and Chapter of the Masons. He belongs to the
Congregational Church, and has been its auditor for many years. He
is active in whatever circle he finds himself, and in that respect Mrs.
Ford is quite his equal.
PHILIP G KLEIN
An early settler of Pomona \vho has had the good fortune to
play an important part in the development of water in Pomona Valley,
thereby blessing both the generation in which he has become prominent
and those Californians of the future who are destined to inherit the
results of his wise forethought and hard, intelligent labor, is Philip
G. Klein, a native of Germany, where he was born on June 24, 1860.
When he was eight years old, he was brought to America and reared
in Erie County, Ohio ; and there he grew up to work on a farm. After
a while he was employed in the railroad shops of Sandusky, in that
state, and he left there to come to California.
When he came to Pomona, in 1887, his ability was soon recog-
nized and his services were secured by the Pomona Land and Water
Company, for which concern he bored wells during the next nine years.
Later he undertook well-boring for himself, and, operating for years
with hand tools, bored many and deep wells all over the fertile Valley.
He made a special study of water resources in this part of California;
he secured results often superior to those of his most aggressive com-
petitors, and accomplished much of the greatest importance in relation
to the future water supply of the district.
Now, with a record for long and successful undertakings, such
as anyone might be proud to point to, Mr. Klein lives retired, the
owner of a finely-developed five-acre ranch on East Franklin Avenue,
which he has planted to walnuts and peaches. Formerly this tract
consisted of ten acres; but he disposed of half of the property, and
finds plenty to occupy his time in the intelligent care he gives the re-
mainder.
436 HISTORY AND lUOGRAPHV
When Mr. Klein married, he took for his wife Emma Harnisen,
a native of Illinois and an admirable woman, who has been his com-
panion and helpmate, and who attends with him the Evangelical
Lutheran Church. Eighteen years ago he joined the Knights of
Pythias. Pomona may well be congratulated on such an enterprising,
broad-spirited citizen as Philip Klein, who has often congratulated
himself that he cast his lot in the Pomona Valley.
IRA L. NEIBEL
What superior intelligence, clear foresight and the wisdom to
choose the right field of endeavor, the field for which one is by natural
inclination and personal gifts most fitted, and then to work that field
with bold but conservative enterprise, and a patriotic desire to adv'ance
as far as possible the development of the state's resources, and par-
ticularly the section in which he makes his home; what these acti\ities
can accomplish is exemplified in the life of Ira L. Neibel, one of the
prominent developers of Pomona Valley. During his lifetime he was
one of the largest real estate operators in the Valley, and with his
partner, E. G. Bangle, put through some of the most extensive deals
ever made in this section, running into the millions, and with far-
reaching results in the upbuilding of all lines of industry. Mr. Neibel
was a native of Ohio, born near Dayton, June 19, 1873; his father,
Frank, and mother, Mary (Klein) Neibel, now both deceased, came
to Pomona Valley and settled on a ranch near Chino, in 1892. Ira
L. worked on the home ranch in his youth, and later ranched on his
own land in the same locality, for two years; he rented additional land
and raised grain and fruit.
Mr. Neibel later engaged in the real estate business in Pomona,
and in 1912 formed a partnership with E. G. Bangle, under the firm
name of Neibel & Bangle, and the partners became very active and
very successful in their development operations. Mr. Neibel was also
an orange grower in the Valley, and in buying and selling property
became a fine judge of values In this vicinity, his advice being sought
by many prospective purchasers.
The marriage of Mr. Neibel, December 25, 1901, united him
with Blanche A. Day, a daughter of E. M. Day, one of the early set-
tlers in the Valley, and three children were born to them : Franklin E.,
Clemett L. and Mildred V. In fraternal circles Mr. Niebel was very
active in the Knights of Pythias, and Mrs. Neibel, a most excellent
helpmate to him, has also been active in that order, has been through
all the chairs in the auxiliary order, the Pythian Sisters, and is now
Most Excellent Chief. Since her husband's death, which occurred Sep-
tember 25, 1915, she has acquired a ten-acre peach orchard at Phila-
«=#<v^ 4S2l^.j^^
HISTORY AND lUOGRAPHY 439
delphia and Towne avenues, and has been very successful in develop-
ing her property, and has proven herself a woman of resource and
enterprise. She was a member of the Red Cross committee, and dur-
ing the World War and Red Cross drives was one of the lieuienants.
FRED R. LEWIS
Whoever labors to secure the development of his section of our
great commonwealth, striving to bring out its latent resources, who
seeks to promote the cause of justice and in the course of a useful life
advances, directly or indirectly, our commercial, educational and agri-
cultural growth, he it is who earns a place as a public benefactor and
is entitled to mention in the pages of history. Such is the character
and such the record of F^-ed R. Lewis, one of the early pioneers of
Pomona and one to whose determination, perseverance and energy not
a little of the city's development may be attributed.
Born in Russell, Mass., August 18, 1866, Fred R. Lewis is the
son of Alexander H. G. and Elizabeth (Russell) Lewis; the father
was a business man in Springfield, that state, and was deputy sheriff
of Hampden County for many years. He answered his country's call
during the Civil War, and enlisted in the Thirty-first Massachusetts
Infantry Regiment and served during the war. Both parents are
now deceased.
The eldest of two children born to his parents, Fred R. Lewis
received his education in the public schools and high school in his
native state, graduating from the latter in Springfield, Mass., in 1884.
In the interval before coming West, he followed the general merchan-
dise business, then made the trip to California, in 1890, and located
in Pomona. For three years after his arrival he followed horticulture,
after which he engaged in the implement business with Phil Stein, on
the northeast corner of Second Street and Garey Avenue. In this busi-
ness he continued for thirteen years, and during this time the two men
joined forces in forming the Pomona Implement Company, in 1907.
Besides his business and personal interests, Mr. Lewis from the
beginning of his residence here took an active part in the upbuilding
of the city. The company erected their building on the southeast
corner of Garey and Second, with a 105-foot front, at a cost of
$7,000, now occupied by the State Bank. Mr. Lewis also was inter-
ested in erecting other business blocks, some of the finest property in
the city, among them the Lewis Apartment House, a modern brick
building on East Second Street.
In 1906 he sold out his business interests, and in 1907 became
identified with the Pomona Valley Ice Company, and on the resigna-
tion of Frank Johnson, in 1909, was made superintendent of the com-
pany. Many modern Improvements have been put in since that date.
440 HISTORY AND lilOGRAPHY
among them a cold storage warehouse built, the factory itself having
been built in 1906. They employ from twenty-five to fifty men, accord-
ing to the season, and are fully equipped with everything pertaining
to a modern and thoroughly managed ice and cold storage plant.
The marriage of Mr. Lewis, which occurred on April 7, 1917,
united him with Mrs. Eleanor (Coffin) Garcelon, widow of Dr. Frank
Garcelon. Fraternally Mr. Lewis is a Mason, holding membership in
the Lodge, Chapter and Commandery of Pomona, of the Los Angeles
Consistory and Al Malaikah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. He is a past
master, a past high priest and a past commander. In business circles
he is active in the Chamber of Commerce. Since his first residence
here he has been connected with the Pilgrim Congregational Church.
Fond of outdoor life, Mr. Lewis takes his greatest pleasure in
horseback riding and other like recreation, and is a man of wise and
broad vision, as is always the case with lovers of nature. Farsighted
in future possibilities for Pomona Valley, he has stood a ready worker
for even greater advancement than the past twenty years have shown
in this favored spot, and among his fellow citizens has always been
regarded as one of the moving spirits of the community.
HARRY MISHLER
Since 1887 Harry Mishler, veteran of the Civil War and Cali-
fornia pioneer contractor and orange grower, has been identified with
Pomona, and has witnessed its growth from a small village to its
present thriving proportions.
He was born at Johnstown, Pa., September 10, 1842. Reared
on a farm, he attended the country schools, and when the Civil War
broke out enlisted September 10, 1862, in Company D of the One
Hundred Forty-second PennsyU-ania Regiment, Volunteer Infantry.
He served under Colonels R. B. Cummings, and A. B. McCalmont
and was a member of the Army of the Potomac and served under
Generals Grant, McClellan, Burnside and Meade. He took part in
many of the great battles of the war and his regiment suffered the loss
of more men than any other Pennsylvania regiment. Mr. Mishler
participated in the Battle of Gettysburg, picked up the flag and carried
it out, and was promoted to the rank of corporal for bravery. He
was wounded at Chapin's Farm, and after being discharged from the
hospital in Baltimore, received his honorable discharge from the
Army, being among the first six at Baltimore. After the war he re-
turned home, and in 1869 went to Springfield, Mo., where he followed
the trade of carpenter. He was a member of the John Matthews
G. A. R. Post at Springfield.
In 1887 he came to Pomona, Cal., where he engaged in the con-
tracting business. He erected the First Methodist Church and other
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 441
buildings and homes in Pomona, and purchased the four-acre orange
grove on East Fifth Street, his present home. He rebudded the trees
and has raised many fine crops of oranges on his ranch.
His marriage, January 14, 1869, in Pennsylvania, united him
with Sarah Withrow, a native of Pennsylvania. The children born
of their union are: Grace M., a teacher in Lincoln School, Pomona;
Mary, deceased, who married Albert Moore and left two children,
Clyde, who served with the United States Army in France, and
Mildred; Bertha, also deceased, who was a teacher in the kinder-
garten school at Pomona, one of the first kindergarten schools estab-
lished in the state of California; Anna, now Mrs. Phillips of Del
Norte County, Cal.; Ralph, a mining engineer in Mexico; Harry, who
resides in Los Angeles, Cal.; and George, a carpenter, who lives at
West Hollywood, Cal.
Mr. and Mrs. Mishler are members of the Methodist Church,
and Mrs. Mishler has been an active member of the ladies' aid and
the foreign missionary societies of the church. Mr. Mishler is past
senior and junior vice-commander of Vicksburg Post No. 61, G. A.
R., at Pomona.
ALVIN RAND MESERVE
A pioneer of California since the early fifties, and also one of
the first settlers In Pomona Valley, Alvin Rand Meserve can rightfully
be called an upbuilder of the state, and more particularly of that
portion of it enclosed in this beautiful Valley, and that part called
Southern California. A man of strong character and convictions,
which he inherited from his New England ancestry, he upheld the best
interests of each community in which he made his home and had the
foresight to see where the real interests lay for future posterity. Born
June 23, 1833, in South Gorham, Maine, Mr. Meserve is a son of
Samuel and Hanna (Green) Meserve, both ardent workers for the
temperance movement.
In 1852, at the age of nineteen years, Alvin R. made the long
journey to California, and in Sacramento he found employment as a
clerk in the wholesale house of Crocker Brothers. Later he was with
his brother, William H., who was in business in the little mining town
of Prairie City. His marriage, at Sacramento, united him with Eliza-
beth Holser, the daughter of a '49er, the ceremony taking place in
1860, and the young couple left for Santa Cruz in 1865. In that city
Mr. Meserve engaged in the mercantile business and also gave his
time to civic affairs, serving as county treasurer of Santa Cruz County
for four years.
In September, 1874, Mr. Meserve, with the Rev. C. F. Loop,
purchased 2,200 acres of land from the descendants of Ygnacio Palo-
mares, the property being thereafter subdivided into the Meserve and
442 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Loop Tract. In February, 1877, Mr. Meserve moved with his family
to this tract of land near Pomona, and used for a residence the old
Palomares adobe ranch house. For the next nineteen years he became
a part of the rapidly-growing settlement and was identified with the
development of its horticultural resources as well as taking a prominent
part in all movements for upbuilding the Valley generally. In 1896
he left for Los Angeles and became horticultural commissioner, con-
tinuing in that office until his death, his knowledge along that line of
development work having been found most valuable to the various
horticultural enterprises in the southern part of the state. His death,
which occurred February 7, 1912, at the age of seventy-eight, came
at the end of a broad and useful career, and the influence of such men
as he has given to our state its present place in the sun.
Of the four children born to this pioneer couple, three are now
living: Harry W., now living at Brawley, Imperial County; Edwin A.,
an attorney of Los Angeles; and Bessie, the wife of C. E. Sumner.
Elmo R., the youngest son, died at forty-two years of age.
WILLIAM REID
Among the pioneers of Pomona Valley, the late William Reid
is well remembered. Possessed of the sterling attributes of his Scottish
ancestry, he was a man of integrity and upright, moral character, pro-
gressive in his ideas, respected by friends, neighbors and acquaintances.
He was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, July 21, 1839, and was
a blacksmith by trade. In his earlier life he emigrated to Owens
Sound, Ontario, Canada, where he followed the trade of blacksmithing
twenty years. In 1887 he came to Pomona, Cal., and for a short time
continued his trade in his new environment and in Puente. He after-
wards purchased an orange grove on Orange Grove Avenue, in the
Packer Tract, and became a successful grower of oranges, taking great
interest in his grove, a part of which he planted himself. He was one
of the original signers of the Pomona Fruit Growers Exchange.
He married his first wife in Scotland, who before her marriage
was Miss Ellen Patterson. She bore him two children, Mrs. J. E.
Adamson of Pomona and W. A. Reid of Riverside. His second wife,
whom he married January 24, 1895, and whose maiden name was
Elizabeth Adamson, came to Pomona in 1889. She was a widow
when she married Mr. Reid, and was Mrs. Elizabeth McCarter of
Ontario, Canada. She had two children by her first husband, Gordon
A. McCarter of Ontario, Cal., and Mrs. Mashmeyer of Pomona.
Since Mr. Reid's death, which occurred in 1906, his widow has
demonstrated her ability as a good business woman in the success she
has achieved in managing the ranch. She has many warm friends and
is active in Red Cross work. Mr. and Mrs. Reid were identified with
the Christadelphian denomination.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 445
CHARLES C. HUFF
Among the most enterprising and progressive citizens of La Verne,
one ^Yho has always been a prime mover in advancing the best inter-
ests of the community in all its civic affairs, is Charles C. Huff, who
for fifteen years, at different periods, has been a member of the Board
of Trustees of La Verne, and at one time served as its chairman, an
office equivalent to that of mayor.
Mr. Huff is a native of Iowa, a state whose sons have always
contributed largely to the upbuilding of every California community
in which they have settlecl. He was born in Clarence, Cedar County,
on Christmas Day, 1864, but was reared near Waterloo, Blackhawk
County in that state. He is the son of James and Maria (Clark.)
Huff, natives of Sullivan County, Ind., where they were married, and
soon afterwards migrated to Iowa and w'ere early settlers of Cedar
County. After some years engaged in merchandising, James Huff
became agent for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad at Cedar
Rapids. In 1892 he quit railroading and came to California, locating
in Pomona. His death occurred in La Verne in 1906; his widow, who
survives him, makes her home with her son, Charles C, and is now
eighty-nine years of age — the head of five generations. Of their nine
children four are living. Charles C, the next to the youngest, was
fortunate in receiving a good education in the schools of Cedar Rapids,
Iowa. He also took a course in the Cedar Rapids Commercial Col-
lege where he learned telegraphy, and after graduating he became a
telegraph operator and station agent for the old B. C. R. & N. Railway
Company, now a part of the Rock Island System. He was also inter-
ested in different business enterprises, among them an original stock-
holder in the Waterloo State Bank and a director of same, as well as
owning a half interest in a brick block in that city. He was agent at
different cities for the above railroad company until he came to Po-
mona, on July 3, 1897.
After coming to the Golden State, Mr. Huff engaged in orange
culture for a year and a half, when he disposed of his place and pur-
chased a ten-acre walnut grove on A Street, La Verne, where he still
makes his home. His trees are now twenty-five years old and produce
a large crop. At one time he was in the poultry business and raised
as many as 1,500 chickens at one time, but eventually gave it up and
engaged in the egg business on a large scale. For the past eighteen
years Mr. Huff has been buying eggs from the poultry raisers of
Pomona Valley and successfully shipping them to the large mining
camps of Arizona. His business has now grown and developed until
he now ships on an average of 3,000 dozen weekly. Each egg is
carefully packed in a separate compartment of a cardboard carton,
which is stamped with Mr. Huff's private brand, "Queen Brand," and
each egg is also stamped "C. C. Huff," and guaranteed strictly fresh.
446 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Always ready to give generously of his time and energy toward
the improvement of the community, Mr. Huff has taken a great in-
terest in civic affairs, and during his term as chairman of the Board of
Trustees of La Verne he was instrumental in having a number of the
streets paved, a fire house built and a fire truck installed, and a munici-
pal water plant constructed, which has lowered the water rates, to the
great satisfaction and benefit of the general public. At present he is
chairman of the police and fire commission. Politically he is a Re-
publican and a very active member of the party; in early days he
served as a delegate to both county and state conventions and at one
time was a member of the County Republican Central Committee.
Fraternally he is very prominent and is past exalted ruler of
Pomona Lodge No. 789, B. P. O. Elks, and past chancellor commander
of the Knights of Pythias, and was special deputy grand chancellor
of Northern Iowa for one year. Mr. Huff was made a Mason in the
Waterloo, Iowa, Masonic Lodge, of which he is a past master. After
coming to California he demitted and is now a member of Pomona
Lodge No. 246, F. & A. M. He is a member of Pomona Chapter
No. 76, R. A. M., of which he is past high priest; a member of
Southern California Commandery No. 37, K. T. in Pomona and past
commander of Ascalon Commandery No. 25, K. T., at Waterloo,
Iowa; he is also a member of the council in Pomona; is past patron
of Waterloo Chapter No. 128, O. E. S., Waterloo, Iowa, and at pres-
ent a member of the Eastern Star Chapter in Pomona, and a member
of El Kahir Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. A
firm believer in cooperation in community affairs, Mr. Huff is a mem-
ber of the El Monte Walnut Growers Association. He is now among
the oldest business men in this section and is held in the highest esteem
in La Verne for his sterling qualities of citizenship and the beneficent
influence he has exerted in civic affairs.
MRS. MARY JANE PALLETT
There are still some of the pioneers of the Pomona Valley living
to recount the early days when there were no towns or flourishing
orchards in what is now the Valley except Spadra and a few scattering
houses at Lordsburg, when the entire section was given over to the
stock business and was covered with sagebrush and bunch grass. One
of the interesting pioneers is found in Mrs. Pallett, now living at Big
Rock, Los Angeles County. She was born in Utah, on July 7, 1854,
the daughter of William and Sarah Ann (Prigmore) Whitfield, pio-
neers of California who came from Dallas County, Texas, via the Utah
route. Mr. Whitfield was born in Tennessee, moved to Arkansas
when he was ten years old and there attended school in a log school-
house fitted with slab benches and with a dirt floor. He remained in
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 447
Arkansas until he was eighteen and then went to Dallas County,
Texas, where he followed farming and stock raising and where he
was married to Sarah A. Prigmore, a native of Missouri, who went
to Texas with her parents when she was a small child. Mrs. Whitfield
was the daughter of Joseph Prigmore, a '49er in California, having
come from Texas to mine for gold in the new El Dorado. He went
back to Texas in 1852, well satisfied that California held better pros-
pects than did the Lone Star State. He disposed of his holdings and
with his family and other relatives started overland with ox teams
for the Golden West in 1854. Mary Jane Whitfield was born on
Green River and the family continued their journey and arrived in
Scotts Valley, where the father engaged in mining, later moving to
Contra Costa County, where the Prigmores and Mr. Whitfield en-
gaged in ranching for a time. They sold out and returned to Texas
and bought cattle and horses and began the stock business on a large
scale until the Civil War broke out, when Mr. Whitfield enlisted and
served In the Confederate Army till the close of the conflict, when he
once more turned his face towards the West, and arrived in Southern
California, where he made his home until he passed away, on October
31, 1915, aged eighty-four years. His widow died two years later, on
November 13, 1917, when in her eighty-fourth year. They settled
first at Cucamonga, where the family raised grapes, peaches and
prunes, then on account of old age Mr. Whitfield sold out and lived
at Spadra and then bought a home In Rivera to live retired. This
pioneer couple had nine children, five of whom as living, as follows:
Mary J., Mrs. Pallett, of this review; Lucinda, Mrs. Lewis M. Mont-
gomery of San Bernardino; William C. Whitfield of Grass Valley,
Ore.; Lee, Mrs. William F. Haag of Rio Brava, Cal; and Belle,
Mrs. Harry Milner of Inglewood.
Mary J. Whitfield attended school In Texas and California and
■remained with her parents until her marriage, on May 24, 1876, at
Rivera, Cal., to James R. Pallett. He was born in Tennessee In 1850,
and received a common-school education in the schools of Tennessee,
Missouri and California, whither he came with his people when a
young lad. The family settled at Rivera, where the elder Pallett and
his three sons owned the largest walnut grove in the state. The father
and two of his sons sold out and went to South America.
After the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Pallett they made their
home In Rivera for a time, then bought a ranch at Big Rock, Los
Angeles County, and moved there and engaged In the stock business
until the death of Mr. Pallett In 1891. They had three children:
George W., who resides with his mother on the ranch; Annie May,
who married Thomas A. Williams of Pomona and Is now deceased;
and James Thomas, who Is married and has a daughter, Lorraine.
He lived four years in Arizona, but Is now in California. Mr. Pallett
448 HISTORY AND 15IOGRAPHY
was a Democrat in politics, was a very public-spirited man and one
who made and retained friends.
Mrs. Pallett tells many interesting incidents of pioneer days when
she lived with her family at Spadra; she remembers the country that
is now dotted with cities and towns when the land was covered with
sagebrush and cattle roamed at will over the Valley, and when there
were no roads, nothing except trails leading from one ranch to another.
One incident she mentions is of a man who came to their home, after
working for the Southern Pacific Railroad and was returning East, to
have some of his laundry done by the Whitfield women. He was short
of cash and offered to deed to Miss Whitfield two lots he owned in
the Pomona townsite (the present site of the Salt Lake depot and
tracks), and which was refused because they did not know where the
money was coming from to pay the taxes. Little did she think that
those lots would have become so valuable in time. Such incidents as
these make history valuable to posterity.
WILLIAM H. KILER
An interesting pioneer of Pomona, who saw hard service in the
Civil War and was thus the better equipped to stand the trials of
an early orange grower working amid conditions largely experimental,
was the late William H. Kiler, who was a native of Greene County,
Ohio, where he was born on May 12, 1846. Although he enlisted
only four months before the close of the great struggle between the
North and the South, he did his duty to the last, decisive hour, after
which, returning to the paths of peace, he took a course in a business
college at Pittsburgh, Pa. Then he conducted a general merchandise
store first in Wadesburg and later in Harrisville, Cass County, Mo.,
withdrawing to become a merchant in Colorado Springs, Colo.
During 1885, when prosperity was everywhere on the increase in
California, Mr. Kiler came out to Pomona and bought eleven and
three-tenths acres of raw land in the Kingsley Tract, where he set out
peaches, pears and apricots, supplanting the same later with oranges.
This grove Mrs. Kiler assisted her husband to lay out and plant, and
she still owns the property and manages the business.
Mrs. Kiler was Miss Candace Wills before her marriage, and
she was a native of Brown County, Ohio. They were joined in matri-
mony at Garden City, Mo., on September 10, 1874, and two children
blessed their union. Lillian is Mrs. S. J. White, the mother of a son,
Clarence, who is a student in Pomona College, and a daughter, Arline;
while Jesse L. is a civil engineer, who married Miss Emma Sprague,
and has a son, Harold. For eight years Jesse Kiler was the city engi-
neer of Sawtelle, Cal., and he helped survey and lay out Santa Monica
Boulevard, thus coming to stand high in his profession; and now he
has charge of his mother's ranch.
HISTORY AXD lUOGRAI'HV 451
The late Mr. Kiler was one of the founders of one of the first
packing houses, and was president of the California Produce Company
and for many years secretary of the Kingsley Tract Water Company.
He invented and patented a couple of devices for use in irrigating
systems, one of which was a valve now in general use. When he died,
on January 5, 1908, his passing was regarded as a serious loss to
Pomona and vicinity, then so rapidly developing its landed interests.
He had been active in the First Presbyterian Church, was a charter
member of the Eastern Star and a Mason, and in all those circles he
was highly esteemed for rare, desirable qualities.
LEROY MINNICH
Occupying a prominent place among the men of influence in La
Verne, Leroy Minnich is not only an able and efficient bookkeeper
but an expert in his line of work. He was born in Darke Countv,
Ohio, November 20, 1884, and brought up in the farming district in
Delaware County, Ind. After attending high school he supplemented
this with a course at Manchester College at North Manchester, Ind.,
and afterward taught one term in the country schools, then returned
to the same college and completed the commercial teacher's course and
also took a course in stenography, being graduated in 1907 with the
degree of Bachelor of Accounts. During this time he was also assistant
professor in bookkeeping in the college and made a splendid record as
instructor. In October, 1907, he came to Pomona where he became
an employee of the Indian Hill Citrus Association at North Pomona.
In the spring of 1908, he attended Woodbury's Business College at
Los Angeles and received a certificate to teach commercial work in
high schools, and at the time they were building the Owens River
aqueduct to Los Angeles he became associated with the clerical de-
partment of the Los Angeles City Water Department. He became
chief clerk of the engineering department on Division No. 8 and later
had charge of the office of Assistant Engineer Shuey, with headquar-
ters at Independence, Inyo County. This was all in connection with
the water development for the City of Los Angeles. In January, 1910,
he returned to Los Angeles and May 20, 1910, he accepted the posi-
tion of bookkeeper for the La Verne Orange and Lemon Growers
Association, and when two separate associations formed, on September
1, 1919, he became bookkeeper for both the La Verne Orange Grow-
ers Association and the La Verne Lemon Growers Association.
Mr. Minnich has been twice married. He was united to Etta
May Bowman of Los Angeles, June 25, 1909, and she bore him two
children, Ora Leroy and Mary Ellen. About two years after the
bereavement of his wife, he married Catherine Robinson of Mary-
land, and they are the parents of a daughter, Lillian Pearl.
452 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Mr. Minnich is prominent in the civic life of La Verne, is a
member of the board of trustees of the city and is chairman of the
water committee. He was the first secretary and prime mover in
organizing the Fire Department and was later the chief of the de-
partment. He has also served as city recorder of La Verne, as well
as secretary of the La Verne Chamber of Commerce. He is secre-
tary of the La Verne Land and Water Company, a position he has
held for six years. He is also quartermaster sergeant of the One
Hundredth Company of State Military Reserves (formerly the Home
Guard). In his church associations he is a member of the Church of
the Brethren at La Verne, and in his fraternal affiliations, is a member
of Pomona Lodge No. 107, Knights of Pythias, and the Knights of
Khorassan at San Bernardino. Take it all in all, he is an exceedingly
busy man, but in spite of this he is enterprising and liberal and willing
at all times to give his time and means as far as he is able towards the
upbuilding of his adopted city.
REV. EDMUND MORRIS PEASE, M. D.
In 1634, six years after the founding of Salem, there came to this
young settlement among other immigrants of Puritan temper, a certain
John Pease. He was the first of his family in the New World, and
eight generations have been marked by his courageous faith, unswerv-
ing loyalty to truth and devotion to God, qualities which peculiarly
characterized Dr. Edmund Morris Pease in his life of service to
God and men.
Descended from the John Pease of Salem through the following
line of descendants are : John, David, Benjamin, Job, Job, Asa, Asa and
Edmund Morris. Doctor Pease was born in Granby, Hampshire County,
Mass., December 6, 1828. After studying in the common schools of
that place he went to Williston Seminary, in East Hampton, to prepare
for higher training. This he later took in Amherst College, from
which he graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1854. Three years
later the degree of A. M. was conferred upon him by his Alma Mater.
After graduation he became a teacher, first instructing for a period
of two years in a boys' school in Baltimore, and then serving as tutor
for one year in Amherst. He gave up teaching, however. In order to
prepare himself for the medical profession, with a view to becoming
a medical missionary, and in 1862 he graduated from the College of
Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. At this same time
he pursued a course at the Union Theological Seminary, from which
he also graduated.
No sooner had Doctor Pease finished his training than came the
call for volunteers in the Civil War, and he Immediately offered his
services. He was appointed assistant surgeon In the Sixteenth Connec-
ticut Regiment. One year later, October 27, 1863, he was given the
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 453
position of surgeon, with the rank of major, in the famous regiment
known as the Ninth United States Colored Troops. His regiment was
assigned to the Army of the Potomac, and was the first to enter Rich-
mond when that city was taken. When peace had been declared, he
was sent to Texas and was chief medical officer of the Department
of the Rio Grande. Later he was ordered to Louisiana, where he
remained until the latter part of 1866, when he was honorably dis-
charged at Baltimore.
Doctor Pease then entered upon professional life and practiced
medicine for five years in New York, and for six in Springfield, Mass.
In the latter place he met Miss Harriet A. Sturtevant, a native of
Westport, Essex County, N. Y., to whom he was married in Borden-
town, N. J., April 25, 1877.
In early life having decided to devote his energies to the cause
of missions. Doctor Pease went immediately after his marriage to the
Marshall Islands as a medical missionary. He located on Ebon, where
a church and school had already been established by former mission-
aries. After two years of labor he transferred the school to Kusaie,
one of the Caroline Islands, and made it an effective training school
for native workers. During Doctor Pease's eighteen years of service
as teacher, preacher and medical missionary, twelve churches were
added to an original three, ten native pastors were ordained to the
ministry, and thirteen unordained native teachers were installed in the
islands. After having acquired a mastery of the language, which, by
the way, is totally different from the Polynesian, Doctor Pease began
immediately to translate the New Testament and revise the Gospels
and Acts already in the native tongue. As the result of his untiring
labors his translation of the New Testament and the Psalms has been
in use for several years. He also compiled a dictionary of the lan-
guage and some educational books and added many songs to the hymn
and tune book already in the Marshall Island dialect.
While in the islands two children were born to Doctor and Mrs.
Pease: Edmund Morris, Jr., who is a graduate of Pomona College
and also of Harvard Medical College and is now a physician at the
Boston State Hospital, Mattapan, Mass. He married Miss Clara
Luscombe of New Bedford, Mass., and has a daughter, Phyllis Lus-
combe Pease. Francis Sturtevant Pease is a rancher and resides at
Claremont. He married Miss Anna Crawford Forbes of Montreal,
Canada, and they have one son, Edmund Morris Pease III. In order
to educate his sons. Doctor Peace came with his family in 1894 to the
United States. After spending several months in the East, he
located near Pomona College, in Claremont, Cal., where he lived until
his death.
During his residence in Claremont, Doctor Pease identified him-
self with all the best interests of the town, aiding in every way the
upbuilding of the college, community and church. He was a Mason
454 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
and ,was also identified with the Grand Army of the Republic.
Although far from the scene of his missionary labors, Doctor Pease
spent the last twelve years of his life translating the Old Testament
into the Marshall Island language. It was his desire that the entire
Bible should be in the hands of the natives, and this wish of his heart
would have been fulfilled had he been spared for an additional seven
months of labor. So now the whole Bible, except the minor prophets,
is in the hands of the Marshall Islanders. At the age of seventy-
eight, while still vigorous in mind and body. Doctor Pease was seized
with the sudden illness which caused his death. On November 28,
1906, he passed away at his home in Claremont. A man of heroic
mold, fearless and devoted to God's service. Doctor Pease 'ranks as
one of the great men of the misisonary world.
•Since the death of her husband, Mrs. Pease has continued to
reside at the old home on Columbia Avenue, Claremont, where she
directs the affairs left by her husband and also takes a very active part
in civic and religious matters. She is held in high esteem by the
residents of Claremont, for her kindness of heart and many charities.
LEE R. MATTHEWS.
Among the men most closely identified with the development of
Pomona into its present ranking with other cities of the growing state,
Lee R. Matthews holds a prominent place as a civic worker and a
factor for progress along lines which are far reaching and lead to even
greater results than show at this day and age. A pioneer here since
the beginning of things, in 1889, he has been in the vanguard with
those who have faithfully worked for the advancement of the common
good; and with such men at the helm, the city could not fail to reach
its present growth, even in this comparatively short time.
A native of Illinois, Mr. Matthews was born on a farm in
Tazewell County, August 5, 1870, a son of Levi and Marie (Sill)
Matthews. The parents moved to Colorado in 1882, and lived there,
retired, for some years. Of the seven children born to them, Lee R.
was the only boy, and received his education in the common and high
schools of Illinois and Colorado. In the fall of 1889 he came to
Pomona, and after his arrival he worked at various occupations for
a time. The following year his father followed him to this Valley,
bought land and settled in the Kingsley Tract and engaged in orange
growing. Lee R., in the meantime, engaged in raising alfalfa on land
he bought south of town. Both of his parents are now deceased.
Fourteen years ago Lee R. Matthews established his place of
business, the Opera Garage, and since that time he has centered his
business interests in the building up of a first-class motor car agency,
handling various makes of motor cars, and now he has the agency
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 455
for the Chalmers cars. He occupies a double garage building on South
Thomas Street, near Third, to care for his increasing business, and
with fifteen men in his employ he is enabled to give the expert service
demanded today by motorists; and his policy of keeping in touch with
the automobile world assures the most modern of appliances in his
modern building.
In addition to his business interests Mr. Matthews is an orange
grower, his acreage comprising groves in La Verne, Rialto and the
Kingsley Tract, besides other interests. His civic duties have been
cheerfully and conscientiously performed for the betterment of his
home community; he served on the city council for several years, and
when the new charter was proposed for Pomona, he helped draft that
important instrument and was the first mayor under its ruling. During
his terms in civic offices many needed improvements were made in the
city's streets, walks and sewers, and along educational lines; in fact, all
lines which meant the further progress of the Valley as a whole.
The marriage of Mr. Matthews, which occurred September 7,
1914, united him with Miss Jessie Ray Smyth, who is prominent in
the Ebell Club in Pomona. Mr. Matthews is a Scottish Rite Mason
and a Shriner, also is a member of the Elks and of the Odd Fellows.
Associated with him in business is Wayne D. Matthews, his son by
a former marriage. Representative of the community in which they
make their home and pursue their life interests, both Mr. and Mrs.
Matthews have for their aim the further upbuilding of the community.
DENNIS L. PERSONS
One of the pioneer walnut and orange growers of the walnut
district in the Valley, Dennis L. Persons helped materially in the devel-
opment of both industries, and reached success through his progressive
spirit and expert knowledge along these lines. A native of Wisconsin,
when a young man he removed to Missouri, and later went to Butte,
Mont., where he was with the J. W. McQuene Draying Company,
teaming to the mines, later engaging in the furniture business in Butte.
In 1894 Mr.. Persons came to California and settled in the
Pomona Valley. He first bought ten acres at Walnut, and from time
to time added to his property until he had forty acres planted to
walnuts and oranges. He also bought and sold other groves in the
district, and set out many trees in the Valley, devoting his time to a
study of the industry and becoming expert in a line of work totally
foreign to his early training, which speaks much for the character of
the man, and his adaptability to his environment. He received large
returns from his ranch properties and was one of the successful walnut
and orange men of the Walnut district, one of the developers of land
and a man highly respected for his sterling qualities. Fraternally, Mr.
456 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Persons was a member of the Pomona Lodge of Masons and of the
Woodmen of the World. His death occurred September 28, 1908.
The marriage of Mr. Persons, occurring in Pomona in 1900,
united him with Sadie G. Hummel of Missouri, who came to Walnut in
1894, and taught school there for four years, having fifty Spanish
pupils at one time. One daughter blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs.
Persons, Stella, who died at seven years of age. Mrs. Persons owns
twenty-one acres in the Walnut district, one of the best walnut groves
in this section and a fine producer.
ADDISON W. RICHARDS
Pomona Valley is in the front van in the march of progress, due
to the fact that people coming to Southern California to establish
homes are attracted to it by its beauty of situation, salubrious climate
and fertile soil. Appreciating the fact that real estate is the founda-
tion of wealth in the country and the medium through which the largest
fortunes have been made, men of brains and energy have engaged
extensively in this line of industry.
Addison W. Richards, real-estate dealer at Claremont, is a rep-
resentative man of this class in the community. He was born June
28, 1856, in Watertown, Washington County, Ohio. His father,
Thomas E., was born in Glamorganshire, Wales; coming to the United
States, he located near Marietta, the oldest city in Ohio, engaging in
the mercantile business until he removed to Zanesville, where he was
also a merchant until his death. He was grand dictator of the Grand
Lodge of the Knights of Honor in Ohio.
Addison W., after graduating from Bearly Academy, engaged in
merchandising with his father under the firm name of T. E. Richards
& Son, wholesale queensware and wall-paper dealers, in Zanesville,
Ohio, spending four months of each year traveling ir. Ohio, West Vir-
ginia and Kentucky as salesman for Janeway & Carf^:nter, large wall-
paper manufacturers, continuing over a period of twenty-three years.
Among the Eastern tourists who came to California in 1904, he
arrived in Pomona March 13 of that year. He purchased and im-
proved a thirty-acre orange grove on Fifth Street, and was one of the
founders of the Sanitary Laundry at Pomona, which he managed for
a year and a half.
In 1908 he located at Claremont, where he has dealt extensively
in real estate, his slogan and trade-mark being "The Orange Grove
Man." He has proved his faith in the citrus industry by owning
eighteen orange and lemon groves in the Valley over a period of fifteen
years, and his sales in 1912 came close to a million dollars. He has
exchanged Los Angeles property, flats and apartment houses, and also
HISTORY AXD BIOGRAPHY 457
property in Northern California, for Valley property. He has li\ed
to see orange groves sell from $1,000 to $6,000 an acre, sales in which
he has taken an active part.
Mr. Richards married Lulu Bagley, a native of Zanesville, Ohio,
and they are the parents of four children, namely: Mabel, Mrs. C. A.
C. Williams of Los Angeles; Hayward T., associated with his father;
Louise, attending Pomona College; and Addison, Jr., now in Clare-
mont High. Mr. Richards is ex-president of the Claremont Chamber
of Commerce. FVaternally, he was made a Mason of Amity Lodge
in Zanesville in 1877 and is a charter member of Claremont Lodge,
F. & A. M. ; he is also a member of Modern Woodmen of America.
In his religious convictions he is a member of the Congregational
Church. Well-to-do, prosperous and progressive, he has built up a
reputation for honest and fair dealing in his business and is well known
in real-estate circles all over Southern California.
HENRY PRESLEY REYNOLDS, B. S.
The educational facilities of Pomona are unsurpassed, and in
Prof. Henry P. Reynolds, the efficient principal of the Pomona High
School, the city has a man of whom she may well be proud. Professor
Reynolds was born in Titus County, Texas, September 20, 1869. He
was reared on the farm, received his education in the public schools and
after a two years' course at the Denton Normal School, now known
as the North Texas Manual School, took a course at the University
of Texas at Austin, graduating from that institution in 1901 with the
degree of Bachelor of Science. He supplemented this with a graduate
course at the University of Chicago. As a young man he taught his
first school at the age of seventeen, and in this way he made his way
through college. Before graduation he taught school one year at
El Paso, Texas, teaching science and mathematics. He was then
elected principal of the El Paso High School. After this he became
associated with the American Book Company in Texas, traveling in
that state for a school year. September 1, 1905, he came to Ontario,
Cal., and taught the branch of science and was vice-principal in the
Ontario High School, now Chaffey Union High School. In the fall
of 1908 he was called to Pomona High School to take the position of
vice-principal, and after 6ne year became principal of the school, the
position he now holds. His inauguration as principal marked an epoch
in the educational life of the school. He has made a wonderful success
since accepting the position. When he first took charge of the school
there were two hundred seventy-five students enrolled. There are now
eight hundred fifty students enrolled, and the school has advanced
educationally along all lines.
Professor Reynolds was united in marriage with Hilda T.
Gustafson, a native of Sweden. Her father, who was an officer in the
458 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Swedish Army, died in Texas. Seven children have been born of their
union: Pearl E., Howard A., Lillian A., Elsie T., Ruth E., Lloyd
H. and Esther A. The family live on the nine-acre orange grove that
Professor Reynolds owns on Washington Avenue, a place he has
owned for eight years, and is one of the finest orchards in the district.
Mr. Reynolds was elected one of the ele\'en directors of the new
y. M. C. A. recently formed at Pomona and for which a beautiful
new building is in process of erection. In his religious associations he
is a member of the First Baptist Church at Pomona, and fraternally
is affiliated with the Woodmen of the World and Pomona Lodge
No. 246, F. & A. M.; Pomona Chapter No.. 76, R. A. ^L ; Pomona
Council, R. & S. M., and of Pomona Lodge No. 107, Knights of
Pythias.
JOHN TINLEY BROOKS
A distinguished representative of the great state of Iowa, where
he was born on the Brooks farm in Keokuk County, on October 17,
1850, John Tinley Brooks, vice-president of the First National Bank
of Claremont, has attained deserved prominence as a conservatively
aggressive financier of the Southland, intensely interested in and will-
ing and anxious to promote the real progress of the commonwealth.
His father was John G. Brooks, who had married Miss Mary Kyger,
and they were natives of Ohio. They moved from Butler County,
Ohio, in 1842, to Iowa, and took up from the Government some land.
It was there that the subject of this sketch was born and reared.
He attended the common schools of Iowa of his day, and later
was graduated from the Iowa Wesleyan College at Mt. Pleasant, in
1875, with the degree of M. S. Soon after graduation, he was admit-
ted to the bar of Iowa, and at Sigourney he began the practice of law
in partnership with Maj. John A. Donnell, who afterwards became a
prominent lawyer and was district attorney in Los Angeles. After
five years of active and successful practice in law, however, Mr. Brooks
took up banking in 1881, and since that date he has been identified
with that important field.
He commenced as cashier of the Union Bank of Sigourney, Iowa,
— his home town — and afterwards, either as cashier or president, was
the active manager and head of the following banking houses: the
Bank of Hedrick, Hedrick State Savings Bank, First National Bank
of Hedrick, and the Claremont National Bank, of Claremont. For a
time, also, he served as a director and chairman of the loan and exam-
ining committee of a fourth bank in Hedrick, the Hedrick State Bank.
He was active in organizing and building up the Iowa State Bankers
Association — one of the strongest associations of bankers in the United
States — and his fellow-bankers elected him a member of the managing
HISTORY AXD BIOGRAPHY 461
board of the Association tor eleven successive terms. In 1905 he wai^
elected treasurer of the Association, in 1906 vice-president, and in
1908 president. Coming to California, Mr. Brooks became president
of the Claremont National Bank, a position he filled until the bank
was consolidated with the First National Bank, since which time he
has been vice-president of the latter institution. In the year 1881,
in partnership with his life-long friend and business associate, W. H.
Young, he laid out the now beautiful and thriving city of Hedrick,
Iowa, which they named in honor of Gen. J. M. Hedrick.
The civic and political careers of Mr. Brooks are more than
ordinarily interesting. He was first lieutenant of the college com-
pany of Iowa State Guards, and was mayor of Hedrick for ten suc-
cessive terms. He was a member of the State Senate during the twen-
ty-ninth, thirtieth and thirty-first sessions of the Iowa State Legislature
and in his first session served as chairman of the Senate Committee on
State Buildings and Grounds; while in the two following sessions he
was chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture — the fourth
ranking committee in the legislature. Always a Republican and a
progressive, Mr. Brooks has been an advocate of Prohibition, al-
though never a member of the so-called Progressive or Prohibitionist
political parties.
At Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, on May 21, 1879, Mr. Brooks was
married to Miss Lucy E. White, daughter of the Rev. James H. and
Emeline White, and by her he has had four children: Mary, who
is married to Raleigh Wilson of Strathmore; Florence, Alice and John
White. Mr. Brooks was brought up in the Methodist Church and
was a member of the board of trustees of the Hedrick, Iowa, charge,
from the date of its organization, in the early eighties, to the present
year. For a number of years he was one of the trustees of the Meth-
odist College at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. He was made a Mason in
Garfield Lodge No. 485, Hedrick, and is a past master. He is also
a member of Ottumwa Commandery No. 31 at Ottumwa, Iowa, and
Kaaba Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., at Davenport, Iowa.
MRS. MYRA MYERS
No praise is too high for the woman who has accomplished so
great a degree of material success from such small beginnings, and
who at the same time has devoted much time and effort to the higher
things of life, and in kindness to little children. Mrs. Myra Myers,
proprietor of the Willow Street Dairy, in Pomona, is a native of
Black Hawk County, Iowa; she was raised on a farm in the Eastern
state, and was one of the early pioneers of Pomona Valley, coming
here in 1888.
In 1892 Mrs. Myers purchased four acres on Alameda Avenue,
corner of Willow, and started a dairy with one cow, given her for a
462 HISTORY AND IlIOGRAPHY
birthday present. This small nucleus for a dairy was increased until
at one time she was milking eighty-eight cows, and at present maintains
a dairy of thirty-two cows, all full-blooded Jersey stock. The milk
and cream from the dairy is sold in Pomona, delivery being made with
auto truck and milk wagons. Mrs. Myers is rated as one of the best
judges of dairy cows in the Valley and gets good results from Jersey
cows in particular. She has her dairy cows tested every three months
for tuberculosis, the only dairy in the Valley to test that often, and
in 1916 had the highest test of any dairy in the Valley, 81.65 per cent.
Her cow barns are modern and sanitary and every precaution taken
to keep them that way and maintain a high standard of output.
In addition to the dairy, the ranch is greatly improved and beauti-
fied; all varieties of fruit trees have been planted, oranges, peaches,
guavas, avocados and walnuts; and a beautiful flower garden, with 200
different varieties of roses. Poland-China and Berkshire hogs, chick-
ens and rabbits are raised, and in addition to the useful animals a fine
lot of canaries add to the cheerfulness of the place, with their wealth
of song and coloring.
Mrs. Myers is a widow, her husband having died many years
ago, and she has one son, Charles A., who married Miss Nellie
Thomas of San Dimas and is the father of three children. He owns
a fine dairy in the Ontario district.
Very fond of children, and with pity in her heart for those who
have no home, Mrs. Myers has taken many orphans to raise, twenty-
two all told, and has had as many as eight at the ranch at one time;
some of the older ones helping her in the ranch work and thus gaining
a practical knowledge which Tvill be of use to them in later life. She
has educated some of them and given them music lessons. Of an
artistic nature, as well as a successful business woman, Mrs. Myers
has a fine collection of china painting, which work she has done in her
leisure time. Her home is full of many interesting curios and objects
of art. In fraternal circles she is a member of the Maccabees, and in
religious duties she attends the Trinity Methodist Church.
CHARLES EDWARD SUMNER
An intellectual old-timer of Pomona who is now living in happy
retirement in Los Angeles, is Charles Edward Sumner, a gentleman
fortunate in pleasant and interesting recollections. He was born at
Moncton, N. B., on March 4, 1860, the son of William H. T. and
Elizabeth Charlotte (Thompson) Sumner. His father was born at
Lubec, Maine, where his ancestors dated back before the Revolution-
ary War. His business took him to Canada, where the younger
members of his family were born. There were six children born
to this couple, three of whom are still living. The father died at
Moncton at the age of eighty-eight years and the widow, now ninety-
four, is still living there.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 463
The fourth child in order of birth, Charles Edward Sumner
attended the common schools of Canada, where he' received a thorough
training in the elementary branches; then he studied law in Shediac,
N. B., and then took a law course at the Boston University, where he
graduated with the class of '81 and received his degree of L. L. B.
Cum Laudit. Instead of beginning his career in the East, on account
of unsatisfactory condition of his health, he availed himself of an
opportunity to travel and went to England, later coming to California
to visit an uncle at Kernville, Kern County. So satisfactory did he
find conditions in this state that he fell in love with it and then decided
to make it his home.
Mr. Sumner spent a short time in Los Angeles; and while there
he found he could not stand the coast climate, and journeyed inland to
Pomona, where he found a dryer condition more to his liking. He
met J. A. Graves, now vice-president of the Farmers & iVlerchants
Bank of Los Angeles, and upon his motion he was admitted to practice
in the Supreme Court. At that time, in 1882, Pomona was a town
of about 500 inhabitants and the principal industry was the saloon
(there were fourteen). The young attorney entered into the spirit
of the West and allied himself with the forces for law and order, and
soon became city attorney, serving for two years, during which time
he proved one of whiskey's heartiest opponents. He spent most of his
two years fighting the saloons, although his salary as city attorney was
only thirty-five dollars per month, and closed every saloon, and every
case prosecuted resulted in a final conviction.
On January 21, 1888, in the old Meserve homestead — an old
adobe — in Pomona, occurred the marriage of C. E. Sumner and Miss
Elizabeth Meserve. She is a native daughter, born in Santa Cruz
Into the family of Alvin Rand and Elizabeth (Holser) Meserve,
natives of Maine and Missouri, respectively, and pioneers of the
Pomona Valley. Mr. and Mrs. Sumner were members of the First
Methodist Episcopal Church in Pomona. Their domestic life has been
gladdened by the birth of two children — William Alvin, an attorney
of Los Angeles who saw hazardous service with the aeroplane squad-
rons of the United States Army in France during the World War; and
a daughter. Miss Jeanne Esther, active in philanthropic work in
Southern California.
When Pomona was incorporated Mr. Sumner, in conjunction with
P. C. Tonner and John H. Lee, drew up the incorporation papers;
with Mr. Lee he also published, the first daily newspaper in the town —
The Daily Times — later known as the Tivws-Coiirier. In 1891,
with four associates, Mr. Sumner erected the Union Block, a brick
structure at the corner of Thomas and Second streets, at that time one
of the pretentious buildings in Pomona. While residing in the city
Mr. Sumner went in for orange and lemon culture, and set out groves
in North Ontario, now Uplands, and these groves he cared for and
464 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
owned for more than twenty years, when he sold them. He was one
of the original members of the North Ontario Fruit Growers Ex-
change, afterwards merged into the O. K. Exchange.
In 1900 Mr. Sumner removed to Los Angeies, where he practiced
successfully for just a decade, when he retired. He is a Republican
in matters of national politics, but broad minded enough to work first,
last and all the time behind any good movement for better citizenship.
He enjoys the fellowship of the University Club of Los Angeles.
JAMES HUME
A well-known figure in Pomona Valley and popular with all who
knew him, James Hume was fortunate in having the blood of one of
the finest nations In the world in his veins — Canada, who since her
valiant part in the World War has come Into her own and now stands
in the very first ranks for all the attributes which make for greatness,
both in the individual and in the nation; strength, \alor, and the under-
lying principle of "hewing to the right," which is the kernel of their
strength. Born In Ontario, July 8, 1851, he was raised on the farm
there and educated in the country and town schools. Later he fol-
lowed the implement business at Milton, Ontario, and also traveled
on the road selling farm implements.
Li 1896, Mr. Hume came to Pomona and first bought fifteen
acres of land In the southeast part of town, near the cemetery. Here
he followed stock raising and raised alfalfa, berries, fruit and
vegetables. In 1.907, he sold out and bought 320 acres in Tulare
County. This land was a lake bed and under water. In 1912 the
water was drained off and the land became very valuable and pro-
ductive. Mr. Hume later rented it for a grain farm and it is still in
the possession of the family.
In his early operations in Pomona, Mr. Hume met with some
financial reverses, but he was a man to persevere, and finally won out
and left a comfortable estate. He started afresh. In 1905, with a
capital of but $200, and with the assistance of his wife, who helped
him in every possible way. In encouragement and In a thrifty saving
of his income, he amassed a competency from that small beginning.
He farmed 200 acres of rented land back of Ganesha Park to grain,
kaffir corn and barley, and also ran a small dairy at his home place,
161 San Francisco Street.
In 1909, Mr. Hume was united in marriage with Mrs. Lottie
Hill, a widow, who was born In New York, but was reared and lived
all of her former married life In Canada. She had one daughter by
her former marriage. Lulu Irene Hill, who married George Friend
of Ontario, now serving In the United States Army in France. She
had always been the same as Mr. Hume's own daughter, raised by
^^i>^^fi.^^^ P^
■Z'-C^i'^^C^
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 467
him from a child, and was very fond of her father, as he was of her;
in later years she was of great assistance to him in looking after his
business affairs. A birthday party was given Mr. Hume by his wif-;
and daughter on April 1, 1916, to celebrate his sixty-fifth birthday,
with all his children in attendance. A man of exceedingly cheerful
disposition, always a kind and loving husband and father, Mr. Hume
was very popular in both his native Canada, and in Pomona. He
served in the city council for years in Canada, and assisted in further-
ing to the best of his ability, the upbuilding of his home city and sur-
roundings. He was a Mason of good standing in Canada, but did
not affiliate with that body in Pomona. In religious duties he was
raised in the Presbyterian Church.
Twice married, by his first union Mr. Hume was the father of
four sons: George, a banker of Oxnard, Cal.; Thomas, of Visalia;
Lloyd, formerly a druggist of Woodland, now with the United States
Army in France; and Clarence, a rancher of Pomona. The passing
of this loyal citizen, April 1, 1919, was sincerely mourned by his
devoted family, and by his hosts of friends in the Valley; his widov/,
in the midst of her sorrow, can comfort herself with th^ knowledge
that she had done her part nobly, proven a real helpmate and com-
panion. A woman of splendid character, she is a member of Trinity
Methodist Church and of the John Wesley Bible Class.
MONROE THURMAN
The descendant of pioneer forbears who came to California in
the early fifties, Monroe Thurman is himself a native of the Golden
State and a pioneer of Pomona. He has seen the settlement grow
from an inland country village to a prosperous city, the center of other
flourishing communities, and has aided in the development work which
has made the present-day prosperity possible. Born in Savannah, Cal.,
September 20, 1871, Mr. Thurman is a son of Reason and Dora
(Fuqua) Thurman, a pioneer couple who crossed the plains in 1852
with ox teams and took up a homestead at Savannah, which they
farmed. They lived at that place for a period of forty years, at the
end of that time coming to Pomona, and here the father died, in 1915 ;
the mother is still living, one of that band of noble, self-sacrificing
women who by their early labors have made the state a future haven
for their children.
The second of nine children born to his parents, Monroe Thur-
man received his education in the public schools of Savannah and of
Del Monte and Pomona, where he attended high school. After his
school days were over he began helping his father on the home farm,
and thus gained the knowledge which has made for his success in later
468 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
life. The family moved to Pomona in 1886, making them "old-
timers" in the community, and in all its upbuilding projects their share
was cheerfully borne.
In taking up ranching for himself, Mr. Thurman has followed
the business for which his early training adapted him, and he has met
with unusual success, now cultivating 1,000 acres of leased land and
realizing large returns for his knowledge of ranching. Having
grown up with the state, he knows his environment and plans his
work accordingly.
The marriage of Mr. Thurman, which occurred December 22,
1893, at Pomona, united him with Miss Mary De Brunner, a native
of Kansas, and daughter of a pioneer grocer of Pomona who settled
here in 1883 ; he has since passed to his reward, but her mother is still
living. One child has blesedthe union of Mr. and Mrs. Thurman, a
daughter. Myrtle. Fond of hunting, Mr. Thurman takes his recrea-
tion in that sport, and he also takes an active interest in the politics
of his district, supporting the Democratic party. In fraternal orders
he is a member of the Elks of Pomona, and of the Knights of Pythias,
and stands ready at all times to back his belief in the possibilities of
his community in a substantial manner, working always for the further
development of this beautiful "Valley of the West."
JOHN GOETTSCHE
The constant march of progress in Pomona brings to her environs
business men, tradesmen and workmen of the highest standard. In
John Goettsche, a native of Germany, born in that country October 31,
1860, Pomona possesses a workman in the line of cabinet making that
she may well be proud of.
Mr. Goettsche learned his trade in the old country and it is super-
fluous to say that he is thorough and has an unsurpassed reputation for
the excellency of his work. He is a self-made man, and came to the
United States in the spring of 1883, when twenty-two years old, alone
in the world, with his way to make in a strange land and in unfamiliar
surroundings. He located in St. Paul, where he worked at his trade
and attended night school to learn to speak the English language. He
afterwards followed his trade in Des Moines, Iowa, for two years be-
fore he came to Los Angeles, Cal., in January, 1887. He worked at
his trade in Los Angeles, and in 1888 went to San Francisco and con-
tinued the business of cabinet maker until 1892, working on the interior
finishings of many homes of the wealthy residents in that city while
there. In 1892 he returned to Los Angeles and followed his trade
there until 1901, the year that he came to Pomona, where he has since
worked and resided.
It was in Pomona that he first engaged in business for himself.
He erected a small shop at the corner of Second Street and Garey Ave^
HISTORY AND 1!I(JGRAPHY 471
nue and engaged in manufacturing office fixtures, book cases, show
cases, etc. He next bought property at the corner of Third and Locust
streets, built a shop and sold it in 1906, and that fall he erected his
present shop at 440 South Locust Street. He has made many book
shelves for the public library, and the interior fittings for many of the
stores on Second Street. He did interior work on the First National
Bank at Claremont and in many of the homes in the city, as well as in
the Wells Fargo Express offices in Santa Ana and Pomona. His work
is of the highest character, is built on honor, and he has never had to
solicit an order since he has been in business in Pomona.
In 1891, at San Francisco, he married Katherine Mueller, a native
of Germany, and they are the parents of two children, Henry, of Po-
mona, and Bertha, who attended the Pomona College at Claremont
and is now teaching school in Roseville, Placer County, Cal.
DAVID W. CURRY
An early settler of Pomona Valley, and a pioneer of Kansas
before coming to the western country, David W. Curry came of a
family with a long and honorable military record, and men of that
name have served in every war of our country. Mr. Curry was born
in Madison County, Ohio, July 22, 1838, his father. Captain James
Addison Curry, served in the war of 1812, and his grandfather, also
named James Curry, was a colonel in the Revolutionary War. Raised
on the home farm in Jerome Township, Madison County, Ohio, and
attending the country schools, young David enlisted In turn for ser-
vice in his country's behalf. He joined the One Hundred Twenty-
first Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and his war record of three
years' duration received honorable mention. Part of the time, on
account of sickness, he was a member of Company C, Eighth Regi-
ment Veteran Reserve Corps. He had the honor to be one of the
guards at the funeral of Abraham Lincoln.
At the close of the war Mr. Curry returned to Ohio, and there
on September 18, 1871, married Agnes R. Chapman, a native Ohioan
and granddaughter of Abner Chapman, who settled in that state when
it was a wilderness and the nearest trading post was seventy miles
away, and there were no roads nor vehicles, all supplies being carried
on horseback and in saddle bags. Soon after their marriage JNIr. and
Mrs. Curry removed to Great Bend, Barton County, Kans., and
pioneered there during the time of the buffalo and Indian in that
section; a wild, unsettled country, the young couple established their
home there the year after the Santa Fe Railroad came through, and
set about carving a habitat for themselves in the wilderness. Mr.
Curry took up a government claim of 160 acres and bought another
quarter section, broke the raw land and cultivated Its acreage until
472 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
coming to California, in 1888. He helped organize the first public
school in their district, and served as township assessor.
After his arrival in this state, he first bought twenty acres of
land near Norwalk, Los Angeles County, and ran a dairy and chicken
ranch. In 1902, he came to Pomona and bought a home on East
Holt Avenue, and also invested in an orange grove; the later years
of his life he lived retired, and his death occurred October 9, 1914.
He was a member of Dan Bidwell Post, G. A. R. of Norwalk, and
highly esteemed in the Pomona Valley for his fine traits of character
and public spirit.
Five children blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Curry, all born
in Kansas; Gwin, one of the successful orange growers of Southern
California; Daisy, Mrs. L. S. Kittridge of Seattle; Mrs. Abbie Ryan-
Jones of Pomona; Mrs. Eltha Bidwell of Sacramento; and Phoebe
May,' a graduate of Pomona College and now a teacher in the public
schools at Richmond, Cal. Mrs. Curry has six grandchildren to
brighten her life.
ALBERT EDWARD TATE
To have weathered a life of varied experiences and to choose the
peaceful orange groves of Pomona Valley as a reward, is the biog-
raphv of Albert Edward Tate. He was born in Victoria, Australia, a
son of John and Mary (Ryan) Tate, the father a newspaper man of
note in the early days of that country's development, one of the first
writers on the Melbourne Atistralasian and the Tarrengower Times.
Both parents are now deceased.
Albert Edward Tate received his education in the common
schools of his native country, and in the school of experience, being
compelled to leave school at the early age of thirteen. His first busi-
ness experience was in Broken Hill, Australia, and he met with con-
siderable success for five years, only to suffer the entire loss of his
buildings by fire. At the age of thirty-four years he left his native
land and came to California, first stopping in San Francisco for six
months, and then continued to Southern California. He was with
C. C. Desmond in Los Angeles for a year and a half, then, on March
15, 1905, came to Pomona, and here took charge of Crawford and
Moles' Department Store, now the Orange Belt Emporium, a corpora-
tion, as president and general manager, remaining in that capacity
until November 8, 1918, when he sold out his interests to the
stockholders and retired from business cares to give his time to
orange growing.
During his years in the business life of Pomona, Mr. Tate proved
himself a man of worth to the community. For six years he was presi-
dent of the Business Men's Association, and he is a charter member
of the Chamber of Commerce. A man of self-sacrificing public spirit,
HISTORY A\l) lUOGRAlMlV 473
he has been active in promoting and aiding many movements for the
advancement of Pomona and her tributaries, and is highly respected
in the community, both as one of its most successful merchants and as
a worker for civic betterment. He has served as chairman for all the
Liberty Loan drives, and Pomona's record for "going over the top"
at the very beginning of each drive is largely due to such men as
Mr. Tate; working in conjunction with the whole-hearted patriotism
of the Valley, they have set a record for future generations, and one
to go down in history as a matter of pride for all concerned. Fond
of outdoor life, Mr. Tate's present business, that of orange growing,
is in the form of a recreation, and his former business experience serves
to make it profitable as well as enjoyable. In politics he supports the
Republican party.
The marriage of Mr. Tate, on April 18, 1911, united him with
Miss Amelia Mescher, a native of Illinois, and three sons have been
born to them, John, James and Elmer.
SCOTT TRIMMER
A worthy representative of western energy and progress was
to be found in the late Scott Trimmer during his lifetime. He was
a man of excellent business ability and thrift, and his memory is
treasured in the hearts of his many friends.
A native of Illinois, where he was born, near Hudson, in McLean
County, June 13, 1847, his demise occurred at La Verne, Cal., Octo-
ber 11, 1916. He was born and reared on an Illinois farm, and in his
manhood was successfully engaged for thirty-two years in the occupa-
tion of farming in the county of his birth. He greatly improved his
two-hundred-acre grain farm, underlaid it with tiling for drainage, and
engaged in the profitable occupation of raising corn, horses, cattle and
hogs. A prominent man in his section of country, he was school trustee
and actively associated with the Church of the Brethren. He came to
California for his health, arriving at La Verne, December 24, 1906,
and his life was unquestionably prolonged by the benefit derived from
the salubrious climate of Southern California. He made large invest-
ments in the residence section of La Verne and purchased the entire
block running from Third to Fourth and F and G Streets, which at
that time was a grain field. He sold off the south half of the property
and subdivided the remainder, selling it off for home lots. This site
is now occupied by fine homes and is the best residence section of
La Verne. Mr. Trimmer also owned valuable lots in different parts
of the town. He was a stockholder in the State Bank at Pomona, and
was active in the Church of the Brethren at La Verne, of which he
was a member.
Mr. Trimmer's marriage united him with Miss Catherine Forney,
a native of Somerset County, Pa., the ceremony being performed in
474 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
McLean County, 111., November 20, 1873. She is a daughter of
Michael and Rachael (Horner) Forney, who came to Richland County,
111., In 1856, where the mother died. The father spent his last days
in Carlisle, Nebr. Mrs. Trimmer was educated in the public schools,
and, having a sister residing in McLean County, she went thither In
1870, where she made the acquaintance of Mr. Trimmer, which re-
sulted in their marriage. The adopted son of Mr. and Mrs. Trimmer,
Enos F. Trimmer, resides on a forty-acre alfalfa ranch southeast of
Pomona, which Is jointly owned by mother and son. He is married
to Clara Vandruff, and they have two children, Arthur and Russell.
Mrs. Scott Trimmer is especially liberal in her support of the
various benevolent undertakings of the church of which she Is a mem-
ber and in which she is an active worker, whose advancement lies ever
near her heart. She has recently completed a beautiful modern bunga-
low at 316 East Fourth Street, where she resides, and those who are
privileged to be entertained in her home appreciate the honor and the
courteous friendliness of their hostess, who presides over the home
with gracious dignity and hospitality, and whose interest In and loyalty
to La Verne Is quite as pronounced as was that of her late husband.
HON. WILLIAM A. VANDEGRIFT
Eminent among those who have always stood for the best that
Pomona could reasonably be expected to strive for, no matter what
the cost might be In time, effort or wealth, the Hon. William A. Van-
degrift carries well his honors as mayor of this famous interior town,
each year forging ahead to its destiny as a leader among the most
progressive cities of the Golden State. He was born at Newcastle,
Pa., on Maj-ch 26, 1863, and first came West in the early nineties.
His father was Aaron, and his mother Margaret (Patton) Van-
degrlft, substantial farmer folks; and they lived and died in Pennsyl-
vania. William was educated at the rural schools, and so grew up
under those favoring conditions that have helped youth and manhood
to develop in the Keystone State. For a while he was clerk in a
grocery store, and then he became an apprentice to the glass-blowing
trade, and worked at that for twenty years.
In 1892 he came west and located at Pomona; and seven years
later he embarked In the wall-paper and paint business, at which he
continued until February, 1913. Then he sold out, and about the same
time, his neighbors having discovered his special fitness for public
office, he entered politics and assumed high civic responsibility.
He was elected mayor of Pomona, and Is now serving his fourth
term. Lender his administration, the streets have been paved, and for
nine and a half miles along the main arteries of traffic and thorough-
fare an ornamental, practical lighting system has been Installed. The
Greek Theater has been erected, as one of the most creditable archi-
HISTORY AXD BIOGRAPHY 477
tectural attractions of the town, antl there has also been provided a
municipal .plunge. He is a Democrat in national politics; but, first and
last — an American and a Pomonan.
At Muncie, Ind., on November 25, 1888, Mr. Vandegrift was
married to Miss Emma Meyers of Cleveland, Ohio. They have had
one daughter, Gertrude, who is now Mrs. Milo Bowen. Mr. Vande-
grift is decidedly a "home man," but he has also come to enjoy the
attractions of fraternal society life. He is a Mason, and belongs to
the Lodge, Chapter and Commandery. For twenty years he has been
a Knight of Pythias, and for eleven years Deputy Grand Master, at-
taining all the chairs. He also belongs to the Fraternal Brotherhood.
Interested to a degree beyond that felt by the average citizen in
the past and the future of Pomona and district. Mayor Vandegrift
is an active member of the Pomona Historical Society, and an advocate
of the very sensible plan of collecting and preserving the annals of
town and county.
JOHN F. BOWEN
The biography of John F. Bowen tells of a life full of interest
and also of steady business application. Born near Columbus, Ohio,
December 25, 1844, when a young lad of seventeen he enlisted, in
1861, in Company D, Ninety-fifth Ohio Infantry, for service In the
Civil War, and served three years, seeing action in some of the prom-
inent battles of that struggle for freedom. He was finally taken
prisoner and confined for four months in Andersonville prison, that
horror spot of the war, from which so many failed to escape with
their lives and those who did were marked with ill health for life
Young John Bowen was of stronger stuff, however, and on his
discharge from the army he returned to Ohio and started in the gro-
cery business, at Mt. Gilead. Here he remained in business for
twenty-two years, taking part in the growth of the country during
that after-war period. He was prominent both in fraternal and social
circles as well as in business, and became a well-known figure in the
community. A member of the Masons there, he also joined the Odd
Fellows at Columbus, and was a member of Hurd Post, G. A. R. at
Mt. Gilead. During his residence there he was ^•ice-president of the
First National Bank of Mt. Gilead.
In 1896 Mr. Bowen came to Pomona, and bought a twelve-acre
orange grove ; this he sold in nine months' time and then engaged in
the grocery business on Second Street. Selling out this establishment,
with his son, Charles, he engaged in the undertaking business for
three years. This was his final business venture, and he then retired
from acti\e cares. His death occurred in Pomona, in June, 1917.
A man of fine principles and strong character, during his residence
478 HISTORY AND I'-IOGRAPHY
here he was treasurer, deacon, and assistant superintendent of the
Sunday school of the First Baptist Church. He was a member and
held office in Vicksburg Post No. 61, G. A. R. of Pomona.
The marriage of Mr. Bowen united him with Julia A. Jenkins,
of Mt. Gilead, Ohio, the daughter of a Baptist minister, and five
children were born to them: Thomas D., deceased; W. Clyde, de-
ceased, Milo S., of Long Beach, has two daughters. La Von and
Nayda; Charles F. of Ocean Beach, San Diego County, and J. Carson
of Pomona, the father of a son, John Carson. Mrs. Bowen is an
active worker in the Woman's Relief Corps, the Eastern Star, Red
Cross and in the First Baptist Church.
HERBERT E. WALCOTT
The past decade has been one of almost phenomenal development
in California, when barren lands have blossomed into vineyard and
orchard almost overnight; beautiful homes have sprung up to be
occupied by those most interested in the industries of the state, and
with schools and colleges in all parts of the agricultural and horticul-
tural sections in keeping with the ad\ancement of the communities.
The most important adjunct to all this prosperity has naturally been
the marketing of the products raised in the fertile valleys and on the
hillsides; and the men who have given of their best years to make this
marketing profitable, and have brought the output to the consumer in
the best of condition and at the fairest prices, have indeed taken their
place in the upbuilding of the state, and deserve their meed of praise
when recording the events which led to our present "place in the sun."
Among such men we mention Herbert E. Walcott, who for the past
twenty-odd years has been actively interested in the \-arious fruit
exchanges in the state.
Herbert E. Walcott first saw the light of day in the farming
districts of Kansas, born in Crawford County, November 12, 1867.
He is a son of Samuel and Mary A. (Jewell) Walcott, farmer folk
of that state and now both deceased, the mother a resident of Long
Beach at the time of her passing. Herbert E. was the only son in a
family of five children born to his parents, and received his schooling
in the rural schools of his home environment and finished with a course
at the Kansas Normal College, and a business course in a college at
Sedalia, Mo. One year after leaving school he found emplovment
in a general merchandise store at Arcadia, Kansas.
Full of ambition, and with the West as his goal, at the age of
twenty-one Mr. Walcott came to California, first locating af Sacra-
mento, where he worked in the nursery department of the W. R.
Strong Company for a time, gaining experience in the sales depart-
ment; he then went into the green-fruit department and was with them
HISTORY AND I'.K JGRAI'IIY 479
and Pattee & Lett for eight years, and at the end of that period he
came south to Pomona. After these years of experience in the fruit
business, Mr. Walcott next formed a partnership with C. A. Ludlow
to handle oranges, the partnership continuing for two seasons. The
following year was spent in partnership with C. E. Greaser in the real-
estate business, but he soon returned to his life work, the fruit busi-
ness, and took a clerical position with the San Antonio Fruit Exchange
for three years, and while so connected was appointed manager and
secretary of the Pomona Fruit Growers Exchange, in 1905, and has
held that position since that date.
The marriage of iMr. Walcott, in 1893, united him with Miss
Julia E. Williamson, and two children hav^e been born to them, Her-
bert W. and Russell M., both now attending school in Pomona.
In fraternal circles Mr. Walcott is a member of the Masonic
order, the Odd Fellows and the Fraternal Brotherhood. Fond of out-
door life, he takes his recreation in that healthful manner, and is also
individually interested in fruit culture, owning citrus orchards in the
Valley. Formerly a member of the local board of trade, he is now a
member of the Chamber of Commerce, and active in all plans put
forward for the advancement of this section. A man of keen public
spirit, which brings him to the fore in such projects, Mr. Walcott can
be counted on to do his share in promoting the welfare of his home
community, and is highly respected for his devotion to duty.
GEORGE J. WEIGLE
In the life of this successful citizen of Pomona are illustrated the
results of perseverance and energy, coupled with judicious management
and strict integrity. He was a citizen of whom any community might
well be proud, and his passing left a void in the business life of this
section, as well as in the hearts of his many friends, who esteemed him
for his fine qualities of heart and mind. Born in Wurtemberg, near
Stuttgart, Germany, February 6, 1865, George J. Weigle was a son
of Michael and Christina (Myers) Weigle, also natives of Wurtem-
berg. In 1872 the family emigrated to the United States and settled
on a farm in Lenawee County, Mich., six miles from Adrian.
George J. was the oldest In a family of eight children, and was
educated in the schools of Palmyra, Mich. He followed farming with
his parents, and came to California in the spring of 1887, his family
following later. Here he secured employment on the Chino Ranch in
San Bernardino County, working as a butcher for Richard Gird on
a large stock ranch for two years. In 1891 he came to Pomona and
started in the butcher business here with his brother, Charles, as a
partner. In the old Central Market. In 1 894 they moved to 240 South
Main Street as the business grew, and in 1895 Charles withdrew and
480 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
went into business for himself, and George J. continued alone until his
death, June 24, 1916. He conducted three markets in Pomona, and
a branch in Chino, all supplied from stock which he purchased and
fattened on his twenty-acre ranch two miles south of Pomona ; there he
erected a cold-storage plant and slaughter house, and built a large cold-
storage and refrigerator plant at his market in town as well.
The marriage of Mr. Weigle, in Pomona, united him with Emma
Hansler, a native of Niles, Mich., and three daughters were born to
them: Hazel, Leola and Anita. The father erected a fine home on
the corner of Seventh and Main Streets, and the family still reside
there. A man of sterling qualities, always ready to help in any move-
ment for the advancement of Pomona, Mr. Weigle was prominent in
the civic and social life of the community as well as in business circles.
Fraternally, he was a member of the Knights of Pythias, the Foresters,
the Fraternal Aid, and of Pomona Lodge No. 789, B. P. O. Elks. It
is his standard of citizenry which has brought this section to its present
era of prosperity.
JULIAN F. CUMBERLAND
It is natural that earnest devotion to the interests of CaliforniH
should characterize Julian F. Cumberland for the long span of forty-
two years has elapsed since he first came to the Golden State, and
though his stay was then but for a year he was, like thousands of
others, drawn back to its borders, and now for a period of thirty-four
years he has been continuously identified with the growth of Pomona
Valley and one of the most important factors in the development of
the La Verne section. Here he has led a useful, contented and pros-
perous existence, exhibiting in the management of his extensive inter-
ests a capability and energy equalled by few. Mr. Cumberland was
born on September 18, 1835, near Hillsboro, Highland County, Ohio,
a town that has become historically famous through its association
with the earliest days of the temperance movement known as the
"Woman's Crusade." Here a little band of courageous Christian
women led by the widow of Judge Thompson, emboldened by their
consecrated ideals, began this crusade, praying in and before the sa-
loons amid the jeers and scoffs of the passers-by, but from this little
band there developed the world-wide organization known as the
Women's Christian Temperance Union, a movement that has gained
momentum until now their cherished ideal of a saloonless America
is to be realized.
Mr. Cumberland's father, William Cumberland, was born in
Pennsylvania at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela
rivers in 1821, and when ten years of age he removed with his parents
to Ohio and settled on a new farm eighteen miles south of Hillsboro.
It was timber land and they cleared and improved it, William shari.ng
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 483
in this arduous pioneer life. Julian's mother before her marriage was
Mary O. Cornetet, born near Buffalo, N. Y., of French parents, who
came from France to Buffalo, N. Y. She came with her parents to
Mowrystown, Highland County, Ohio, when that section was sparsely
settled, and they became pioneer settlers of that region; Grandfather
Thomas Cumberland, born in Delaware, died on the original Cum-
berland place in Highland County, Ohio. Great-grandfather Cum-
berland came from England, of old Presbyterian stock. William
Cumberland and his wife owned the old Cumberland farm and reared
their family there and there he passed away on the old home farm in
1871, esteemed and honored in the community that he had done a
great part in developing. The mother passed away in 1907 at the
age of seventy-nine years.
Mr. and Mrs. Cumberland were the parents of two children, but
Julian, the subject of this review, alone grew to maturity. He was
reared on the home farm in Ohio, and here was inculcated in him
those lessons of thrift and industry that have played no small part in
the marked success of his mature years. He received his education
in the public schools of his locality and at the early age of eighteen he
obtained a certificate to teach. He took a school in the adjoining
district and taught there until his home district importuned him to
teach, so he had charge of the school there until he was twenty-one
years of age. When he took his first school he was engaged at the
sum of $35 per month, but so well were the directors pleased with his
work that they paid him $40, which was considered a very good salary
in those days. When he became of age the desire to see more of the
world led him to make a trip to California, and he arrived in Los
Angeles on May 12, 1877, coming through from Omaha on a com-
bination passenger and freight train, a journey that required nine davs.
Los Angeles at that time bore little semblance to its present metropol-
itan appearance, being then a town of less than 10,000 population.
Mr. Cumberland went to work on a ranch near Westminster, where
he received $20 a month and board, but after remaining about a year
he returned to Ohio and resumed teaching.
After his return to his native place he was married to Miss Clara
E. Huggins, born on the adjoining farm to his father's place, and
she was the daughter of Silas W. and Zenah C. (McFaddin) Hug-
gins, who like the Cumberlands, were pioneer farmers of that section
of Ohio. The Hugginses formerly were from North Carolina, of
English descent, while the McFadden family came from Virginia to
Ohio, and were Scotch-Irish, and were abolitionists, as were the mem-
bers of the families on all sides. After several years' residence in
Ohio, Mr. and Mrs. J. F. Cumberland decided to try a complete
change of climate, as both of them were in poor health. Accordingly
they set out for California, arriving in Los Angeles August 1, 1885.
Six days later Mr. Cumberland came to Pomona and on October 24
484 HISTORY AND BIOGRArHV
he purchased eighty acres on the Base Luie Road and Emerald Ave-
nue, then called Gubser Road, which he later had changed by peti-
tion to Emerald Avenue. In 1887 he bought eighty acres more, but
later he had much trouble about the title to the land. He and others
had bought this land from the Southern Pacific Railroad Company
and had made improvements, but four or five years later the United
States Government decided that the Southern Pacific had obtained
this land fraudulently, so the settlers had no title. However they
remained, and the United States Government a few years later de-
cided that the settlers were innocent purchasers and issued them a
patent direct.
Mr. Cumberland meanwhile had set out a considerable acreage
in deciduous trees — twenty-six acres of prunes, three acres of apricots,
three acres of pears, seven acres of Sultana raisins, eight acres of
peaches and one acre of apples. When they came into bearing, how-
ever, he found that there was no profitable market for the fruit and
he was obliged to sell prunes at one and three-fourths cents a pound
and Bartlett pears for $6.00 a ton, delivered six miles away. He
then grubbed up the orchard and set out his first citrus trees in 1897.
For the first three years he watered his orchard with a tank, but about
1900 Uncle Dick Wallace sunk the first well in this locality near the
Base Line Road and obtained water for his place. He also bought
twenty acres and sunk a second well on Williams Avenue, and in his
generous way made the offer to put it into a company at cost so others
could be benefited. The neighbors accepted the offer, and with Mr.
Cumberland and others formed the La Verne Land and Water Com-
pany, and put in a pumping plant. The company was organized in
1900, and Dick Wallace was president and Mr. Cumberland was
secretary, and continued as such for many years. He then set out
more and more acreage each year until he had sixty-five acres in
oranges and fifteen in lemons, now full bearing. He was the prime
mover and called the first meeting for the organization of the La
Verne Orange Growers Association. The ranchers of his district had
been taking their fruit to North Pomona for some time, but as they
ran the plant on the Sabbath Day, which was not in accord with Mr.
Cumberland's principles, he called a meeting, which resulted in the
formation of the above association. Mr. Cumberland was made a
director and vice-president from the start, and he continued to hold
these offices until he sold his ranch in 1918.
Mr. Cumberland also bought a fifteen-acre orange orchard near
his ranch for $8,400, kept it for twenty months, taking off two crops,
and sold it for $20,500; he also bought eleven acres on Foothill Bou-
levard and Garey Avenue and set it to oranges and in less than two
years sold it for $11,000. The same year he purchased a tract of
between twelve and thirteen acres between La Verne and San Dimas
for $1,000, which he set to orchard, and when it reached the price of
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 485
$1,000 an acre he disposed of it. All of this time he was improving
his own ranch as well as rearing and educating his six children, send-
ing them to Occidental College in Los Angeles. He also purchased a
tract of 214 acres between Elmo and Pond, in Kern County, installed
a pumping plant and devoted It to alfalfa and grain risising, and this
ranch he still owns. Later he purchased sixty acres more near Mc-
Farland, Kern County, which he sold to his son-in-law, Phillip A. Lee.
He also has a desert claim of 320 acres near Blythe. In 1902 he
moved to Highland Park, Los Angeles, purchasing his present home
at 131 West Avenue 51, where he resided to educate his children. In
1913 he moved back to the ranch, where he lived until 1918, when he
sold the ranch and moved back to his Highland Park home, from
which place he looks after his extensive interests.
Mr. and Mrs. Cumberland are the parents of six children: Edna
D., a graduate of Occidental College, is the wife of Rev. \V. E.
Roberts, who was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Sioux
Falls, S. D., for eight years, but now pastor of the First Presbyterian
Church at Champaign, 111.; Genevieve M., a graduate of Occidental
College, Is the wife of Phillip A. Lee, a farmer at McFarland; Esther
C. graduated at Occidental College and from Stanford University
with the degree of M. D., then served as interne at the Women and
Children's Hospital at Syracuse, N. Y., for one year, where she met
and married R. P. Kratz, who is now production manager of the
Edison Electric Company at Ontario,, where they reside; William
Wilson graduated at Occidental College with the A. B. degree, then
obtained the M. A. degree at Columbia LInlversIty, and that of Ph. D.
at Princeton at the age of twenty-six. He was statistician for the
War Trade Board at the Peace Conference in Paris. He Is now sta-
tioned at Constantinople, studying the economic situation for the Peace
Conference; Homer Eugene Is at home; Roger Craig served In the
United States Army and was commissioned a second lieutenant at
Camp Taylor, Ky. ; he Is a graduate of Occidental College and Is now
attending McCormIck Theological Seminary In Chicago.
Politically Mr. and Mrs. Cumberland are stanch Republicans,
coming from families v/ho have always been strong adherents of the
principles of that party, their fathers' homes having been stations on
the "underground railroad" during the days of. slavery, before the
Civil War. Always interested In the cause of education, Mr. Cum-
berland was one of the organizers of the La Verne district school and
a trustee for many years. He was also an organizer of the First
National Bank of La Verne and served continuously as a director until
he sold out and resigned. In religious matters Mr. and Mrs. Cumber-
land have always been very active members of the Presbyterian
Church. They joined the Pomona church when they first came to the
Valley in 1885, when there were only twenty-five members, and Mr.
Cumberland was superintendent of the Sunday School for four years.
486 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
During his former residence in Los Angeles he was an elder of the
Highland Park Presbyterian Church and he taught the adult Sunday
School class, which reached a membership of eighty.
GEORGE H. WATERS
A man of unusual power in the community in which he lived and
labored was the late George H. Waters, who died in Pomona in Sep-
tember, 1917. He was a native of Hendricics County, Ind., where
he was born on July 12, 1846, the son of Joseph Waters, a Ken-
tucky farmer; and after having been reared on a farm, he went to
the city of Indianapolis and engaged in business. In more ways than
one he succeeded from the start; part of the experience there obtained
equipping him for the still more difficult task of founding a home in
a newer and more unsettled country.
In 1876 Mr. Waters joined a company of friends and they drove
in wagons across the country from Emporia, Kans., to Denver, Colo.
There he conducted a wholesale trade in fruit and produce, and also
dealt in i-eal estate, owning for a while considerable city property.
His ideal was to so develop what he had that, while increasing the
value of the estate, he added to the value and attractiveness of the
neighborhood, and following that ideal, he became something more
than a mere landowner, a real benefactor to the locality in which he
lived.
He first came to California on a visit, and was so impressed
with the country that he returned to Denver, disposed of his holdings
and came to Pomona to make a home. In 1890 he established the
G. H. Waters Canning Factory, the first successful canning factory
in Pomona, where he ran a dry yard, and such was the quality of his
products that he soon commanded orders from far and wide. He
helped to found the Citrus Fruit Juice Company of Pomona, man-
aged the business until about 1914 and assisted a number of young
men to start in business in Pomona.
Later he bought fifty-three acres at the southern end of South
Hamilton Avenue, which he at once developed, sinking a well and
installing a pumping plant, setting out apple and peach trees, and
planting alfalfa. He also owned a six-acre orange grove near Clare-
mont and a ranch of seventy-five acres near Chino, which he planted
to alfalfa and apricots, and developed, adding a pumping plant.
Turning to public service for the benefit of his fellowmen, Mr.
Waters served for two terms on the Board of Education of Pomona,
and also on the Board of City Trustees, and he gave freely to many
enterprises for the betterment of the city. He was one of the founders
of the First Christian Church, and acted as elder of the church and
chairman of the board of trustees. He gave freely to the campaign
S M ViJcJG^^^
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 489
funds of the church, and helped to raise money for its organ, costing
$7,500. Being musical himself, and having a fine understanding of
church music, he led the choir for years. He also contributed toward
the erection of the Greek Theater in Ganesha Park.
Mr. Waters was married in Hendricks County, Ind., on October
15, 1868, his bride being Miss Harriet C. Fleece, a native of North
Salem, Ind. She shared with her husband the trials of pioneer life
and has sur\ived him, to be the center of a circle of devoted friends.
CHARLES D. BAKER
Judged not only by his record as a member of the Board of
Education, but also by his individual worth as citizen and idealist, it is
evident that no better selection could have been made of a distinguished
Pomonan, to watch over and direct the educational interests of the
city, than that of Charles D. Baker, who came to Pomona only a
decade ago, but has identified himself closely with the town ever since.
He was born in Ogle County, 111., on May 5, 1868, and began his
education in the city schools of his district. Later, fulfilling a natural
ambition for the best that was obtainable, he graduated from the
Western College of Toledo, Iowa, where he made many friends and
business connections of value, so that he was induced to stay and cast '.n
his lot there.
He was in the drug business there for a number of years, and
was also a member of the city council, standing for progression in all
civic affairs. Then he went to Sioux Falls, S. D., where he was secre-
tary and treasurer of a wholesale hardware firm. If he profited by
a gradually developing experience such as many men would be glad
to enjoy, and which has always stood by him in operations since, the
communities in which he sought to accomplish something undoubtedly
also gained through the cowork of one animated by high ideals and
broad sympathies, and a desire to spare no pains when it was a question
of securing what was needed.
On reaching Pomona, in 1909, Mr. Baker became cashier of the
Savings Bank; but, having acquired three orange groves, he soon
resigned to look after his ranches. These valuable properties consist
of five acres in the Kingsley Tract, ten acres on San Jose Avenue and
eight, acres on his home place, at the corner of East Holt and Alex-
ander Avenue, and they have been brought to that state of high devel-
opment where they evidence the success of the grower.
Among positions of trust to which Mr. Baker has been called
may be mentioned a directorship in the Claremont Citrus Association,
another in the Kingsley Tract Water Company, and still another in
the Pomona Ranch Water Company. And he is now serving his second
term as a member of the Pomona Board of Education, fa\'oring the
best possible equipment for the public schools.
490 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Mr. Baker was married at Toledo, Iowa, on August 22, 1889, to
Miss Edith Rebok, and they have three children: Mrs. Geneve Pul-
paneck of Los Angeles; Irma, a teacher of domestic science in the
Garey Avenue School; and a son, Herman R., who is a dental student
at the University of Southern California. The family attend the First
Presbyterian Church. Mr. Baker is a Knight Templar and a Mason,
holding membership in Pomona and in the Shrine at Los Angeles.
JOSE H. VEJAR
A native son of California, Jose H. Vejar was born on what is
now Park Avenue, Pomona, January 11, 1857. His father, Ramon
Vejar, was born in San Gabriel, December 24, 1830, while his grand-
father, Ricardo Vejar, was born in San Diego. He became a rancher
and with two partners, Ygnacio Palomares and Luis Arenas, purchased
the San Jose Grant and divided it into three parts, he taking the part
where Spadra is, while Palomares had what is now Pomona and
Arenas took what is now Azusa. Ricardo Vejar was an extensive
cattleman and a man of prominence and influence in his day. He died
at Spadra, aged eighty-two years.
Mr. Vejar's great-grandfather, Salvadore Vejar, came from
Spain to Mexico, but very soon afterwards came to California, and
helped to build San Gabriel Mission, and also the Los Angeles Mis-
sion. He was both a carpenter and blacksmith by trade, and he was
selected to teach his trade to the Indians at the Missions; he owned
a farm on what is now San Pedro Street, Los Angeles.
Ramon Vejar was raised to the cattle business, and became the
owner of a ranch of two hundred seventy-eight acres on the Lordsburg
Road, a part of the Palomares Estate, where he still resides. His
wife, Teresa Palomares, was born in Los Angeles, a daughter of
Ygnacio Palomares, who was also born in Los Angeles, and was part
owner of the San Jose Rancho. He died in Pomona. Mrs. Ramon
Vejar died in 1919, aged seventy-eight years.
Jose is the oldest of a family of nine boys and three girls born to
his parents. He lived on the ranch with his grandfather Vejar until
he died, when Jose was only eight years of age, after which he lived
with his uncle, Francisco Palomares. He learned to ride the range
and care for, as well as to rope and brand cattle. He attended school
at Spadra and later in Pomona. In 1871, when his father moved to
his present ranch on the Lordsburg Road, Jose assisted on the home
farm until he was married, at the age of thirty-five, the ceremony
occurring at Yorba, Orange County, when he was united with Miss
Vincente Yorba, the daughter of Marcus Yorba. Her grandfather,
Bernardo Yorba, was a large landowner, his holdings comprising three
ranches, extending from what is now Corona to Whittier.
^CuLj^jt.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 493
Jose Vejar engaged in farming near Yorba, where he still owns
408 acres, as well as nineteen acres adjoining Yorba, the latter being
set to oranges and walnuts. While still operating the Yorba ranch, he
resides on his ranch on the Lordsburg Road, near La Verne. He was
bereaved of his wife in September, 1900. Of this union were born six
children: Froilan died at the age of eighteen years; Lorando; Bea-
trice, Mrs. De Soto; Ramona; Teresa and Sophia. Since the discovery
of the oil gusher at Yorba in March, 1919, he has leased his land
to two different oil companies. As gushers have been obtained on
adjoining farms, he also stands a splendid chance of obtaining val-
uable wells. Politically, he is a stalwart Republican.
DANIEL G. ARBUTHXOT
A native of Iowa who has contributed largely to the business life
of Pomona Valley during his many years of residence here is
Daniel G. Ai-buthnot, who was born in Benton County, Iowa, on No-
vember 1, 1880, and was seven years old when he came to Cali-
fornia with his parents. He was fortunate in coming direct to Po-
mona; and here he attended both the grammar and the high school,
after which, for a year, he studied at the University of Southern
California.
Leaving the academic halls, Daniel assisted his father for a
while on the home ranch, and then, at the age of eighteen, commenced
to pack oranges with J. D. McClenny of Pomona. He took up the
various occupations in the fruit-packing industry, and became foreman
of the Moffitt Fruit Packing Company at Rialto. Then, for two and
a half years was foreman of the California Citrus Union of Pomona,
and after that was in a similar capacity for the Pomona Fruit Growers
Exchange.
In the fall of 1909, Mr. Arbuthnot came to La Verne and
helped organize the La Verne Orange and Lemon Growers Associ-
ation, one of the most effective cooperative associations in the state;
and he has been secretary and manager of the same ever since. Under
his excellent guidance and inspiration, the establishment has become
the largest plant of the kind in the Pomona Valley, and his pride in
its growth, during the ten years of its existence, is very natural.
At the time of its formation there was no packing association
at La Verne, and the fruit grown in that vicinity was packed by the
San Dimas and Indian Hill Association plants. In a single decade,
the La Verne Association has grown from an output of 225 cars for
the first year to 1,500 cars during the year 1919. In the fall of 1914,
also, a lemon plant was built, and in 1919, 200 cars of lemons were
shipped as the La Verne crop.
In the fall of 1914, the capacity of the orange house was doubled,
and a precooling and ice manufacturing plant was erected and
494 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
equipped. Here the. fruit, after being packed, is put in the precooling
house and cooled, and afterward loaded on the cars, which are iced.
Under this method the fruit is carried to its iinal destination without
additional icing. The business has increased so rapidly that the stock-
holders have found it necessary to erect another orange house, and
to increase the size of the lemon house, which will be ready for the
1919-20 pack.
Concerning the recent progress of this useful cog in the wheel of
California's industrial and commercial development, the newspapers
have published an item of exceptional Interest. "Next week," said one
of the journals, "the offices of the La Verne Orange Growers Asso-
ciation will be moved into the new administration building which is
Hearing completion, the work having been progressing satisfactorily
since the middle of December. The new administration building will
contain four handsome office rooms with a large directors' room in
connection. The mission style has been followed in the architecture,
the building being constructed of brick, plastered over. In the Interior
the woodwork is of mahogany. Besides this structure, the association
has just finished a lemon storage building, the dimensions of which
are 72 by 120 feet. It is especially arranged for the storage of lemons,
with particular attention being given to ventilation. There are two
floors to the structure, giving ample space for holding a large quantity
of fruit. D. G. Arbuthnot, manager of the La Verne Association, is
highly pleased with the new building."
The officers of this wide-awake association are : President, D. C.
Crookshank; vice-president, B. A. Woodford; secretary and manager,
D. G. Arbuthnot; directors, V. W. Baker, Claremont; J. C. Gaff,
Pomona; and W. S. Romick, R. L. Davis and J. T. TIttsworth of La
Verne. September 1, a new district exchange was formed, known as
the La Verne Fruit Exchange, having under its control the sale of
oranges and lemons in the La Verne district, and Mr Arbuthnot was
chosen secretary and manager of the new exchange, a position he Is
filling with his usual ability. It was also deemed advisable to separate
the orange and lemon interests and the La Verne Lemon Association
was formed. J. D. Van Duyene was made manager of the Orange
Association to succeed Mr. Arbuthnot, and J. W. LaMont was se-
lected manager of the Lemon Association. Mr. B. A. Woodford, who
for many years was the successful manager of the California Fruit
Growers Association, is president of the La Verne District Exchange,
having all his citrus holdings In the La Verne district.
At Pomona, on December 10, 1903, Mr. Arbuthnot was married
to Miss Margaret McNaughton, a native of Scotland, where she
spent the earlier years of her life, by whom he has had three children:
Melvin, Margaret and Raymond. The family attend the Trinity
Methodist Episcopal Church of Pomona, and Mr. Arbuthnot is a
member of the Knights of Pythias. As a prominent orange grower
HISTORY AND BI(3GRAPHV 495
he has owned several groves in the La Verne district; in partnership
with Dana C. King, orange sales manager for the California Fruit
Exchange, he has recently purchased a grove of 160 acres, eighty
acres of which is highly improved, the remainder being valuable foot-
hill land which offers facilities for many beautiful building sites. It is
located above the Base Line Road north of La Verne and was for-
merly owned by J. F. Cumberland, who personally planted the entire
grove, and who is now living retired at Highland Park, Los Angeles.
Thus it will be seen that Mr. Arbuthnot has personally contributed
to the development of the section along the lines of its natural destiny.
LOUIS B. TULLER
A family distinguished for its interesting and enviable association
with stirring American history, and its relation, in successive genera-
tions, to the development, on high lines, of the American bar, is that
of Louis B. Tuller, a native of Worthington, Franklin County, Ohio,
where he was born on November 14, 1848. His father was Homer
Tuller, a native of Connecticut and a descendant of Holland-Ameri-
cans who came from The Netherlands as early as 1639 and settled in
New York, after which they removed to Connecticut; so that, as an
old colonial family, they took an active and very honorable part in
both the American Revolution and previous wars. Homer Tuller
married Miss Eliza Kilbourn, also a representative of a colonial
family, whose name has more than once figured in the most honorable
manner in the early history of America.
Reared and educated in Franklin County, where he eventually
became justice of the peace and member of the city council at Worth-
ington, Mr. Tuller was graduated from the law department of the
University of Michigan, and was admitted to the bar to practice in
that state. His boyhood and youth were spent on a farm, and when
he went to Pratt County, Ivans., in 1883 (where he remained for
fifteen years, excepting two years when he was in the banking business
at Springfield, Mo.), he became a land-owner, as well as a banker.
He was also assistant county register of Pratt County, and later, during
the winter of 1888-89, docket clerk of the state senate of Kansas.
In 1889 Mr. Tuller moved west to California and took up his
residence at Pomona, where he located on a ranch of ten acres, with
walnut and orange groves, on Artesia Street. It was partly improved;
but he set out new walnut groves and otherwise improved the
property, so that he succeeded in bringing it to a very high state of
cultivation and production. As a matter of fact, he really bought the
ranch before coming here, and that invested interest drew him, as it has
many others, to try the locality as a home-place.
While at luka, Kans., on June 1, 1885, Mr. Tuller was married
to Miss Lula Kimple, a native of Iowa, and the daughter of Adam
496 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Kimple, a lieutenant in the Civil War, by whom he has had two chil-
dren— a son, Walter K. Tuller, and a daughter, Louisa, now Mrs.
F. H. Pinska of Berkeley. Mrs. Tuller is a member of the Congrega-
tional Church and the Ebell Club of Pomona, while Mr. Tuller belongs
to the Unitarian Church of that city.
Walter Tuller, now junior member of the law firm of O'Melveny,
Milliken & Tuller of Los Angeles, is one of the brightest young men
who ever came out of Pomona Valley. He was graduated from the
Pomona High School and the University of California, where he
pursued the requisite courses In the department of law, and was
admitted to the bar of California just before graduation, having
finished a four years' course in three and a half years. He has han-
dled some of the important cases of the firm with, success, especially
the famous case of the California Development Company of Imperial
County, which he won. He was at one time secretary of the Southern
California Chapter of the Society of Colonial Wars, and is a member
of the Sons of the Revolution, and he had the distinctive honor of being
professor in the Southwestern Law College of Los Angeles. He also
contributed articles to the North American Reviezv and the American
Law Review before he was twenty-four years of age. He married
Miss Mary Shepard of Fullerton, Cal., and they have three children.
While in the University of California, Mr. Tuller was captain
of the university football team, and a member of the university rowing
crew; and when the war with Germany broke out, he volunteered and
was one of the few who received a commission as major at the First
Officers' Training School at the Presidio at San Francisco, graduating
at the head of the list of competitors. He also graduated from the
Staff College and Line Officers' Training School in France, and became
a major in the Three Hundred Sixty-second L'nited States Lifantry,
just before the armistice was signed.
His sister, Mrs. Pinska, was graduated from Occidental College
and later received a teaching degree at the University of Southern
California, and she taught school for four years at the Chino High
School. She has one son, and is a member of the Daughters of the
American Revolution.
MORRIS RANDOLPH WEINEKE
Pomona Valley has been more than fortunate in the number of
capable men who have chosen this locality for their home. The history
of the Valley is a record of commercial, industrial and educational
achievements, and it is without doubt due to the caliber of the men and
women who have labored toward the results recorded. Among these
worthy builders may be mentioned Morris Randolph Weineke, horti-
culturist and city trustee of Clarcmont, to which office he has been
unanimously elected.
'iJ^^i^iMCt'
/qA/t^-^
HISTORY AND JUOCn^.VPHY 499
A native of New Yoi-k City, Mr. Weineke first saw the light of
day November 13, 1868, a son of Henry and Elizabeth (Snedledg)
Weineke, both parents being now deceased. His father was a commis-
sion merchant in that metropolis and Morris R. received his education
in the schools of New York City, and on finishing his studies was with
his father in the commission business.
At the age of twenty years, Mr. Weineke left home and came to
San Diego, Cal., in 1888, and in 1894 settled in Claremont, in the em-
ploy of the Pomona Land and Water Copipany. He now spends his
time, in addition to his public duties, in orange growing, having his
own acreage, to the development of which he gives the best and most
modern methods to be had. Since 1910 he has served as a trustee of
Claremont and is now the oldest member of the board in years of
service. A man of keen and broad vision, in politics he puts man above
party, and is a most ready worker toward the further progress of this
thriving section of the orange belt.
ERNEST BROOKS
A \-ery successful fruit grower who has well demonstrated that
to make a success as a rancher in California, one must not only be a
good student of agriculture in general, but must thoroughly under-
stand California conditions, is Ernest Brooks, vice-president of the
El Camino Citrus Association. He was born at Charlottetown, Prince
Edward Island, Canada, on January 14, 1864, and is the fifth oldest
in a family of seven children born to Thomas Robert and Margaret
Harper (Simmonds) Brooks, who were also born on Prince Edward
Island, of English parents. Thomas R. Brooks was a college man
and was an educator until he retired to Attleboro, Mass., where he
and his wife passed the remainder of their days.
Ernest Brooks was educated in the schools of Charlottetown.
When he was sixteen he came to Boston and there began paddling
his own canoe. Becoming interested in the great West, he came to
the Rocky Mountain region in 1884. Arriving in Denver he was
steadily employed until he was twenty-one years of age. In 1886, hav-
ing a desire to own a farm, he homesteaded 160 acres near Cherry
Creek, ten miles south of Denver, and he also took up a timber claim
of 160 acres. It was raw land, there was no doubt of that; but he set
to work resolutely and won for himself the honorable distinction of
pioneer by improving the holding and bringing it to a good state of
cultivation, and made a success of stock raising and dairying.
After sixteen years in Colorado, Mr. Brooks came to Pomona
Valley in the spring of 1900, and here he has been an orange grower
ever since. He has owned several groves in the Valley and developed
them. Before coming here he passed a short time in the northern
500 ' HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
part of the state and visited many localities, but found no such ideal
spot as his present home site on East Cucamonga Avenue, where he
has eighteen acres in one of the best groves in the Valley. So produc-
tive is his holding that in 1912 he took 10,000 boxes of oranges from
his trees.
Mr. Brooks has been particularly successful in buying, improving
and selling orange groves; and he and others have developed a good
well, with a first-class pumping plant on Harrison Avenue, which they
use for irrigation purposes.. His own grove is under the Loop and
Meserve irrigation system. Prominent in all the affairs of the com-
munity, Mr. Brooks now occupies the important post of vice-president
of the El Camino Citrus Association. He is also a director of the
First National Bank of Claremont, and before the consolidation of the
two Claremont banks was one of the organizers and directors of the
Claremont National Bank.
At Claremont on September 19, 1905, occurred Mr. Brooks'
marriage. His wife was in maidenhood Miss Helen Tuttle, who was
born at Alpena, Mich., the daughter of Judge Jonathan B. and Sarah
(Ross) Tuttle. Judge Tuttle was a captain in the One Hundred
Second United States Colored Volunteer Regiment in the Civil War.
After the war he was a practicing attorney, serving ten years on the
bench, after which he practiced law in Detroit until he retired, spend-
ing his last years in California. His widow survives him and makes
her home in Claremont. The Tuttle family traces its ancestry back
to Wiltshire, England, to William Tuttle, who migrated to Connecticut
in 1635, of whom Mrs. Brooks is a lineal descendant, as well as of
Jotham Tuttle, who served in the Revolutionary War. Mrs. Brooks
received her education in the public schools of Alpena, Mich., and
at the University of Michigan. Coming to Los Angeles Countv in
1894, she met Mr. Brooks, the acquaintance resulting in their mar-
riage.
Mr. and Mrs. Brooks are the parents of two children, Ernest A.
and Kenneth, and the family attend the Congregational Church in
Claremont. FVaternally, Mr. Brooks is a member of the Fraternal
Aid and the Woodmen of the World.
JUSTUS REIMERS
A resident of Pomona Valley since a lad of eleven years, Justus
Reimers received his schooling and his experience within the con-
fines of the Valley and can truthfully be called a representative pro-
duct of the environment he was fortunate enough to be reared in.
Born in Nemaha County, Neb., August 19, 1881, he is a son of
Reimer and Sarah (Anderson) Reimers, of German and Scotch-Irish
extraction, respectively. They were engaged in farming in Nebraska,
and in 1892 came to California and settled on a ranch near Pomona.
HISTORY AND I'.IOGRAPMY 301
Here the mother passed on in 1915, the father still, at the ripe old
age of eighty-eight years, making his home with his son Justus.
Justus Reimers was the youngest of six boys born to his parents,
only three of whom are now living. He received his education in the
Chino and Pomona public schools, and finished with a course at Wil-
liams Business College. He then worked for a time in the mercantile
business, with Midgley Bros., for two years. Having been bred from
a family who followed agricultural pursuits, however, he felt the call
of the land, and soon started ranching on his own account. Starting
with nothing, he accumulated from 300 to 400 acres in grain and
alfalfa lands, and then turned to citrus cultivation, meeting with the
same success. In this way he developed several ranches, bringing them
to a high state of cultivation from the barren soil, and has proven
himself a worthy citizen of the Valley; public spirited and enterpris-
ing, he is ready at all times to do his share toward promoting the best
interests of his home section, which he has seen develop wonderfully
during his own development, and with unlimited possibilities for fur-
ther upbuilding. In addition to his citrus cultivation, Mr. Reimers is
interested in the real estate and brokerage business.
The marriage of Justus Reimers, on December 31, 1903, united
him with Miss Florence M. Deay, a native of Kansas, but reared in
Pomona, and two children have been born to them : Reggidene Es-
ther in Claremont High, and Donald Herbert. Fraternally Mr.
Reimers is a member of Pomona Lodge No. 107, K. of P. He is also
a member of the Chamber of Commerce in Claremont, and interests
himself in civic affairs and in any project which will better conditions.
For recreation he indulges in outdoor sports, being especially fnnd of
fishing and hunting.
WILLIAM A. FOX
One of the highly esteemed and successful men in the community
in which he resides is William A. Fox, who was born in Du Page
County, 111., July 1, 1864. After completing his education in the public
and high schools of his native state he supplemented this with a busi-
ness college course, and was afterwards in the accounting department
of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad for one year. He was
with the Aetna Powder Company of Chicago for fifteen years, and
came to Pomona in 1902, where he purchased a fourteen-acre orange
orchard at the corner of San Antonio and Foot Hill Boulevard, which
he still owns. Besides this very productive orange grove, he is also the
owner of two other orange orchards. For fifteen years he has been
director and stockholder in the Indian Hill Citrus Association, and is
president of the North Palomares Mutual Irrigation Company, and
502 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
director of the Growers Fumigation & Supply Company, and also a
director in the La Verne Land and Water Company, and one of the
founders of the La Verne Water Association.
His marriage united him with Luella T. Fox, a native of Iowa.
Their only son, Paul N., who was chemist for the mechanical depart-
ment of Los Angeles County, enlisted in the war and soon after died,
on October 30, 1918, of pneumonia. Ernestine died, aged four years,
in January, 1903. In his church associations Mr. Fox is a member of
the Trinity Methodist Church at Pomona.
WILLIAM ARTHUR JOHNSTONE
A man of versatile abilities, William Arthur Johnstone is well
informed concerning the possibilities of the commonwealth of his
adoption and eager to develop its vast, resources. Throughout the
state he is well known in many avenues of activity where his splendid
character and broad intelligence have left an indelible impress
for good.
A study of the Johnstone genealogy indicates that James Arthur
Johnstone, a native of Ontario, Canada, was of Scotch ancestry. He
learned the occupation of a horticulturist, and as early as 1862 came
via Panama to San Francisco; he spent some time in Santa Clara
County, later going to Virginia City, Nev., and in about 1865 returned
overland to Ontario. About this time he established family ties, being
united with Elzina S. Way, and the young couple engaged in horti-
culture, making a specialty of raising apples and berries. This was
Mr. Johnstone's special hobby, and he had a splendid orchard. In
1880 he removed to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where he engaged in farm-
ing as well as in the mercantile business. Two years later, in 1882, he
located land on what is now a part of the site of Brandon, Manitoba,
being one of the original locators of the town; he laid out a subdivision
of 160 acres called "Johnstone Estate," and besides his real-estate
interests was an extensive stock dealer. In 1890 he returned to Cali-
fornia, purchasing 120 acres of raw land at San Dimas, and this he
improved to oranges and lemons. He has also developed 300 acres
at Wood Lake, Tulare County, setting it to oranges and olives. Mr.
Johnstone was always very prominent and active in the A'arious
cooperative fruit associations formed in his districts, for a time being
president of the board of directors of one of the local orgiinizations.
He now resides on Paloma Street, Altadena, his wife having passed
away at San Dimas in 1904.
Mr. and Mrs. James A. Johnstone were the parents of six chil-
dren, of whom William Arthur is the third child. He was born at
Ameliasburg, Ontario, on December 15, 1869, where he was reared
until 1880, when he removed with his parents to Winnipeg. Here they
HISTORY AXD lUOGRAl'HY 503
resided for a time, then going to Brandon, Manitoba, where he at-
tended the Brandon Collegiate Institute, after which he spent two
years in a law office. He was then appointed assistant deputy treasurer
of the city of Brandon, holding this office for one year. On June 1,
1890, he came to San Dimas, Cal., where with his father and brothers
he began to improve the 120 acres of land that his father had pur-
chased into orange and lemon orchards. He gave the closest study
to the care of these groves, the result being that the Johnstone orchards
are second to none in the district that has become so famous for its
production of a fine quality of oranges and lemons. He was interested
from the start in the San Dimas Irrigation Company, successor to the
San Jose Ranch Company, also the Artesian Belt Water Company, that
sun^ the first producing well in the San Dimas wash. Aside from his
individual orchards, in association with Doctor Montgomery he owns
foothill lands which they are also planting to citrus trees. On the
organization of the First National Bank of San Dimas, as well as the
San Dimas Savings Bank, he was elected a member of the board of
directors, his valuable services being appreciated by the members of
the directorate, who retain him as president of both institutions. He
has been interested in the growth of San Dimas, and is the owner of
several prominent business blocks.
In politics Mr. Johnstone is a stanch Republican of the pro-
gressive type. His services were recognized in an appreciative manner
during the autumn of 1902, when he was elected to represent the
Seventy-sixth Assembly District in the State Legislature, being re-
elected in 1904. He was not a candidate in 1906, as he carried out
a much-cherished plan of a trip to Europe, where he spent considerable
time visiting the British Isles as well as the Continent. In 1912 he
was an alternate to the National Republican Convention at Chicago
and attended the convention in June of that year as a supporter of
Theodore Roosevelt. In 1912 he was again elected a member of the
State Legislature and in the session of 1913 was elected speaker pro tern,
and was a member of the committee on rules. During the session he
introduced the water code entitled the State Water Commission Act,
which was duly passed and became a law; he also introduced a number
of other important bills and took a prominent part in enacting useful
legislation, among them the fertilizer-control law, the forester law, the
first appropriation locating the Davis School of Agriculture, the state
and road law providing for cooperation between the state and county
in road construction. He was appointed a member of the State Water
Commission by Governor Johnson in 1915, an office that occupies much
of his time and to which he gives his best efforts. Mr. Johnstone was
one of the organizers of the San Dimas Orange Growers Association
and was its president for fifteen years; he was also active in the organ-
ization of the San Dimas Fruit Exchange. Always believing in the
504 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
cooperation of fruit men, he was originally a member of the first
association formed in the Valley, in the Claremont Orange Growers
Association, the Indian Hill Orange Growers Association, and was
a member of the San Antonio Fruit Exchange.
The marriage of Mr. Johnstone took place in Pomona in 1902
and united him with Miss Alice E. Bost, who was born in Excelsior,
Minn. Her father, Theo Bost, was a native of Geneva, Switzerland,
a descendant of French Huguenots who fled from France to Switzer-
land at the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Mr. Bost
came to Minnesota, where he was a pioneer and frontiersman, passing
through the hardships and Indian troubles Incident to life in southern
Minnesota in the early days. Mr. and Mrs. Johnstone are the parents
of two daughters : Margaret Alice and Dorothy Adele.
Fraternally Mr. Johnstone is prominent, being made a Mason
in Covina Lodge, F. & A. M., from which he was demitted and is now
a charter member of San Dimas Lodge. He holds membership in
Pomona Chapter, R. A. M.; Southern California Commandery No.
37, K. T. ; Los Angeles Consistory, S. R. ; and Al Malaikah Temple,
A. A. O. N. M. S. He is also prominent in club life, being a member
of the Union League Club and the City Club in Los Angeles, and the
Commonwealth Club, the Engineers Club and the Masonic Club of
San P'rancisco. With his wife, he is a member of the Union Church
at San Dimas, while Mrs. Johnstone is also active in civic and club
circles, being a member of the Wednesday Afternoon Club of San
Dimas and the Ebell Club of Pomona.
As a member of the State Water Commission, Mr. Johnstone's
able services have been given to conserve the water — the greatest asset
of California — and to render equal justice to all in the intricate ques-
tions and problems that come before the commission. In every post
of honor accepted by him he has given dignified and noteworthy service.
FRANK W. BALFOUR
A pioneer of Pomona Valley, and one of the most prominent men
of the district during his lifetime, Frank W. Balfour left a record of
achievement in public-spirited work for the advancement of the welfare '
of his city and county which stands for all time in the annals of this
section of California. A native of England, with some of Its best
blood In his veins, Mr. Balfour was born in London, April 30, 1865;
his father was a general in the English army, and his mother a lady
of title in that country, and Mr. Balfour was related to Sir Arthur J.
Balfour. He received his early education at St. Edmund's College, and
finished in an Institution in France, graduating as a civil engineer.
Later he took a course in the Electrical Institute, London.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 505
After finishing his education, the young Englishman sought newer
fields in which to begin his career, and his first move was to Canada,
where he engaged in the cattle business. Two years later, in 1887, he
came to Los Angeles. The "boom" was then in full swing in that
city, and he immediately became identified with the civil engineering
firm of James T. Taylor & Company, and took part in platting this
county and laying out its towns. He had been in Pomona when the
town was laid out, and helped in that first development work, and
returned to the Valley and spent five years in the orange industry; and
also served as assistant postmaster for that length of time. He then
became the first district manager of the Southern California Power
Company, which was succeeded by the Edison Company, and for
fifteen years he held this position, up to the time of his death, which
occurred April 24, 1915. He was a veteran district manager of the
concern, and was highly regarded by the company.
Mr. Balfour's first business in life being that of an engineer, he
naturally took an active interest in all good-roads movements after
making his home in the Valley. He took the initiative in most of the
public meetings which led up to the concentration of effort on the
system of highways which now unites the cities of this and adjoining
counties. He was a member of the State Executive Committee of the
Tri-State Ocean-to-Ocean Highway, and always attended the meetings
of that body. He was at the front of the campaign for the State High-
way, which now connects all the citrus cities with the world at large.
In recognition of his public-spirited efforts for the advancement
of the welfare of his district, Mr. Balfour was chosen as president of
the San Gabriel Valley Associated Chambers of Commerce, in which
were represented sixteen towns and cities. Among other public duties,
he was chairman of the board of health of Pomona, and reappointed
to that oflice shortly before his death.
The marriage of Frank W. Balfour, which occurred in 1890,
united him with Louise E. Maddock, a native Californian, born in
Oakland, the daughter of a pioneer who crossed the plains with ox
teams in early days and helped lay out the city of Oakland. Two
children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Balfour: Lillian, now the wife
of Henry Parry, who was in France in the Medical Corps of the
United States Army; and Clyde of San Francisco. Mrs. Balfour is
prominent in club circles in Pomona, and in church work as well. She
is a member of the Ebell Club.
Fraternally, Mr. Balfour was one of the most prominent mem-
bers of the Knights of Columbus in this end of the state, having served
the order as treasurer of the state lodge, and for three terms as district
deputy of this, the ninth, district, which office he held at the time of
his death; in the Pomona Lodge he had filled every oflice. He was
a charter member of the Elks, and filled all the chairs of that order,
506 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
being a past exalted ruler and one of the most active of its workers.
He was also a member of the Foresters and of the Fraternal Aid
Association.
In the death of Mr. Balfour, Pomona lost one of its most valued
citizens, and public recognition of his loss was shown by the act of
Mayor Vandegrift in ordering all flags on city buildings to be placed
at half-mast; to have business brought to a standstill during the funeral
service; and his fellow-citizens immediately started a movement to
have a suitable engraved bronze tablet placed in the Elks' home in
Pomona, in recognition of the valuable services he rendered the lodge.
Hundreds of messages of condolence were received, by his family from
all parts of the country, at the passing of one of Pomona's most honored
citizens, and his loss was keenly felt in the community where he had
been prominent for so many years.
ALBERT ALLEN BECK
A full and eventful life has been the portion of Albert A. Beck,
who has weathered both prosperity and adversity, and has built his
fortunes anew with unfailing optimism. Born in Canajoharie, Mont-
gomery County, N. Y., May 21, 1844, he was raised on a farm in
that state. At the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted in Company
B, One Hundred Fifty-seventh New York Infantry, and ser\'ed three
years, receiving his discharge May 24, 1865, after seeing action in
several of the important battles of the war; among them the battle
of Honey Hill, S. C, on November 30, 1864, when he was
wounded through the leg, his officers being Col. Philip Brown and
Capt. Charles Van Slyke; the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellors-
ville, Gettysburg, and Morris Island, opposite Fort Sumter. In
August, 1865, he enlisted again in the regular army, in the Sixth
LJnited States Cavalry, Company I, and saw service in New Mexico
and the Indian wars, under Captain Adna R. Chaffee, who later be-
came commander-in-chief of the United States Army. He spent three
years on the border and saw active service in many Indian wars.
After leaving the military service, Mr. Beck located in Cowley
County, Kans., where he was engaged in freighting into the Indian
Territory; in 1871 he took up government land in Cowley County and
farmed and freighted until 1874, when he came to California. For
three years he was in Los Angeles, and while there he came to Pomona
in 1875, then but a small village. He returned to Kansas and again
took up land and improved a farm. During the time he was there he
leased his farm and went to Colorado, where he mined for about six
months, but did not realize his ambitions, so he returned to his farm
and farmed until 1887, when he once more came to California. He
^
^
s
;^
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 509
settled in San Diego for three years, and during that time he spent
the year of 1888 in the placer mines in Lower California; he did not
get rich, but he made wages, and he wears a nugget as a souvenir of
his mining days. In 1890 he located in Pomona and for a time worked
at drying fruit. He had lost everything received from the sale of
his Kansas farm in the real estate boom in San Diego in 1888-1889,
and when he arrived here he had just fifty cents as his capital. He
worked at any kind of labor to get a start, and soon bought two acres
of land on West Orange Grove Avenue, to which he added, in 1898,
four more acres, all of which he planted to oranges and walnuts. All
of this is now in the city limits of Pomona. He succeeded in his ranch-
ing with his limited area, and in 1918 his walnut crop netted him
over $1,000.
Though the years have brought him many trying times, he is
well and hearty at the age of seventy-five and is enjoying his declining
years in the peace and prosperity of beautiful Pomona. A member
of the G. A. R. Post of Arkansas City, Kans., having joined in 1878,
he was transferred to the Post in San Diego, but when he came to
Pomona he transferred to Vicksburg Post No. 61, of Pomona, of
which he is still a member. He is a member of the First Christian
Church. Mrs. Beck was active in church work as well as in the
Women's Relief Corps.
On November 17, 1877, A. A. Beck was united in marriage with
Mary E. Brash, born in Illinois, and of their six children five are
still living. William H. now lives in Pomona, and is the father of a
daughter; Fannie M. is the wife of William Horsewood of Los An-
geles and the mother of three children; Bertha became the wife of
G. Blewett and she has three children; Albert H. was a member of
the supply train division of the United States Army, served with the
Thirt>'-second Division of the Army of Occupation in Germany, and
was overseas for eighteen months. He was honorably discharged and
is now at home; Roy A. is on the home ranch with his father. Mrs.
Beck pas-sed away on November 17, 1909, after an active and useful
life, and was mourned by a wide circle of devoted friends.
On July 3, 1913, while on a visit East in attendance at the fiftieth
reunion of the Battle of Gettysburg of the Blue and the Grey, Mr.
Beck dug up a small cedar tree which he sent to Pomona, and it was
planted in Garfield Park, on East Holt Avenue. In 1919 he selected
a California boulder, had an appropriate plate engraved and set in
the rock and it was placed as a monument by the tree he had secured
from the historic battlefield by Park Superintendent Paige, whose
father was also in the Battle of Gettysburg. Mr. Beck made another
trip back East to attend the G. A. R. Convention at Columbus, Ohio,
leaving Pomona on October 4, 1919, and after spending three weeks
meeting relatives and old friends he returned to his Pomona home,
well satisfied that he had cast his lot in the Golden State.
HISTORY AND F.IOGRAPHY
JOHN S. ADAMS
A man who has attained the ripe age of seventy-five cannot fail
to have had a rich and varied experience in the school of hfe. John
S. Adams, Pomona's septuagenarian orange grower, was born June
14, 1844, in the territory of Iowa, two years before it became a state,
and now, when seventy-five years young, he Is spending the afternoon
of life amidst the orange groves of Pomona Valley.
He was reared and educated at Cedar Falls, Iowa, and can recall
many interesting experiences in his early life that occurred in his native
state. He followed the occupation of carriage making in Waterloo,
Iowa, and was also general agent for Iowa for the St. Paul Harvester
Company and sold many of their harvesters in Iowa. In 1887, a
young man in his prime, he came to San Diego, Cal., where he fol-
lowed the trade of carpenter and wheelwright, and helped build the
Coronado Beach Hotel, later setting up all the machinery and working
as wheelwright in the shop owned by the hotel company. While living
in San Diego County he owned two ranches, one at Campo and the
other at Lyons Peak. He returned to Waterloo, Iowa, and after
sojourning there four years came back to California, this time selecting
Pomona as his place of abode, where he was employed in the carriage
shop of the Pomona Implement Company. Being an expert interior
wood-worker, he was called to Los Angeles to do the finishing on many
of the fine homes in that city. While in Pomona he owned a five-acre
orange and lemon grove in San Dimas, which he sold later. His
present ten-acre lemon and orange ranch is located on North Glen
Street. Mr. Adams does all his own budding and has recently budded
250 trees to Valencia oranges. In .1918 his 500 six-year-old lemon
trees yielded $1,000 worth of fruit.
He has been twice married. His first wife, who was Miss Phoebie
Beckley of Waterloo, Iowa, before her marriage, bore him six chil-
dren: Jessie and Jennie, twins. Jessie is Mrs. Mock of Glendale,
Cal., and the mother of four living children; Jennie is Mrs. Skeele of
La Jord, Saskatchewan, Canada, and is the mother of four living
children; John B., of Morrillton, Ark., was city postal deliverer of
Waterloo, Iowa, for about ten years. He has eight children; Anna,
formerly a school teacher, later a graduate from Hahnemann Hos-
pital, New York, who is now a professional trained nurse in Bakers-
field Hospital in charge of the X-ray department. One son, Darwin,
was in the railway mail service and later a fumigator, and Katie died
in San Diego. Mr. Adams' second wife was Miss Alma E. Harroun,
a native of Minnesota, but a resident of Mason City, Iowa, before her
marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Adams have many warm friends, and they
have the confidence and esteem of all who know them. They are Re-
publicans and advocates of temperance, and members of the Christa-
delphian Church.
HISTORY AND lUOGRAI'IIV 51l
JOSEPH MORGAN PAIGE
A proficient and influential public official of Pomona who is much
interested in the development of Pomona Valley, is Joseph Morgan
Paige, superintendent of parks, whose efficiency is shown in the suc-
cessful care of more than 120 miles of trees. He was born near
Sedalia, Pettis County, Mo., on September 13, 1867, the son of
Charles Anson Paige, a native of Vermont, who married Louisa
Morgan, a New Yorker. Charles Paige was a farmer and the first
school teacher in his county. He was a member of Company E, Fourth
Vermont Volunteer Infantry, serving over three years, and was
wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness. He died at the age of
seventy-three. Mrs. Paige is still living at seventy-five, the mother
of seven boys and two girls.
The oldest child, Joseph was educated at the rural schools and
followed farming until he was twenty. After that he mo-ved to Texas
and was engaged in agriculture, and then he went to Kansas City,
where he worked for a short time at the tinner's trade. He made good
progress and prospered in all that he undertook, but he had a lo\'e for
flowers and resolved to enter a field where he might build permanently.
Removing to St. Louis, Mr. Paige entered the famous Botanical
Gardens established in 1870 by Henry Shaw, the English-American
philanthropist, and consisting of 190 acres, and for thirteen years and
seven months he prosecuted Avork there, having charge of the depart-
ment of construction for the last six years of the course. Mr. Paige
was then connected with the Forestry and Fish Department of the
Lewis and Clark Exposition, in Portland, as one of the assistant super-
intendents, and at the close of the fair he went to Watsonville, Cal.,
where he was in the employ of the Ford Mercantile Company. Then
he went back to St. Louis for a year and while there did post-grad-
uate work.
In 1907 Mr. Paige came to Pomona, and on January 1, two
years later, he took charge of his present responsible work. He laid
out Lincoln and Garfield Parks, artistic conceptions of his own crea-
tion, the grounds around the City Hall, the borders of many public
roads, and conceived the idea of building the Greek Theater in
Ganesha Park. He has been president for three terms of the Arboro
Horticultural Association of Southern California, and Is chairman
of the Parks, Roads and Improvement Committee of the Chamber of
Commerce In Pomona.
Mr. Paige Is a director of the Pomona Chamber of Commerce
and also of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of the San Gabriel
Valley, and president of the Boy Scouts Council of Pomona Valley.
He Is a director of the local Red Cross, and helped as captain in all
the war drives. He is superintendent of the First Baptist Church
312 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Sunday School, and vice-president of the Southern California Baptist
Sunday School Convention, and also a director of the Y. M. C. A.
Mr. Paige was married on April 26, 1900, at St. Louis, Mo., to
Miss Mary L. Harding, by whom he had a daughter, Edna May. He
was married the first time in St. Louis, August 24, 1891, to Marie
Elizabeth Beaumont, who died in 1896, leaving one son, Clyde Anson,
a corporal in the United States Army, a member of Company A,
Twelfth Lifantry, Eighth Division, and was on board a transport when
the armistice was signed. He received his discharge and is now in the
office of Architect R. H. Orr. The family attend the Baptist Church.
HERBERT CLARE FOSTER
The life history of the early pioneers of California is indeed
inspiring, demanding as it did perseverance and resourcefulness to
meet the new and untried problems of their day, but no less important
in its way has been the development: of a new generation, trained to
handle the developing resources of the country, for to the men who
have organized the citrus industry of this state is due a large measure of
credit for putting this great industry on a prosperous and profitable
basis. Prominent among the men who have had a guiding hand in this
organization is Herbert Clare Foster, well known through his connec-
tion as manager of the San Dimas Fruit Growers Exchange.
A Canadian by birth, Herbert Clare Foster was born in Simcoe,
Ontario, on June 20, 1876, and is the son of William O. and Helen J.
(Austin) Foster. The father was of Scotch-Irish descent and the
mother came of an old Maryland family. Her death occurred in
1919, and William O. Foster now resides with his son Herbert, the
subject of this review. Herbert Clare Foster was fortunate in receiv-
ing an excellent education which has proved to be an invaluable asset
in all his later undertakings. He first attended the public schools at
St. Thomas, Ontario, and then took a preparatory course in the Col-
legiate Institute at St. Thomas, after which he was with his father in
the drug business. In 1894 he came to Cleveland, Ohio, where he was
the representative of a typewriter exchange for about two years.
In 1896 Mr. Foster entered the employ of the Southern Cali-
fornia Fruit Exchange at Buffalo, N. Y., and in 1897 he was trans-
ferred to the Chicago office of the exchange, where he was actively
engaged until 1900, when he was made district manager of the Cen-
tral Illinois District of the exchange, with headquarters at Peoria, 111.
Being desirous of coming to California, he resigned his position in
1912, and coming here he accepted the position that had been tendered
him as secretary and manager of the San Dimas Fruit Exchange,
which had just been organized; thus he was the first manager of the
exchange after its organization, a position that he has held uninter-
ruptedly ever since.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 515
Mr. Foster's marriage in Chicago, 111., united him with Mrs.
Florence (Maxwell) Rutter, of whom he was bereaved in 1915; one
child was born of their union, a son named Herbert M. Mr. Foster's
second marriage occurred in August, 1919, when he was united with
Miss Helen England, a native of Valley Falls, Kansas.
Politically, Mr. Foster espouses the platform of the Republican
party and in fraternal relations he affiliates with Pomona Lodge,
Knights of Pythias. Force of character and business acumen are the
traits that have contributed to the success he has attained in life, and
have made him a valued member of the community. He takes a con-
structive interest in all things pertaining to Pomona Valley, is public
spirited and esteemed by all who know him.
FRED E. AND FRANK E. ELLSWORTH
Two thoroughly wide-awake and progressive business men, rep-
resentative in every way of the Pomona spirit, who are well and favor-
ably known throughout the Valley, to which they came when they were
just attaining manhood, are Fred E. and Frank E. Ellsworth, pioneer
building contractors, natives of Greene County, Wis., where they were
born on August 29, 1862. Their father, Lorenzo Ellsworth, who came
from New York, followed a mercantile business at Rochester and later
moved to Wisconsin, where he located near Monroe, in Greene
County, and took up farming. In 1870, he moved to Goodhue County,
Minn., about twenty-five miles from St. Paul, and in 1887, the time
of the great boom in realty in California, he pushed still further West,
to La Verne, in the Pomona Valley. The smiling acres and other
favorable conditions incidental, brought him prosperity; and he was
able to retire as the years passed by. He died at Pomona, in 1907, at
the age of ninety-two, while his wife lived to be eighty-five years old.
She had been Miss Sarah Jane Taft. They had five children : Emma,
who became Mrs. Hartman Loomis of Minnesota; Minnie, the wife
of Eri Loomis, also of that commonwealth; Fred E. and Frank E.,
the subjects of whom we now write; and Ida May, afterwards Mrs.
A. E. Barnes of Pomona.
As boys, back in Wisconsin, Fred and Frank followed farming,
getting a first-class preparation in agricultural work before, in 1883,
they came further West, to La Verne, then Lordsburg, and became
pioneers in the undeveloped Pomona Valley. Their uncle, J. A.
Packard, had preceded them here, and had bought 170 acres of raw
land, to the north of Lordsburg, now known as the Evergreen Ranch,
and they set to work with a will to develop the place. At first, grapes
and deciduous fruit were raised, and later these were dug out and
oranges planted. They brought the place to a high state of cultiva-
tion, and Fred was for twelve years foreman of the ranch. When they
516 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
left, they had 100 acres planted to oranges, and now all of the acreage
is devoted to the cultivation of that fruit, and the place is one of the
most productive in the Valley.
For a year, Fred was foreman of the Indian Hill Packing Plant,
and then the two brothers engaged in the fruit and grocery business
in Pomona, until 1909, when they entered upon contracting and build-
ing, in which they are now engaged. They have uniformly done fine
work, and among the notable places built by them in the Valley may
be mentioned the home of C. R. Clark, three houses for Harry H.
Denny, the F. D. Baker residence, a residence costing $4,000 in Pasa-
dena and a modern bungalow at Altadena. In Delano they built five
houses for the Fred L. Baker Company of Los Angeles, and they also
constructed three other residences there for Mr. Northey. Together,
the Messrs. Ellsworth own an orange grove of ten acres, all of seven-
year-old trees, in the Monte Vista Tract, east of San Bernardino Ave-
nue— choice property, reflecting the good judgment of the purchasers
and developers.
Both of the brothers have been married. Fred became the hus-
band of Miss Sophia Herring, a native of Minnesota, at Claremont,
on May 17, 1887, and she is now treasurer of the home missionary
society of the Methodist Church, in which organization he has been
active for many years. He is now affiliated with the Trinity Methodist
Church, has been treasurer of the Sunday School since the church was
organized and is now chief usher. At La \^erne, Frank married Miss
Stella Barnes, who died in the spring of 1919, the mother of two
children, Paul and Ruth, and honored and beloved by all who knew
her. Both Fred and Frank Ellsworth belong to the Fraternal Aid, and
thev are also Odd Fellows.
CHARLES V. GILLETTE
The importance Pomona has attained as a city and the promise
of growth and development in the near future has brought the best
talent in all branches of business to her environs. Charles V. Gillette,
the well-known painter and interior decorator of Pomona, was born
in Hayes City, Kans., August 4, 1881. He was but six years of age
when he accompanied his parents to California, in 1887. The family
settled at Stockton, San Joaquin County, and young Charles received
his education in the public schools of that city. When sixteen years
of age, in 1897, he went to San Francisco and learned the trade of
painter and decorator with a man experienced in that line of work. He
followed this trade in San Francisco until April, 1906, when he was
driven out of the place by the disaster that overtook the city in the
earthquake and fire which followed it. He came to Pomona in 1906,
where for two years he was in the employ of William A. Vandegrift.
He then began contracting on his own account, and has been engaged
QyS^^^txi^
HISTORY AXD BIOGRAPHY 519
in this business ever since. He is the leader in his line of work in
Pomona and is noted for the excellency of his work and its artistic
qualities. He makes a specialty of inside work, and even in dull times
is kept busy. In 1913 he was called to Los Angeles to do the work on
one of the large apartment houses in that city. He did the decorating
on the new Opera Garage, the Hotel Avis and the Claremont High
School, and among the fine homes that he has decorated in Pomona
may be mentioned the residences of Lee Pitzer, William A. Fox,
W. L. Wright and Col. F. P. Firey.
He married Esther Welch, June 20, 1906, daughter of E. H.
Welch, the pioneer of North Pomona, and they have two children,
Irving and Everett by name.
In his religious convictions Mr. Gillette is a member of the First
Christian Church at Pomona. Fraternally, he belongs to the inner
guard of Pomona Lodge No. 107, K. of P., and is a member of
Pomona Lodge No. 246, F. & A. M.
AMERICUS BENEZETTE AVIS
A substantial business man who brought with him from the East
the valuable experience of nearly two decades, is Americus Benezette
Avis, the hardware dealer of Second Street. He was born at Lincoln,
Gloucester County, N. J., on February 14, 1856, the son of Paul Avis,
who was long prominent in county offices, and Sarah (Benezette)
Avis, both of whom are now dead.
The oldest child of seven children born to this union, Americus
was educated in the public schools, and when he was ready for a busi-
ness career, he engaged in the hardware business at Vinland, N. J.,
where he remained in that line for eighteen years. Despite the fact
that the field was not equal to his capacity, he nevertheless laid there
the foundation in experiment and experience of his later and larger
successes.
In 1903 he came to Pomona, and reestablished himself by starting
his present business. In January, 1904, he bought his present business
property, and there he has since been closely identified with the life
of the town. In May, 1919, Mr. Avis incorporated his business as
Avis Hardware Company, himself as president and Charles E. Otto,
vice-president, and his daughter, Ethyle Avis, secretary and treasurer.
He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and has served as one
of its directors for two terms.
In Vineland, N. J., on April 20, 1886, Mr. Avis was united in
marriage with Miss Phoebe Angeline Wilcox, of Philadelphia, Pa.,
and two children have blessed their union, Ethyle, as above stated,
secretary and treasurer of the Avis Hardware Company, and Paul,
who served in the United States Army in France, as a sergeant of
520 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Company B, One Hundred Sixtieth Regiment of Infantry. The
family are members of the First Methodist Church, where they are
especially popular, Mr. Avis being chairman of its board of trustees.
Mr. Avis is a Mason and belongs to the Lodge, Chapter and
Commandery in Pomona. But fond as he is of fraternal life and his
many friends in the orders, he also likes hunting and fishing, and re-
joices to find himself in Nature's great outdoors, Southern California.
JOHN BRADFORD CAMP
Noted throughout the Valley as the man who first used the fumi-
gating method in the preservation of orange groves, John B. Camp
of La Verne deserves mention as one of the early citrus growers of
this section and the inventor of the baboon tent used to fumigate the
trees and save them from the insect pests which at one time threatened
to destroy the orange industry here. Born on a farm in Tennessee on
June 24, 1844, Mr. Camp came of a family who were opposed to
slavery, and when the Civil War broke out, he espoused the cause of
the Union. He was conscripted into the Confederate Army and hid
in the woods for a year to avoid serving in their ranks. During this
time he had many thrilling experiences with Confederate soldiers. He
was finally captured and bayonetted, but made his escape and helped
five other prisoners to escape also. He made his way from near Chat-
tanooga for 300 miles through the mountains of Tennessee and Ken-
tucky, finally reaching the Union Army near Lexington, Ky. He then
made his way to the home of a brother in Illinois, who sent him to
school for four years at the L^niversity of Chicago. He was a student
there at the time that Lincoln was assassinated and was one of the
procession of 75,000 that marched through the streets of Chicago.
He then returned to Tennessee and engaged in the mercantile
business, and during his residence there he was married to Miss Mary
D. Bridges, daughter of Col. George Bridges of the United States
Army. Later they moved to Kansas, where he engaged in stock farm-
ing, but was driven out by the grasshoppers, losing all that he had
accumulated. Coming to California in 1874, Mr. Camp came down
the Valley on the first passenger train operated by the Southern Pacific,
in 1875. He lived in Riverside for five years, being engaged in the
nursery business. In 1880 Mrs. Camp passed away, and Mr. Camp
took his three little motherless children back to Tennessee to his
people. In 1881 he returned to Riverside, and well remembers in
December of that year seeing snow eleven inches deep all over the
Riverside plain, and improvised sleighs being driven through the
streets of that city.
In 1882, Mr. Camp purchased thirty acres on San Antonio Ave-
nue, Pomona, improving the property to grapes and deciduous and
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 521
citrus fruits. He sank nine wells in the Loop and Meserve Tract and
was one of the starters of the Citizens Water Company. He still owns
160 acres on Brown's Flat, north of Claremont. A man of education
and breadth of interests, Mr. Camp during his residence in Pomona
•took a keen interest in its upbuilding and assisted whenever possible in
its further development. He ha-; the honor of making the Hrst effort
to give the people of California, and also of the whole country, the
right of the initiative, the referendum and the recall. In 1892 he was
president of the Los Angeles County Farmers Alliance, and induced
that organization to petition the Legislature to incorporate such a
measure in the constitution. Such a bill passed the Assembly, but did
not reach the Senate. Fraternally, Mr. Camp has been for many years
a Mason, being a member of the Blue Lodge, Royal Arch Chapter and
the Council, all of Pomona. One son, Orin, lives to carry on the
family name.
WILLIAM R. COON
An orange grower who, despite the difficult problems of a science
still in the making, has "made good" here, thereby contributing some-
what to the development of Pomona and the increase of its wealth, is
William R. Coon, who was born at Troy, N. Y., on July 3, 1883. Llis
father was one of the founders of the Cluett-Coon Company (now
Cluett-Peabody Company), the famous collar makers, and he enjoyed
the best of educational advantages. He attended Yale College and
graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School, in 1904. Then, for two
years, he was engaged in the wall-paper business at New York City.
Coming to California and Pomona in 1907, he decided to master
orange growing; and, with his customary methods of thoroughness, he
set about to begin at the lowest round of the ladder, or at least to start
out with the simplest operations and facts. For a year he worked as
a common laborer on an orange ranch, and then he bought a grove of
thirteen acres on Mountain Avenue in the Kingsley Tract. This grove
had been badly run down; but he so improved it that later he sold off
three acres, and now he has ten acres left. For a number of years he
did his own work in developing the property, thereby more surely
mastering the game and at the same time becoming more and more
robust with the outdoor experience; but now his operations are more
extensive, requiring help. He also owns a grove of six acres on Fifth
Street, Ontario, and this he also improved. He recently bought three
acres within the city limits of Pomona, on which he plans to build
a fine home.
With R. B. Denny of Claremont as a partner, Mr. Coon owns
two more groves, which are being improved. A few years ago he
started a mail-order business, selling oranges direct to the consumer,
all over the country, and he advertised In the Country Gentleman that
522 HISTORY AXD lUOGRAPHV
he would ship three dozen oranges, neatly packed, for $1, express
prepaid. He received orders from nearly every state In the Union,
and even from Honolulu, and worked up such a large business that
it proved a good advertisement for California, and especially for
Pomona Valley. He also packed and shipped small boxes of oranges
of the tangerine variety under the "Coon Brand." With twelve in
a box, the sales ran from 7,000 to 10,000, and this lively business has
been maintained. He has also made a specialty of buying direct from
the grower and shipping oranges east. He was a director of the
Claremont Citrus Association and also a director of the Packard
Water Company.
On October 2, 1909, and at Claremont, Cal., Mr. Coon was
married to Miss Jeannette Durbin, a native of San Diego County, and
at one time a student at Pomona College. Three children have blessed
the union — Dorothy F., Margaret E. and William R., Jr. The family
attend the First Presbyterian Church of Pomona.
CHARLES P. CURRAX
It would be difficult to find a man more emphatically in accord
with the true Western spirit of progress, or more keenly alive to the
opportunities awaiting the intelligent man of affairs in Pomona Valley
than Charles P. Curran, who has built up a successful lumber busi-
ness, and identified himself with the best undertakings of his district.
A native of Illinois, Mr. Curran was born In Dixon, May 4, 1863,
a son of Daniel and Catherine (Donoghue) Curran. His father was
a prominent contractor and builder of Dixon for forty years.
Educated in the public schools of Dixon, Mr. Curran entered
the high school there, but did not finish the course, and for a time
worked with his father, later joining him in business for a number
of years. In the spring of 1895, he came to California, and settled
In Norwalk on a ranch for one and one-half years. Then, because
of his wife's health, he went to Prescott, Ariz., stayed there the same
length of time, and finally took his wife back to Illinois and her death
occurred in Chicago, in 1898. After this sad event Mr. Curran
worked for a time at Polo, 111., then returned to California and for
several months worked for the gas company in Los Angeles.
In June, 1902, he came to Pomona, and with his brother, Frank
Curran, opened the lumber yard with which he has been so success-
fuly identified ever since. He later bought out his brother's Interest
In the business, and now his sons are a part of the firm, which still
maintains the firm name of Curran Brothers, Incorporated.
Mr. Curran's first marriage united him with Miss Alice Mc-
Grath, the ceremony taking place September 20, 1890. Two sons
were born to them: Phillip J., who served with the United States
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 525
Army in France; and Gerald. The wife and mother died February
24, 1898.
On February 20, 1913, Mr. Curran was united in marriage with
Grace A. Ager, a native of Minnesota. A man of considerable force
of character, and deeply interested in furthering the development of
the Valley, Mr. Curran has proven an active worker toward that end
since first taking up his residence here. Of the original directors and
organizers of the Savings Bank of Pomona he is the only one now
serving on the board; he was one of the original organizers of the
Home Builders Association of this city. Mr. Curran was a member
of the original Board of Trade here and has for the past fourteen
years been on the board of directors of the Chamber of Commerce;
for the same length of time he has been serving on the Hospital
Board. In fraternal organizations he is a member of the Elks and of
the Knights of Pythias.
EDWARD E. GILLEN
A prominent figure in Pomona business circles, and a man of fine
character and superior mental qualities, the late Edward E. Gillen was
identified during his residence here with the development of the Valley,
both individually and as an enterprising real estate promoter. Born
in Eden, Vt., November 12, 1863, he came to Franklin, Nebr., when
fifteen years of age, worked on a farm during the summer months,
and attended school in winter for several years. He then entered
Franklin Academy, graduating from that institution when twenty-one
years of age.
After finishing his college course Mr. Gillen went to Benkelman,
Nebr., and went into the real estate business, in which he was quite
successful until the state suffered from several dry years. In the fall
of 1893, Mr. Gillen with his family moved to Pocatello, Idaho, and
there he engaged in the grocery business; this business he was obliged
to give up on account of sickness, and in November, 1895, moved to
San Antonio, Texas, where he was assistant secretary of the Y. M.
C. A., remaining in that position until the winter of 1897. That year
Mr. Gillen went to Baltimore, Md., to work for the Historic Record
Company in the gathering of historical data, and continued in this
work for about six years. He later compiled two sets of histories
of the state of Utah.
The marriage of Mr. Gillen, December 29, 1889, in Benkelman,
Nebr., united him with Bertha E. Gring, and five children were born
to them: Earle C, Lloyd William, Everett M., Anna B. and Edith
Marguerite. Two of these, Lloyd and Edith, died when only two
years of age. Mrs. Gillen was born in Bowling Green, Ohio, a daugh-
ter of W. B. and Jane E. (Smith) Gring, both natives of Ohio, her
father being a veteran of the Civil War; as a member of an Ohio
526 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
regiment he was captured and a prisoner of war in Andersonville for
six months.
The family moved from Chicago to Los Angeles, and in the
summer of 1899 he became interested in the Belgian hare industry,
and made three trips to England to get the best pedigreed imported
stock. Mr. S. J. Chapman and Mr. Gillen were partners in this work
and were quite successful for the short time that they gave to it. After
closing out this venture, Mr. Gillen again took up his historical work,
until the spring of 1903, when he moved to Pomona and purchased a
seven-acre orange grove, on Kingsley and Orange avenues, and here
made his home, and lived until his death, which occurred October 17,
1914.
During his years of residence in Pomona Mr. Gillen again en-
gaged in the real estate business, and was interested to a considerable
extent in the citrus industry, owning, besides his home ranch, a ten-
acre grove on Holt A\enue, and a five-acre grove on Kingsley Avenue.
In addition to these holdings he was the owner of numerous city lots
and some business property here. He Avas a member of the board of
directors of the Chamber of Commerce, and president of the Repub-
lican Club, and always very much interested in city affairs and the
upbuilding of Pomona. Fraternally he was an active worker in the
Odd Fellows lodge, in which order he was a past grand of the subor-
dinate lodge, a member of the Encampment and of the Rebekahs.
JOSEPH ELLIOT
The mind can conjure no picture in the line of fruit-growing so
beautiful or attractive as an orange grove, and this Eesthetic side of
the culture of the orange appeals to the imagination of the Easterner
as strongly, perhaps, as the millions that flow into the coffer annually
from the sale of this delicious fruit.
Men from all states of the Union can be found among the suc-
cessful orange grove owners of Southern California. Among these
Joseph Elliot of Pomona Valley is entitled to mention. He was born
in Allen County, Kans., October 12, 1874, and reared in the town of
Colony, Anderson County, in the Sunflower State. In 1891, at the
age of seventeen, he came to Pomona, and, like many other young
men, worked in the orange gro\'es of the Valley. He was in the
employ of the Lindsey Brothers of Ontario, setting out orange groves,
and helped set out many of the productive groves in Pomona Valley
and was largely instrumental in the development of the industry.
For ten years he followed the barber's trade at Pomona and
Covina, and in 1902 purchased his present five-acre place at the corner
of Alexander and East Kingsley Avenue. He has a finely developed
orange orchard, one-half of which is planted to Navel and the other
half to Valencia trees. He has also fifteen twelve-year-old walnut trees
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 527
and a family orchard. The property was undeveloped at the time he
bought the land and he set out all the trees and developed the place
himself. In 1916, his 192 Valencia trees produced 1,500 boxes of fruit,
and 192 Navel trees produced 800 boxes of fruit. He has installed
a fine cement-pipe system of irrigation on the property and is the
owner of a manufacturing plant of cement pipes for irrigation pur-
poses. He does this work in his spare time, and has installed a number
of irrigation systems in the Valley. His witle acquaintance with and
excellent knowledge of the orange industry, coupled with good judg-
ment and industry, has enabled him to make a success of the business.
His marriage united him with Alva ]\I. Robker, a native daughter
of California, whose father was among the early pioneers in Mendo-
cino County, who engaged in the lumber business. Their seven chil-
dren are: Verna, Frances, Alfred, Margaret, Maxine, Ruth and
Phyllis. In his fraternal affiliations Mr. Elliot is a Moose.
FRANK C. EVANS
An old settler who so far succeeded in casting his lines in pleasant
places, when he came to Pomona, that now, in comfortable retirement,
he needs only to look after his ranch property, is Frank C. Evans, who
was born at Boston, Mass., on February 14, 1849. At the age of
twenty-two he removed to Lowell, in that state, and clerked in a meat
market; and on June 11, 1873, he arrived at Los Angeles. Soon after,
he took up 160 acres of government land adjoining the San Jose Grant,
near what is now La Verne, and later lost the same ; and later, in 1 876,
he took up the same number of acres in Section 132 in the Live Oak
District, and, proving it up, became the second man to settle in that
neighborhood. He still owns eighty acres of the land originally
granted by the government, which is devoted to the raising of grain,
fruit and bees.
In 1884 Mr. Evans came to Pomona, and his previous experience
in the meat business becoming known, he was offered a position as fore-
man and bookkeeper of the Chino Ranch Markets. In 1912 he retired
from the meat business, with the satisfaction of having contributed to
the proper guidance of Pomona commercial affairs.
Mr. Evans was fortunate in his marriage, at Chino Ranch, to
Lillian M. Watt, an attractive lady of Canadian birth, by whom he
has had six children : Harriet is the oldest, then come Harold, Frank
and Kathleen, and the youngest are Edward and Madeline.
Surrounded by interested auditors, Mr. Evans never fails to enter-
tain with his stories of early, frontier days. When he came there were
only a few white people in the Valley, and antelope roamed at will ;
and while the Indians prospected for gold, he searched for the yellow
dust in Palmer Canyon, the only district where gold was found in the
Valley, and brought it into Pomona, where he sold it for $18.50 an
328 , HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
ounce. Men needed to have brawn as well as brain in those strenuous
times — although it was not long before brain counted for as much as
muscle and other physical endurance.
JOHN S. BILLHEIMER
One of the leading and most progressive men in San Dinias,
who by his energy and enterprise has contributed greatly to the up-
building of this section is John S. Billheimer, secretary and manager
of the San Dimas Lumber Company, a successful business man and
financier. He was born in Jonesboro, Tenn., April 10, 1864. His
father. Rev. Isaac Billheimer, was a minister of the gospel in the old
days when he preached gratis and farmed for a living. In 1872 he
removed with his family to Clinton County, Ind., where as a minister
he did much good and was a much loved and highly respected man;
his death occurred in 1910. Mr. Billheimer's mother was Salome
E. Sherfy and she died in 1879. She was the mother of six children,
of whom John S. is the eldest; he was reared in Clinton County, Ind.,
from the age of eight years, whither his parents had removed in 1872.
Here he received a good education in the public schools, which was
supplemented with a course at Mt. Morris College, Mt. Morris, 111.
Then he made his way to Kansas in 1885 and taught school near
Lawrence, Franklin County, until 1887, when he satisfied a desire to
come to the Pacific Coast and located in Pasadena, where he was en-
gaged in business until 1901, nearly all of which time was spent in the
lumber trade. While thus engaged he completed a commercial course
at the Pasadena Business College, an accomplishment he has since
found of great value and benefit to him.
Finding a good opening for a lumber yard in Lords"burg, now
named La Verne, he organized the Lordsburg Lumber Company, of
which he has since been president and general manager. He estab-
lished a lumber yard in that prosperous locality and has met with
pronounced success. When the name of Lordsburg was changed to
La Verne they named the company the La Verne Lumber Company.
From his advent there he supplied San Dimas .with lumber, and seeing
the need of a yard, he organized the San Dimas Lumber Company in
1904 and established the lumber yard. He had also supplied Clare-
mont with lumber so he also organized the Claremont Lumber Com-
pany, and was its president until he sold his interest. He is now secre-
tary and manager of the San Dimas Lumber Company, a business that
has grown to \ery large proportions.
He resided at La Verne several years, and then moved to Los
Angeles. In 1909 he purchased a ten-acre orange grove on North
San Dimas Avenue, and the same year he moved onto it and en-
gaged in citrus culture. The orange orchard is fortunate in its loca-
tion, being one of the mosl desirable home sites in Southern Cali-
HISTORY AND F.IOGRAPHY 331
fornia. In 1910 he was elected a director of the San Dimas Orange
Growers Association, and in 1919 was elected vice-president of this
association. He is also a director and vice-president of the First
National Bank of San Dimas, as well as of the San Dimas Savings
Bank.
In Covina occurred the marriage of Mr. Billheimer, when he
was united with Miss Anna L. Overholtzer, a native daughter, born
at Tracy. Her father, Samuel A. Overholtzer, crossed the plains to
California in 1864 and engaged in farming in San Joaquin County
for many years. He then located at Covina, where he became a citrus
grower. Mr. and Mrs. Billheimer's union has been blessed with two
children, Glenn I., a graduate of Bonita high school, who learned the
lumber business under his father and is now holding a responsible
position with the E. K. Wood Lumber Company at San Pedro; and
Vera, a student at "Broad Oaks," Pasadena. Always interested in
education, he is a trustee of Bonita Union High school, and has taken
an active part in making for that school the high and accredited stand-
ing it enjoys, having served two years as president of the board.
In his religious convictions Mr. Billheimer is a member of the
Christian Church, in politics he supports the Republican platform, and
in his fraternal affiliations he is a member of San Dimas Lodge of
Masons, a member of the Maccabees and of the Woodmen of the
World. Mr. Billheimer is never idle, but an inveterate worker, lead-
ing a strenuous life because it is not alone his own business that en-
grosses all of his time, but he devotes much of it to matters and posi-
tions to which he has been selected by his fellowmen; thus in his liberal
and enterprising way giving of his time and means as far as he is able
towards the improvement' and advancing the standard of education
and morals in the community. He is a very domestic man, enjoying
and taking pride in his family and home. He is well and favorably
known for his integrity and honesty of purpose, as well as his quickness
of perception and sagacity of judgment, and is deserving of having his
name perpetuated in the annals of the history of Southern California
as a man who has done his share in helping to develop the country
and in adding to its material Avealth.
FRED C. JACOBS
One of the rising young men of Pomona, who has evidenced his
ability and given promise of a brilliant, because a highly-useful future,
is Fred C. Jacobs, the assistant manager of the Pomona Fruit Growers
Exchange, and a successful orange grower as well. He was born at
Jamestown, N. D., on December 27, 1883, and when three years of
age came west to Denver, Colo., with his parents. He attended the
Denver public schools and later learned stenography and typewriting.
For a while he was in the employ of the Denver & Northwestern
532 • HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Pacific Railway, and later entered the service of the Rocky Mountain
Fuel Company. When, after four years with that well-known concern,
he left their employ, he had attained to the responsible position of
traveling auditor.
In 1909 he came to Pomona, and engaged as bookkeeper with the
Pomona Fruit Growers Exchange, a position he filleti with his usual
conscientious application to routine duty until he was given a still better
chance to show what he could and would do as assistant manager. He
is now also secretary and manager of the Claremont Citrus Association.
When Mr. Jacobs came to marry — at Denver, Colo., and on
May 15, 1909 — he chose for his bride Miss Zoe L. Burdette, a native
of West Virginia and a member of a family distinguished through the
famous humorist. Bob Burdette, of late years also a resident of Cali-
fornia ; and two sons have come to bless their happy home. Fred B.
is the older, and the other is named Byron P. Jacobs. Both were born
in Pomona. Mr. Jacobs is a Knight Templar Mason, and for three
years he served as secretary of the local bodies.
CAPT. CHARLES J. FOX
Although a native of England, where he was born at Manchester,
October 31, 1842, Capt. Charles J. Fox has no memory of the land
of his birth, for he was but one year old when he accompanied his
parents to the United States on a sailing vessel, which made the trip
in three months.
He was reared at Pontiac, Oakland County, Mich., and is a
veteran of the Civil War, having enlisted in 1864 in the Fourth Michi-
gan Infantry. He was lieutenant in his company and later captain in
Company H, under Col. J. W. Hall, and saw service in Tennessee,
Alabama, Mississippi and Texas. He still carries the bullet by which
he was injured in guerilla warfare in one of the many skirmishes that
he participated in in Tennessee, and among the relics in his home is
the gun he was shot with, which was taken from the guerilla, and
which he prizes very highly. He served on the general staff at San
Antonio, Texas, and had charge of cleaning up the city. In those days
San Antonio had but fifteen thousand population. The Captain wears
the button of the Loyal Legion, of which he was a member, and after
brilliant service, he was mustered out at Houston, Texas, May 26,
1866. At the close of the war he returned to Pontiac, Mich., and was
appointed and served several years as revenue assessor in Michigan.
He was also the proprietor of a clothing store at Pontiac, which he
sold in 1888, and went to Seattle, Wash., where he engaged in the
making of brick, twelve miles from Seattle. He founded, laid out and
built up the town of Pontiac, Wash., and was its first postmaster. He
was a member of the firm of the Pontiac Brick and Tile Company,
which did a large business, and their brick was used in many of the
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 533
public buildings, among others the Denny Hotel Block, the Court
House, and the Burke Block at Pontiac, Wash.
In November, 1890, while on a visit to Pomona, Cal., Captain
Fox purchased twelve acres of one-year-old orange trees in the Packard
Orange Grove tract, from J. E. Packard, and in 1893 came to Po-
mona to locate permanently, where he has since lived on his orange
grove. The place is very productive, is well kept and is one of the
attractive places among many beautiful homes in Pomona.
The marriage of Captain Fox was solemnized in Michigan, June
2, 1881, and united him with Miss Arabella W. Kirby, a native of that
state.' The children born of their union are: Charles Kirby, a civil
engineer of Los Angeles; Lillian Buirne, who was secretary of the Red
Cross at Pomona during the late war; and William H., a mechanic
of Hollywood, Cal.
Mrs. Fox is a very active member of the Daughters of the Amer-
ican Revolution, and Captain Fox is one of the original members of
the Pomona Fruit Growers Exchange, being the seventeenth person
to sign up for the exchange. In his religious convictions he is a mem-
ber of the Episcopal Church. He was a member of the Dick Richard-
son Post, G. A. R., at Pontiac, Wash., and still keeps the memory of
past days green in associating with the boys who served their country
in its great stress in the sixties by membership in Vicksburg Post, G.
A. R., at Pomona. He is also a member of the Loyal Legion of
California, is identified with the Masonic order at Pomona and is a
Knight Templar.
JOHN WILFORD KEISER
Among the progressive, energetic young men of Pomona Valley,
J. Wilford Keiser deserves mention. He is the youngest son of
William T. and Elizabeth (Stoner) Keiser, and was born in Wood-
ford County, 111., May 7, 1881. He Avas seventeen years old when
he came with his parents to Pomona Valley in 1898. He attended one
term at Lordsburg College, then began the occupation of farming on
his own account, renting a part of his father's ranch at La Verne. He
raised grain and hay for eight years, and also set out a ten-acre orange
grove. He sold the orange grove, purchased a lot on Third Street
at La Verne, built a home, and conducted the La Verne Fuel and Feed
Store for two years. He was the third one in the family to own this
business. He next bought a twenty-acre ranch in the Chino district
and raised alfalfa and beets for eight years. Disposing of this, he
rented 120 acres of land in Pomona Valley, in San Bernardino County,
on which he has raised barley and oats for the past four years. The
barley i-uns fifteen sacks to an acre and oats cut for hay average one
and one-half tons to the acre. He recently bought a six-acre orange
grove of eighteen-year-old trees in Val Vista Tract, west of Ganesha
534 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Park. In 1919 he had seven acres planted to tomatoes, which were
sold to the cannery.
On June 25, 1902, he married Nancy A. Bowman, a native of
Indiana, and they are the parents of two children: Glenn W., born
September, 1904, and Howard, born July, 1916.
Mr. Keiser is a member of the Brethren Church. He is the
owner of a new, modern home at 915 South White Avenue, Pomona,
also a tract of ten and one-half acres in the Packard Orange Grove
Tract, which he intends setting to walnuts and to make his home place.
WELCOME A. BAUMGARDNER
A progressive rancher and his wife of a very aggressive type,
who have come to play an enviable part in the development of agricul-
ture in the Pomona Valley, is Welcome A. Baumgardner, who was
born in Cabell County, W. Va., on February 15, 1852, and there
reared on a farm. His father was James Baumgardner of West Vir-
ginia, and he married Elizabeth Wilson, daughter of Samuel Wilson.
Welcome Baumgardner learned both the trade of a blacksmith
and how to be a good farmer, and he had a shop at Huntington,
W. Va. In 1888 he removed to Carroll County, Mo., near Carrollton,
and there he had another shop. Whatever he did, he sought to attain
the best results, and the experience acquired in these earlier vears
proved later of the greatest value when he threw himself in with the
trend of progress along the bustling Pacific.
In 1910 he located at Pomona, and the following year bought
his present ranch of five acres of apricots and peaches. This gro\e
was badly run down, but by intelligent management and hard work, he
brought it up to a fine state of advanced cultivation. The three acres
of apricots produced six tons the first year, thirteen tons the second,
thirty tons in 1918, and twenty-two tons in 1919. Mr. Baumgardner
continues to take the best care of the place, and he has built there for
himself a modern bungalow. His peaches are of the Tuscany cling
variety. Originally, Mr. Baumgardner came to Pomona on account
of climate and opportunities, and has become a good "booster" for
the Valley and its unrivalled climate.
While at Barbersvilie, W. Va., in 1873, Mr. Baumgardner was
married to Miss Isadora Bowen, a native of West Virginia, and the
daughter of Dyke and Sarah Ann (Davis) Bowen, and by her he
has had eight daughters and one son, and all but the latter are still
living — a rather remarkable record of health and longevity. Bertha
has become Mrs. James A. Parker of Fresno, Cal.; Mownie is Mrs.
J. B. Wilson of Carrollton, Mo. ; Minnie is Mrs. J. A. Farley of
Oklahoma; Alma is Mrs. Eugene Middleton of Pomona; Nannie is
Mrs. Virgil Roundtree of Pomona; Grace is Mrs. Otto Williams of
Elmer, Arizona; and Sarah is Mrs. C. W. Willis of Norborne, Mo.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 537
The eighth daughter, Miss Merle Baumgardner, and the only child
at home, is an accomplished musician, with a specialty of the piano.
She has studied with Professor Anderson of Los Angeles, and Pomona
teachers, and is at present teaching piano in Pomona, being one of the
youngest teachers of real proficiency in this difficult field in Los Angelej
County.
Besides the eight daughters of whom these devoted parents are
naturally so proud, Mr. and Mrs. Baumgardner boast of twenty-four
grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Mrs. Baumgardner is the treasurer of the Citrus Belt Milk Goat
Association, and has a fine herd of pure blooded Toggenburg milk
goats, with which she has taken leading prizes at a number of the goat
shows in the Valley.
LOUIS CARL KLINZMAN
The world over, all cities and towns are judged in their material
progress by the resourcefulness, expansion and solidity of their banking
institutions. The beautiful town of La Verne, in the Pomona Valley,
is indeed fortunate in having as the president of the Farmers and
Merchants Bank, one of its strongest and most up-to-date banking
concerns, Louis C. Klinzman, a former Nebraska banker and successful
farmer in that state.
L. C. Klinzman was born on April 14, 1859, in Franklin County,
Pa. When ten years of age he went to Peoria County, III, where he
was reared on a farm, and Avhen fifteen they removed to Chenoa,
Livingston County, in the same state, where he completed his educa-
tion. In 1885, Mr. Klinzman migrated farther westward, locating in
York County, Nebr., where he became a prominent and prosperous
farmer, owning two farms, each containing one-quarter section. The
town of McCool Junction, Nebr., was laid out on his land, and Mr.
Klinzman was one of its founders and most prominent business men.
He was one of the organizers and a director of the Farmers and
Merchants Bank of McCool Junction, Nebr., and still owns farming
lands there.
The lure of the Golden State appealed to Mr. Klinzman so
strongly in the year 1909 that he succumbed to its enticing offers and
migrated to California, locating at La Verne. During that same year
he was instrumental in the organization of the First National Bank
of La Verne, becoming one of the directors. Mr. Klinzman's conserv-
ative policy as a financier and sound business judgment soon became
recognized and he became thoroughly established in the confidence
of the citizens of La Verne and vicinity as a financial leader. In
February, 1916, he organized the Farmers and Merchants Bank of
La Verne, and became its president. Ever since opening its doors the
business of this bank has steadily and securely increased. It is capital-
538 HISTORY AND BlOGRArHV
ized at $25,000, and aside from its commercial business also conducts
a savings department. The present officiary of the Farmers and Mer-
chants Bank is as follows: L. C. Klinzman, president; George B.
Cross, vice-president; Dayton S. Newcomer, cashier. The board of
directors is composed of J. H. Price, Harry Belcher, S. M. Kepner,
H. B. McCurdy and J. C. Pierson.
In Monticello, 111., on February 14, 1885, Louis C. Klinzman
was united in marriage with Lena Hammersmidt, a native of Germany
who came to America when twelve years of age. This. union has been
blessed with five children: Flora E., wife of Chester McFadden of
Nebraska; Lena P., assisting Mr. Klinzman in the bank; Louis L.,
who is managing his father's ranch in Nebraska; Mary Catherine,
Mrs. J. M. Overholtzer of Pasadena ; and Henrietta W., at home.
Religiously, Mr. Klinzman is a member of the Church of the Brethren
and one of its trustees, and he has also served as member of the board
of directors of La Verne College. He is one of the most progressive
citizens of La Verne and has made his influence for good felt in the
various departments of activity in the development of civic affairs.
OSCAR G. KEISER
The climatic and horticultural advantages offered by Pomona
Valley form a combination of diversified attractions drawing hither
a splendid class of citizens, not only from all sections of the United
States, but from other lands. The subject of this review, Oscar G.
Keiser, is a native of Woodford County, 111., where he was born on
April 12, 1877.
W. Thomas Keiser, his father, was born in Augusta County, Va.,
September 5, 1845. During the Civil War, he served with the Con-
federate Army and was engaged in making saltpeter for explosives;
afterwards he became a member of the home guards. When the war
was over Mr. Keiser moved to Woodford County, 111., where he was
successfully engaged in farming 200 acres, raising oats, com, hogs
and cattle.
Desiring to see more of the great West, and especially the Golden
State, W. Thomas Keiser migrated to California in 1898 and pur-
chased 160 acres of raw land, located south of La Verne. Two years
later he planted thirty acres to oranges, built three homes on the tract,
and gave ten acres to each of his three sons. The remainder of the
land he sold, and is now living retired from the active and arduous
cares of ranching.
When W. Thomas Keiser was married he chose for his life
partner Elizabeth Stoner, a native of Pennsylvania, and this union was
blessed with three sons: Edward T. ; Oscar G. ; and John W. Mr.
Keiser, Sr., is a member of the Church of the Brethren at La Verne.
^//.(EXZo/^
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 541
Oscar G. Keiser accompanied his father to La Verne in 1898 and
assisted him in the development of the orange grove. After selling
the ten-acre grove given him by his father, Oscar engaged in the feed
and fuel business, for eight years, at La Verne, when he sold his buginess
and purchased a ranch near Chino and engaged in raising sugar beets
and alfalfa. In 1918 Mr. Keiser traded his Chino ranch for his
present orange grove of ten acres, located on North Alexander Ave-
nue, Pomona, formerly known as the Lindsey Ranch. It was on May
22, 1917, that Oscar Keiser took possession of his present orange
grove, and since then has greatly improved the place and has brought
the grove up to a high state of production.
On January 5, 1898, in V^oodford County, 111., Oscar G. Keiser
was united in marriage with Ida Salathe, a native of Illinois. Three
children have come to bless the home life of this happy couple, Esper,
Verda and Lyle. The family attend the Church of the Brethren, at
Pomona.
FRANK H. BALDWIN
For the past two decades Frank H. Baldwin, proprietor of the
Glenholm Ranch, situated in the Packard Tract at Pomona, has been
a resident of Pomona Valley; possessing the inherent qualities that
insure success — sagacity, industry and thrift — he has, during his years
of residence here, been a part of the growth and development of his
section of the state, and has taken an active interest in the projects
which have come up from time to time, advancing the resources of this
productive region to their present stage of intensive cultivation. A
native of Illinois, Mr. Baldwin was born in Yorktown, Bureau County,
January 20, 1861. When he was a young lad his father removed to
near Watertown, N. Y., and there operated a woolen mill, and at the
age of ten Frank H. started to work in the mill. He afterwards re-
turned to Illinois, and rented land for two years and farmed in White-
side County, later purchasing the property. He first owned 120
acres, to which he made additions until his place comprised 240 acres,
and he engaged in the dairy business, also raising sheep and fine horses.
In 1899 Mr. Baldwin came to Pomona, and in the fall of that
year purchased his present ranch, which originally consisted of twelve
and one-half acres with trees coming two years old. He added to
this acreage until the place now includes twenty-three acres, twenty
of which is planted to oranges, two acres to walnuts, and one to a
family orchard. On acquiring the property, seven acres of the ranch
had been set to prunes, which he replaced with oranges. His success
as an orange grower was assured from the beginning, and his place is
known as one of the best improved ranches in the Valley.
Nine years after locating in Pomona, Mr. Baldwin sold his
Illinois property and bought 140 acres near Chino, for which he paid
542 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
$40 per acre; he sunk a well on the place and with 150 inches
of water seeded ninety acres to alfalfa. In four years time he sold
the property for $30,000. In 1909 he purchased 1,957 acres near
Creston, San Luis Obispo County; this he kept for a short time and
then traded a part of It for a 200-acre ranch near Wasco, Kern County,
which he still owns. Sixty acres of this land has been seeded to alfalfa
and thirty acres is in grapes. Later he disposed of the balance of his
San Luis Obispo property at a cash sale. His Pomona ranch is highly
productive, and is an example of what thorough methods of cultiva-
tion and management can accomplish in this section; he has twelve-
inch cement pipes for irrigating purposes, and for some years was a
director in the Packard Tract Water Company. His fruit is mar-
keted through the Pomona Fruit Growers Exchange, and he is a firm
believer in cooperation as a means of advancing the best interests of
ranchers in any section.
In Whiteside County, 111., in 1889, Mr. Baldwin married Miss
Alma E. Lane, a native of that state, and they had two children,
H. Lynn and Alene; the mother died in September, 1908. His second
marriage, which occurred in Pasadena, Cal., in 1910, united Mr.
Baldwin with Mary E. Lane, a cousin of his first wife, and they are
the parents of a daughter, Lorena.
Prominent in Masonic circles, Mr. Baldwin is a member of
Pomona Lodge No. 246, F. & A. M., Pomona Chapter No. 76,
R. A. M., Pomona Council, R. & S. M., and also Pomona Chapter
No. HO, O. E. S. Mrs Baldwin is present Worthy Matron of
Pomona Chapter No 110, O. E. S., in which she has been an active
worker and efficient officer. Mr. Baldwin has proven himself a real
factor in the upbuilding of Pomona Valley and holds a prominent
place among its representative citizens.
JAMES W. LAMONT
Pomona ^'alley has been notable in the past as a center for the
successful production of citrus fruits, but its future promises even
greater possibilities for that industry. The inauguration of exchanges
throughout the country has played an important part in the citrus fruit
industry in bringing producer and consumer together without the aid
of the middleman.
James W. Lamont, who holds the responsible position of manager
of the La Verne Lemon Association at La Verne, was born on a farm
near Aurora, Hamilton County, Nebr., December 1, 1872. Like many
of our prominent men in commercial life, his early education was
received in the country schools. At the age of seventeen he entered
the employ of the Wells Fargo Express Company in Nebraska. Later
he was with the Adams Express Company throughout Colorado, Wyo-
ming, Montana, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas as express
HISTORY AND DIOGRAl'HY 543
messenger and relief agent. This service covered a period of sixteen
years on the lines of the Chicago, Burlington & Qu-lncy Railroad. In
1905 he resigned his position to come to California, and located at
Long Beach, where he learned the undertaking business with A. C.
Walker, and also speculated largely in real estate during the boom
of 1905-6. Disposing of his real-estate holdings, and, resigning from
the Walker Company, he became interested in the citrus fruit industry
of Southern California, with which he has since been associated. He
located at Santa Paula, and after being in the employ of C. C. Teague
for fifteen days on his large ranch, became assistant foreman of the
ranch, retaining the position for five years. In 1914, when the La
Verne Orange and Lemon Citrus Association established their lemon
packing plant, he was called to the position of foreman of the plant, a
position he held until the organization of the La Verne Lemon Asso-
ciation, September 1, 1919, when he was selected as its manager. Five
years ago the shipment of lemons was but fifty carloads. Their busi-
ness has grown to such an extent that they now ship about 200 carloads
of lemons annually.
Mr. Lament married Miss Alta Jones, also a native of Hamilton
County, Nebraska, and they are the parents of a daughter named
Marion Jeane. Fraternally, he has been associated with the Knights of
Pythias for the past twenty years, and is a member of Pomona Lodge
No. 107 of that order.
HUGH A. THATCHER
A rancher so closely and honorably identified with the develop-
ment of Pomona Valley and vicinity that he looks forward with keen
interest to the further preservation of collected annals of the neighbor-
hoods, is Hugh A. Thatcher, who is best known as the controlling spirit
of the Pomona Packing Company. He was born in Van Buren County,
Iowa, on July 13, of the famous Centennial Year of 1876, the son
of Amos D. Thatcher, who was a farmer and did valiant service in
the Civil War as a lieutenant of the Fifteenth Volunteer Infantry of
Iowa, and is still living, at the age of eighty-two. Mrs. Thatcher was
Malissa C. Hartzell before her marriage, and she is now deceased.
There were five children in the family, and the subject of our review
was the youngest of the group.
He received his early education in the public schools of Topeka,
Kans., and in Pomona, Cal., and later took an academic course in the
University of Southern California, for he had come with his family
to the Golden State in 1889, just after the great boom, and for two
years had lived at San Diego. Later, they removed to Pomona, where
Hugh entered the drug business as an apprentice. Eventually, he spent
fourteen years in the drug trade in various places, established in busi-
ness for himself about half the time.
544 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
When he sold his drug store at Los iVngeles, he removed to
Walnut, where he bought an orange ranch; since that time he has
given all his attention to that interesting branch of California agri-
culture, encouraged by a success not always favoring everyone. In
1915 the Pomona Packing Company was formed by Mr. Thatcher, in
which he acts as general manager, and it now employs, during the
season, about forty people. It ships its own brands, the Belfry and
the Abbey; and the quality for which they always stand has made these
brands in constant demand — a demand, too, that increases each year.
In Pomona, in May, 1900, Mr. Thatcher was married to Miss
Inez Fay Quinn, a charming lady reared by Senator A. T. Currier, the
daughter of Michael Quinn, who served for about forty years as
justice of the peace at El Monte and lived for fifty years in the house
where he died. Mr. and Mrs. Thatcher have one child, named
Currier. Mr. Thatcher is a Republican, but a broad-minded one, and
ready especially to cast partisanship aside Avhen called on to support
local movements. He belongs to the Masons, the Blue Lodge and the
Royal Arch Chapter, and Pomona Lodge No. 789, B. P. O. Elks, and
is fond of outdoor life, spending his vacations at Laguna Beach. Mr.
Thatcher has seen the development of this Valley since first locating
here in 1891, and with the exception of five years in Ventura County
has lived here during all those years.
E. J. LEVENGOOD
Known as one of the best judges of horses how living in the
Pomona Valley, as well as a rancher of more than the ordinary ability,
E. J. Levengood has been identified with the best interests of this
section of the state since his arrival here in 1898. He was born in
Jackson, Mich., October 2, 1866, received a good school education
and struck out for himself in 1889, when he came to California. He
worked for a time in San Francisco, then went to the San Joaquin
Valley and later to Yolo County, and during this time he became
familiar with the various sections of the state. In 1898 he came to
the Pomona Valley, bought a team of horses and drove across the
country into Arizona, where for the following eight years he followed
teaming to and from the mines.
In 1906 he decided to come back to California, and he brought
with him a band of 125 wild horses, which he sold in the Pomona
Valley. For the following fifteen years Mr. Levengood furnished
many of the horses that took part in the chariot races at the Pasadena
Tournament of Roses, also drove some of the chariots and won his
share of prizes. He has been engaged in buying and selling horses in
this immediate section of the state for many years, and there is no
better judge of horseflesh in this section than he.
<^^^ 5w
HISTORY AND LlIOGRArHY 547
In connection with his interests here Mr. Levengood has also
engaged in raising grain and alfalfa near Blythe, in the Palo Verde
Valley, and in this line of endeavor he has also made a success. He
leased some 320 acres of land near Pomona and upon it raised crops
of wheat and barley, and has thus demonstrated his ability as a rancher
as well as a judge of horses.
Mr. Levengood was united in marriage with Mrs. Mary Eliza-
beth (Lamb) Hamner, born in Salt Lake City, the daughter of
William Lamb, who became a pioneer of Pomona Valley. By her first
husband, William Hamner, there were two children: Jessie, Mrs.
O. H. Kuehne, and Anson R., both of Pomona. Mrs. Levengood
shares with her husband the good will and esteem of a wide circle of
friends in this part of Los Angeles County. Mr. Levengood is a life
member of the Elks Lodge at Flagstaff, Ariz.
JOHN A. McLEOD
Although it will be five years February 25, 1920, since John A.
McLeod passed to the Great Beyond, his memory still lives in the
minds and hearts of many warm personal friends. He was born at
Acton, Ontario, Canada, October 3, 1839, and after growing to man-
hood's estate became a prominent farmer in Acton section, Ontario,
Canada, where he was interested in a stock and dairy farm. Some
time later he followed the same occupation in Walkerton, Canada,
and in 1889 remo\ed to California, where he worked for a time on
the Bullock Ranch at El Monte. He then purchased a five-acre orange
grove in the Packard Orange Grove Tract at Pomona and developed
this young orchard into a good producing grove. He took great
interest in orange culture. He had the misfortune to lose his life
companion many years ago, and ha\'ing no children willed the Pomona
orange grove to his sister. Flora McCannel, who makes her home on
the place, of which she has taken excellent care and which yields a
handsome income. John McLeod was a public-spirited and pro-
gressive citizen and had many warm friends.
Mrs. Flora McCannel was born at Acton, Ontario, Canada.
She was Miss Flora McLeod before her marriage, and is of Scotch
descent. She married John McCannel, a nati\"e of Scotland who came
to Ontario, Canada, at the age of eighteen. He followed the occupa-
tion of farming in Canada, and later removed to Wyoming, where
he was interested in the cattle business. He died in Wyoming many
years ago. Mrs. McCannel was a widow when she came to Pomona
in 1902. She is the mother of four children, namely, Euphine, Mrs.
Margaret Windsor, Mrs. Mamie Whitehead and Annie McCan-
nel, who died in 1914. She has also three grandchildren. In her
church associations she is a member of the Christadelphian Church, as
548 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
was also her brother, John A. McLeod. Mrs. McCannel is a woman
of energy and industry, thoroughly qualified to assume the manage-
ment of the homestead and conserve its best interests.
HARRY S. PRATT
An orange grower of California who has attained unusual success
not only in that difficult field, but also in previous studies and ventures
requiring knowledge, experience and pronounced native ability, is
Harry S. Pratt, proprietor of the La Encina Ranch, on Mountain
Avenue, and also a ranch on East Cucamonga Avenue, east of San
Antonio, where he makes his home. He was born at Cambridge,
Middlesex County, Mass., on August 22, 1867, and educated in the
Cambridge public schools and the Bryant & Stratton Business College
at Boston, where he especially fitted himself for the responsibilities of
life. His father was Francis L. Pratt, a native of Massachusetts, and
he married Miss Mary A. Brown, who was born in New Hampshire,
and, in accord with the traditions of their English and New England
ancestry, they gave the lad every educational advantage. While still
in Boston, Harry Pratt spent three years with the Ivers & Pond Piano
Company, in their factory, and there very thoroughly learned the piano
business, specializing in the tuning of high-class musical instruments.
This gravitation toward the study of the piano was in keeping with his
early fondness for music and the example and influence of his father.
Besides having been the incumbent of a city office in Cambridge for
over a quarter of a century, and a leader in civic affairs, Francis Pratt
was long well known as a singer of more than ordinary ability, and
gave great pleasure to public audiences with his fine bass voice.
On account of his health, Harry S. Pratt came west to California
at the age of twenty, and during the same great year of the boom
entered the employ of the Bartlett Bros. Piano Company, now the
Bartlett Music Company. At the end of three years' service there, he
moved to Pomona, on April 30, 1890, and for years followed piano
tuning in the Valley. In November, 1899, he bought out the piano
business of W. B. Ross, formerly the Bassett Music House, the first
to start in Pomona, and only after fifteen years of undisputed success
as the proprietor of the Pratt Music House did he dispose of the
valuable property.
As long ago as 1 890, Mr. Pratt bought his first grove of seven
acres of oranges in the Kingsley Tract, known as the Meade place,
but, selling the same, he now owns two fine orange groves of ten acres
each, one on Mountain and the other on East Cucamonga Avenue, fine
producers of both Navels and Valencias. So well has he cared for
these that during a period of six years they averaged 6,000 field
boxes, while for the past two years 7,000 boxes have been taken from
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 549
there. His home ranch, the grounds and house of which he is greatly
improving, is a grove of choice acres on East Cucamonga Avenue, and
there two-thirds of the acreage is devoted to Navels and one-third to
Valencias. For years Mr. Pratt was secretary and director of the
Claremont Citrus Association, and through that organization, as well
as the El Camino Citrus Association of Claremont, he still packs
his fruit.
Mr. Pratt was married to Mrs. Virginia (Broadwell) Embree, a
native of Springfield, 111., a daughter of Judge N. M. Broadwell, who
was born in New Jersey. He came to Illinois and studied law in the
office of Abraham Lincoln and was afterwards a law partner of Shelby
M. Cullom and William Springer. He married Virginia lies, also
a native of Springfield, whose father, Washington lies, came from
Kentucky to Sangamon County, entered land and obtained a patent
in 1825. The parchment deed, signed by President John Quincy
Adams, is now in the possession of Mrs. Pratt. His brother, Maj.
Elijah lies, located the city of Springfield and built the first store.
Mrs. Pratt has a daughter, Elinore Embree, by her first marriage. A
son of Mr. Pratt by a former marriage, Lowell Clark Pratt, was in
the recent World War as a member of the One Hundred Sixtieth
United States Infantry, and saw seven months of service in France, and
he is at present a student in Columbia College, New York City, class
of 1920.
In national politics Mr. Pratt is a Republican, thereby pleasantly
continuing the bias of his father, who was an ardent abolitionist, a
soldier in Company C, Forty-third Massachusetts Regiment, in the
Civil War, and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. Harry
Pratt has a summer home in Bear Valley on Big Bear Lake, and there
he hies himself away whenever in need of stimulating fishing and
hunting.
JERRY N. LEWIS
A very progressive citrus rancher who participates in the pros-
perity of the Pomona Valley he himself has helped to create is Jerry
N. Lewis, who was born in Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa, on
October 12, 1859, and attended the country schools of his district
while he grew up and learned to farm. When a young man, he located
in De Kalb County, Mo., and there continued farming, and then he
removed to Monte Vista, Colo., where he was in the livery business
and was also rural mail carrier under the pioneer Star Route.
In 1897 Mr. Lewis came to California and Pomona, and, like
many others, he commenced work here by picking and packing oranges.
This day-laboring in the citrus field made him familiar with conditions
and problems and fortunately prepared him for enterprises of his own
in the same direction.
550 HISTORY AND HK )GRAPHY
In 1910 he bought his present orange grove on North Alexander
Avenue, a fine tract of eight acres, with which he has proven a success-
ful grower. He has given the trees the best of care, while applying
the latest scientific methods of treatment, and the average production
of the grove runs from 4,500 to 6,600 boxes yearly. His place was
formerly the old Rose Ranch, and had twenty-year-old trees, and his
Navel and Valencia oranges are of the best. Indeed, whatever be the
secret of his methods, Mr. Lewis is able to secure results far beyond
those of even longer experience and operating under even more favor-
able conditions. Considering the enviable position to which he has
attained, it is natural to find him a member of the Claremont Citrus
Association and the Del Monte Water Company.
When Mr. Lewis was married at Monte Vista, Colo., in April,
1896, he chose for his wife Miss Laura Greesley, a native of Ne-
braska and the daughter of P. J- and Isabell Greesley; and husband
and wife attend the First Methodist Church. He belongs to the
Woodmen of the World, and also to the Knights of Pythias of
Pomona.
ABRAHAM H. VEJAR
Few early Californian names are associated more agreeably with
the sway of the Spaniard on the Pacific or with the Spanish-American
contribution to the development of the Golden State than that of the
family of Abraham H. Vejar, who was born at Pomona in 1877, and ■
reared on the ranch of Ramon Vejar, his father, more detailed refer-
ence to whom is elsewhere made in this historical worlc. As a boy he
worked on the home ranch and attended the public schools of La
Verne, playing around on land that was long part of the great family
estate, and helping to prepare land that he was unaware, at that time,
he would some day own.
Now Mr. Vejar has eleven acres, a part of the old home ranch,
and this he has de\-eloped into a walnut orchard, principally budded
walnuts. They are all doing finely, and help to make the little ranch
a "show place" of the neighborhood.
Mr. Vejar also owns a walnut grove of six acres, three acres of
which are eleven-year-old trees, and gives his orchard such good care
that they yielded in 1918 two tons of nuts, while the other three acres
are in new trees. Having the advantage, perhaps, of much that is
worth knowing to the citrus and other ranchers handed down in the
Vejar family as so much certified tradition, Mr. Vejar has been able
easier to arrive at the best results, and in many cases has succeeded
where others round about are still experimenting.
Not long ago Mr. Vejar erected a fine, modern California bunga-
low on his home property, and there, after the manner of his princely
progenitors, he offers an old-time hospitality to friend and stranger
'W(TT~^J~^^^^ ,
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 551
alike. In Pomona, he married Miss Nellie Salzar, a native daughter
born in San Bernardino and educated in the convent in Los Angeles;
her death occurred in 1914. Mr. Vejar is a member of the Roman
Catholic Church and also of the Knights of Columbus.
It would be strange if one so happily connected through family
ties with the historic past could not tell many a yarn worth the hearing;
and, when in talkative mood, Mr. Vejar has many good anecdotes of
pioneer days. He likes to tell especially of the old horse races, held
in Spadra when he was a small boy; they were for half a mile, straight-
away, and when the race was over, the whole crowd usually rode down
to Pomona, where they all talked over the happy recollection of the
past races, the satisfactory outcome of the present race, and the good
luck of the races yet to come.
JOHN J. FORBES
The able financial secretary of Pomona College, John J. I^orbes,
is also a prominent land developer in the Claremont district. He
was born at Waukesha, Wis., March 20, 1869, and after leaving
college as a young man entered the employ of one of the largest house
furnishing and decorating establishments in the Middle West, at
Milwaukee, Wis. Starting in at the bottom round of the ladder he
learned all branches of the business, and later, when a dry goods com-
pany absorbed the institution he resigned his position and started a
business of his own under the firm name of Maxwell, Forbes and Still-
man Company, of Milwaukee. The firm, which is still in existence,
is now known as the Maxwell-Ray Company. With his partners Mr.
Forbes built up the finest and most exclusive business of its kind in
the Middle West. They made furniture to order, planned, designed,
made interior decorations, etc., and took contracts for the complete
interior work of many public buildings, hotels, private residences,
clubs, etc. Their establishment compared favorably with the largest
and most artistic establishments in the country. They dealt in choice
Oriental rugs, and furnishings that appeal to the high class of trade
to which they catered. Mr. Forbes came to California in 1903 and
located at Laguna Beach. Voluntarily he raised the funds and super-
intended the erection of the Marine Laboratory building at that place
for Pomona College, and turned it over to the college free from in-
debtedness. Locating at Claremont in the fall of the same year, he
has been closely allied with Pomona College and as financial secre-
tary of the college has had charge of the expansion work. He had
charge of the million dollar campaign, raising that amount as an en-
dowment for the college. Since then he has brought forward another
campaign, which is nearing the second million dollar mark. His busi-
ness experience, keen judgment and quickness of decision have been
very helpful in solving financial problems and intricate matters in the
552 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
management and growth of the college. He had charge of the inte-
rior furnishings of the Bridges Hall of Music and of Holmes Hall,
selecting the furnishings and designing the decorations. His ability
along this line is evidenced in these beautiful buildings. Besides his
work for the college he has taken up land development north of Clare-
mont. He is general manager of Claremont Heights Development
Company, the Claremont Heights Irrigation Company and the San
Antonio Mesa Land Company, being the principal stockholder in the
latter company. These various companies have developed from unim-
proved land many lemon and orange groves of from twenty to eighty
acres, sinking wells, installing pumping plants, establishing irrigation
systems, planting citrus trees and caring for the groves, and have thus
played a very important part in the development of this section, most
of the lands having been planted to lemons. Mr. Forbes has two
sons, Kenneth B. and Gordon J.
It is to men of Mr. Forbes' caliber and stamp that much credit
is due for the wonderful growth, development and expansion of the
Pomona Valley. As a citizen he is progressive and a friend of all
that elevates and uplifts humanity. Upright, enterprising, enthusi-
astic and optimistic he is a man the community may justly be proud
of and his example is well worthy of emulation.
MISS MINERVA C. FLEMING
Pomona is fortunate in having Miss Minerva C. Fleming as
teacher of music in the public schools of the city. Miss Fleming's
enthusiasm for this joy-giving and refining art is reflected in her
pupils, who are not only taught the rudiments of music, but In whom
is inculcated a love for and an appreciative understanding of the art.
Miss Fleming is the descendant of an old Scotch family, her
father and mother having been born in Scotland. She, however, is a
native of Kilsyth, Ontario, Canada, and was reared in that northern
land and received her education in the Canadian grammar and high
schools. She graduated in music and physical culture from the Detroit
Conservatory of Music and Thomas Normal Training School in De-
troit. She taught music and physical culture for six and a half years
at Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada, both in the public schools and the
Normal Training School. She took post-graduate courses in the To-
ronto Normal and the Thomas Normal at Detroit and also in the
University of California at Berkeley. She came to Pomona January,
1908, and at once began teaching physical culture and music in the
Pomona schools, where she has successfully taught for the past twelve
years. Her work, which at first included physical culture, is now de-
voted wholly to music, choir work and assembly singing. For the past
ten years she has led the children's chorus in the Memorial Day exer-
cises at Pomona, and is the possessor of a beautiful silk flag, given her
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 553
by the G. A. R. She is especially adapted for a leader and trainer
of chorus singing, and while living in Canada led a chorus consisting
of 2,000 voices.
Miss Fleming affiliates with the First Christian Church at Po-
mona, and is also a member of the church choir, and fraternally she
is a member of the Order of Eastern Star. She makes her home on
her five-acre orange and lemon ranch on North Dudley Avenue, which
she purchased soon after coming to Pomona.
GEORGE R. iMOORE
An orange and lemon grower who has attained to prominence
although he came to California late in life, and who, with his wife and
children, is known to be delighted with Pomona Valley and among
those most confident for its bright future, is George R. Moore, who
lives on Weber street, near Laurel. His life has been full of happiness
and success for himself and others. He was born on July 9, 1850,
notable in history as the date of the death of Zachary Taylor, presi-
dent of the United States. His birthplace was at Faversham, Eng., in
Kent County, so famous for its hops and its beautiful landscape, some
twenty miles from Gadshill, the residence of Charles Dickens. His
father was Robert Moore, a hardware merchant in Faversham, who
married Martha Hawks, both born in England. George R. had been
associated with his father in business for twenty-one years, then took
over the establishment and ran it himself.
Attracted, however, to the far balmier semi-tropical climate of
the Pacific Slope, Mr. Moore came to the United States in 1908, and
in October arrived in Pomona, where he bought some ranches and
straightway began to improve them. His home place, a most desirable
tract of two and three-fourths acres, is an orange grove, and he also
owns two other ranches in the Packard Tract, one of ten and the other
of eight and a half acres, devoted to the culture of the same fruit, as
well as walnut trees, of which he has 106, and a fine peach orchard.
Many of the lemon trees he budded, with great success, to Valencia
oranges; part of his groves were in a run-down condition, and these
he has greatly improved, and he has also taken out some of the old
orange trees and planted new ones.
Mr. Moore was married at Faversham, England, to Miss Mary
Ann Wooley, a native of Devington, England, and by her he has had
six children. Reginald, now deceased, served in the Boer War on
the medical staff, and his brother, Robert G. Moore, was also in that
South African campaign as an East Kent yeoman. The other children
are Frank H., Mildred, Horace and George Moore. The latter
served in the great World War. At its beginning, he was stationed
at Valparaiso, in South America, as an operator for the Western
554 HISTCJRY AND BIOGRAPHY
Cable Company, and he volunteered before conscription. He served
three years, was eighteen months in the trenches in France and Belgium
and was badly wounded in the foot and leg. He belonged to the Royal
West Kent Tenth Battalion, and was signalman in both the "Royal
Regiment" and the "Queen's Own." The family attend the Nazarene
Church.
Mr. Moore, with two of his sons, is a citizen of the United States,
but so long as he was in England, he was a strong Liberal and with his
wife belonged to the East Kent Liberal Association. He was promi-
nent in his party, and had a personal acquaintance with Lloyd George,
Premier Asquith, Joseph Chamberlain, Lord Rosebery and other noted
Englishmen of that political faith. In many ways, therefore, Mr.
Moore, who is a gifted conversationalist, is an interesting and enter-
taining man, and such a citizen as would do honor to any community.
EDWARD B. JERDE
The rapid and also substantial growth of Pomona is undoubtedly
owing to the caliber of the men who elected to make this locality their
home, and were willing to do all in their power to bring about the
future prosperity of this garden spot of nature. Among these, Edward
B. Jerde has played a prominent part in building operations in the
Valley, and truly deserves much credit for his enterprising public
spirit and loyalty to the best interests of the community.
Born in Freeborn County, Minn., January 22, 1878, when five
years old he was taken to Brookings, S. D., and there was educated
in the public schools, later taking a two-year course at the State Uni-
versity, specializing in architecture and engineering. Since the age
of sixteen years Mr. Jerde has been in contracting and building work,
and for four years followed contracting in Brookings, and for two
years in Huron, S. D. At the outbreak of the Spanish-American war,
in 1898, he enlisted in Company K, Brookings, S. D., but was taken
sick and did not see service.
Since taking up his residence here Mr. Jerde has erected over
one hundred houses in the Valley. Among the buildings which show
the structural qualities for which his work is noted are the following:
The J. W. Hollister, H. L. Hart, L. P. Orth and A. R. Curry resi-
dences; Opera Garage; Auditorium of the Kauffman School, in Po-
mona; the Orange Packing House at Riverside; bank building at
Puente; E. W. Stewart residence at Chino; P>ank Wheeler residence,
Claremont; College Heights Orange and Lemon Association ware-
house, Claremont; Pomona College gymnasium; the Michael and
Leon Johnson residences, on Foothill Boulevard. Mr. Jerde also
built five houses as an investment of his own, and, as may be imagined,
had no difficulty in disposing of same, his name being a guarantee for
good workmanship and material. As can readily be seen, he has been
'd^^r^j^
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 357
an important factor in the upbuilding of the Pomona Valley and sur-
rounding territory, and as such he is known throughout Southern Cali-
fornia. A man of broad understanding and ideas, he is always to be
depended on when the progress of his district is at stake, and his influ-
ence has been felt as a man of action in the recent years of Pomona's
advancement. Fraternally, he is a member of the Masons, having
joined Huron Lodge No. 26, F. & A. M., and he belongs to Pomona
Lodge No. 107, Knights of Pythias.
The marriage of Mr. Jerde united him with Jessie Waltz, a
native of South Dakota, and she has been a true helpmate to him, both
socially and in civic matters. Mrs. Jerde is active in the auxiliary
branches of the Masons and Knights of Pythias, and with her husband
enjoys a large circle of friends in Pomona Valley.
JOHN W. MASON
The distinction of having successfully developed three different
ranches in the Pomona Valley is accorded to John W. Mason, the
subject of this review. He is a native of the Sunflower State, having
been born January 20, 1860, in Linn County, Kans., near Mound City.
Mr. Mason was reared on a farm and attended the country school
of his district.
When he attained his majority, John W. Mason learned the
harnessmaker's trade, and then engaged in business at Mound City;
later, with a partner, he opened a shop at Blue Mound, and still later
had a shop at Dennis. He then went to Parsons, Kans., and here he
had a partner and remained in business there until 1891. Like many
other residents of Kansas, Mr. Mason possessed a strong desire to
see the Golden State, believing it offered greater possibilities to voung
men who were enterprising, industrious and thrifty. Acting upon this
impulse, Mr. Mason migrated to California in 1891, locating at San
Dimas, where he soon adapted himself to his new surroundings. Being
anxious to obtain a thorough knowledge of the citrus industry, he
worked for seven years in orange groves in the San Dimas district.
While learning the business he acquired a house and two lots, which
he sold in 1897. With J. M. Cardiff, Mr. Mason went to San Ber-
nardino County, where they rented land, purchased stock and success-
fully engaged in the stock-raising business until 1902.
In 1901, Mr. Mason purchased ten acres of raAv land near San
Dimas and rented out the place for four years as a nursery. The
renter furnished him enough trees to plant an orange grove, raising
his nursery stock between the orange trees. Mr. Mason developed
the grove until it came into bearing, and in 1909 sold it at a good
profit. Subsequently he purchased thirty acres of alfalfa land at
Franklin and Towne avenues, which, after retaining one year, he sold,
and bought his present home at 1009 East Fourth Stret, Pomona.
558 HISTORY AND r.IOGRAPHY
For some time Mr. Mason was engaged in doing teaming and
grading for the city of Pomona. In 1910 he bought a ten-acre orange
and lemon ranch located in the La Verne district. The trees were then
one year old and the orchard comprised one-third each of Valencia
and Navel oranges, while the remaining third was devoted to lemons.
Mr. Mason gives his personal attention to this grove and has
brought the place to a high state of cultivation which now yields him
abundant crops.
In Dennis, in 1885, John W. Mason was united in marriage with
Enola Torrey, a native of Wisconsin. Her people came to San Dimas
in 1888. This union was blessed with five children: Nell, who died
aged eighteen; Muriel, who is now Mrs. George Boddy of San
Dimas; Helen is the wife of Clarence Marshall of Pomona, and is
the mother of two girls; J. Shirley Mason is married and has one
son, W. Mason, Jr.; and Lizzie Marie. The career of John W.
Mason is an example of well-directed efforts in his chosen line of
endeavor.
HOBERT F. NORCROSS
Numbered among the successful orange growers of Pomona
Valley is Hobert F. Norcross, whose career furnishes a splendid
example of what energy and resourcefulness can accomplish when
wisely directed and centralized. In these days of scientific horticulture
the orchardist who closely studies the latest methods and adopts them
in the culture of his grove, and is always eager to broaden his knowl-
edge concerning soil conditions, fertilization, irrigation and all other
kindred subjects, is the man who is assured larger crops, and conse-
quently greater returns financially. To just such reasons as these
Mr. Norcross attributes his success in orange culture.
Hobert F. Norcross was born in Warren County, 111., August 31,
1851. He was reared on a farm, and during the Centennial year
migrated to Beatrice, Gage County, Nebr., where he engaged in farm-
ing, also in raising, buying and shipping horses in carload lots. Mr.
Norcross was considered the best judge of horses in the county. He
owned a half-section of land, and, in operating his farm, believed in
using the most modern implements and up-to-date methods. While
living in Nebraska Mr. Norcross served as supervisor of Gage County
for six years, filling the position with credit to himself and satisfaction
to the county.
For a number of years, Mr. Norcross was engaged as a traveling
salesman for the Dempster Mill Manufacturing Company, selling
windmills, grain drills and double-row cultivators and establishing
agencies for the company. In this line he was a decided success. His
territory embraced eighteen states in the Middle West. During the
year 1905 he migrated to the Golden State, and after traveling
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 559
throughout California investigating the advantages of various local-
ities, Mr. Norcross was greatly impressed with the Pomona Valley and
decided to make it his permanent home. Upon locating at Pomona
he at once began a thorough study of orange culture, reading the best
information he could find and attending lectures upon this interesting
subject. His first purchase was a ten-acre orange grove on East Holt
Avenue, which he afterwards sold to Fred Robbins. Mr. Norcross
also owned a ten-acre grove on Ramona Avenue, but later sold it. At
present he owns a grove on Alexander Avenue, north of Kingsley, also
one at the corner of Ramona and Orchard Street, and one on Kings-
ley, east of Ramona. Mr. Norcross gave his son a six-acre grove of
oranges on East Holt Avenue, near the city limits. During the season
of 1918 Mr. Norcross produced from one of his ten-acre groves 7,300
boxes of oranges. He has always been deeply interested in the devel-
opment of the water supply of Pomona Valley, and for the past nine
years has served as a director of the Del Monte Water Company, and
is also a director of the Pomona Fruit Growers Exchange. Religiously
he is a member of the First Presbyterian Church at Pomona.
In 1874, at Monmouth, 111., Hobert F. Norcross was united in
marriage with Lora E. Webster, a native of Illinois, and they are the
parents of two children: Bert F., who resides on his ranch on East
Holt Avenue, and is the father of four girls; and Lorie, the wife of
Robert Morton of La Verne, and they are the parents of two sons.
HARRY P. BROWN
One of Pomona's energetic young business men possessed of the
qualities that bring success in life when coupled with the ability to
rightly apply them, Harry P. Brown is a native of the Middle West,
having been born in Sangamon County, 111., June 21, 1882. While an
infant in arms his parents moved to southeastern Kansas and located
on a farm near the city of Pittsburg, in Crawford County. Harry was
reared on the farm, attended the country schools and completed his
education by a course in business college at Pittsburg, Kans. At the
age of twenty he became the owner of an eighty-acre farm, upon which
he lived three years. He then disposed of this property, and in 1905
came to California, locating at Pomona. Since then he has devoted
his time and attention to the fruit industry. In less than a year after
his advent In Pomona Valley he engaged with the Indian Hill Citrus
Association, with whom he has been associated ever since, with the
exception of nine months — March to December, 1918 — when he filled
the position of county horticultural inspector for Pomona Valley dis-
trict by appointment. He first engaged with the association as picking
foreman and was placed in charge of the picking crews In the orange
groves; following this he was field manager of all the outside work.
560 HISTORY AND BIOGRAIT-IY
making estimates of the fruit in the groves, looking after fertilizing,
pruning, sprayijig, etc. In December, 1918, he accepted the position
of foreman of the packing house of the Indian Hill Citrus Association.
His wide experience, gained in the field, and the knowledge gained as
horticultural inspector, make him a competent and valuable man for
the position he holds. He is the owner of a five-acre orange grove of
fifteen-year-old trees on North San Antonio and Harrison avenues.
The high state of cultivation in which he keeps this orchard amply
repays him in the abundant crops yielded by the trees. In addition to
the orchard he owns real estate in Pomona.
He was united in marriage with Miss Edna Butler of Kansas, and
of the three children born of their union, Marjorie and Helen are
natives of Kansas, while Ira, the youngest, was born in the Golden
State. In his religious associations Mr. Brown is a member of the
First Presbyterian Church at Pomona.
REV. JOHN J. SHEEHY
Pomona is indeed fortunate in securing the services of so able
a priest as Rev. John J. Sheehy to carry on the work of the Catholic
Church in this section of Southern California. His years of experi-
ence in California have made him familiar with conditions to be found
here, and being a man of keen insight and broad vision, he has met his
duties in a manner to be highly commended. Born in County Kerry,
Ireland, December 8, 1876, Father Sheehy is a son of John J. and
Julia (Stack) Sheehy, who were farmer folk in their native country.
Mrs. Sheehy is still living, but the father passed on in 1900.
Reverend Sheehy is the second child in a family of eleven born to
his worthy parents, and was educated in St. Michael's College, at
Listowel, and at St. Patrick's College at Carlow, and was ordained
June 9, 1900, for the Diocese of Los Angeles and Monterey. That
same year he crossed the sea to his new field, and his first appointment
was as first assistant priest at St. Andrew's Church in Pasadena. From
there he went to Coronado; and .then to the Immaculate Conception
Church at Monrovia, where he served faithfully for fourteen years.
He built the Church of St. Francis at Azusa, and also erected the Im-
maculate Conception Church at Monrovia, with the rectory of the
latter church as well.
On March 1, 1918, Reverend Sheehy was appointed pastor of
St. Joseph's Church in Pomona, and in the short time of his labors
here has made many improvements in the charge under his care. He
has improved the altar and sanctuary, and has imported vestments
for the service; with his associates, he has taken the care of the Mexi-
cans from the church and relieved the Welfare League. Father
Sheehy is deeply interested in the advancement of Pomona Valley
HISTORY AND PJOGRAPHY 363
and lends himself to all worthy movements toward that end. He Is
public spirited and interests himself in local affairs, both civic and
educational. The school attached to his church, the Holy Name
Academy, teaches all grades, with ten teachers, and 200 pupils, thirty
of them boarding pupils.
Fraternally, Father Sheehy is a member of the Knights of Co-
ombus, and in political matters he votes the Democratic ticket. He
is a judge of good horses, and some of his animals have taken prizes.
JAMES W. WALKER
A much-loved and esteemed man, a prominent resident of Po-
mona Valley since 1890, James W. Walker, who passed away in 1912
at the ripe old age of eighty years, left the rich heritage of an exemplary
life, filled with kindly deeds and accomplishments worthy of emulation.
Born in Campbell County, Ky., in 1832, Mr. Walker came of an old
Virginia family of Scotch descent. During his early manhood he estab-
lished himself in the dry goods business at Covington, Ky., and there
he married Miss Sue Holton in 1860. She was born in Falmouth, Ky.,
and her father, Thomas Holton, also born there, came of Old Do-
minion stock. He followed farming for a time and afterwards was
in the lumber business. His wife, before her marriage, was Sabina
McCarty, a native of Kentucky, whose father came from Scotland.
Sue Holton received a thorough education in Miss Haynes' Seminary
at Covington, where she majored in music and became an accomplished
young lady. There she met Mr. Walker, the acquaintance resulting
in their marriage, a union that proved very happy to both of them.
Mr. Walker continued in the mercantile business in Covington,
Ky., until 1889, when he sold out and came to Southern California.
He spent a little more than a year in Los Angeles, and then located
in San Dimas. He purchased a residence and five acres of land in
San Dimas and also bought ninety acres in the west part of town. He
went in for .citrus growing and improved the stubble field by leveling
it and setting out oranges and lemons. He gave the grove the best
of care and made a success as a citrus grower. He was a stockholder
in the San Dimas Land and Water Company, and, a firm believer in
cooperation, was a member of the San Dimas Orange Growers Asso-
ciation and the San Dimas Lemon Growers Association. He also set
out and improved the five acres which he purchased at the corner of
Bonita and San Dimas Avenues.
Mr. and Mrs. Walker were always familiarly known as "Uncle
Jimmy" and "Aunt Sue" by their many friends and acquaintances,
showing the wealth of affection in which they were held. Kind, gen-
erous and hospitable to all, they radiated unbounded good will, and
frequently entertained lavishly, as many as a hundred at a time, at
564 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
their large, comfortable home. Mr. Walker was a strong Democrat
and an ardent supporter of the principles of his party. He was an
active and devout Baptist and a prominent member and trustee of the
local organization, and was the prime mover in building the church
here. While living in Kentucicy he educated six young men, sending
them through Georgetown College, and all of them became ministers,
and they never forgot his kindness.
Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Walker, three of whom
are living. Ella is Mrs. Potts and resides with her mother, assisting
her in presiding over the home. She has one child, Rowena, reared in
the Walker home, who is now the wife of Raymond I. Carruthers,
district agent for the Edison Company. They reside in Visalia and
are the parents of four children — Jane, Jack, Sue Virginia and James
Wilson; Henry Yeamen of San Dimas and Robert of Los Angeles.
Mrs. Walker a cultured and accomplished woman, still resides in the
old home, and here, with the assistance of her devoted children, she
dispenses a gracious hospitality. Like her husband, she is a devoted
member of the Baptist Church. She organized the Emerson Club and
was at one time its president, and later, when this club was abandoned,
she became a charter member of the Wednesday Afternoon Club.
ELMER E. BOOTH
Among the residents from various parts of the United States who
have come to the Pomona Valley to make their home is Elmer E.
Booth, who was born in Glendale, W. Va., December 2, 1881. He
was seventeen years of age when he accompanied his parents to Cali-
fornia in 1898 and located in Pomona. Soon after arriving in his new
home he returned to his native state, enlisted in the Spanish-American
War in the First West Virginia Regiment, and after seven months' ser-
vice came back to Pomona and took a course in the Pomona Business
College, afterwards joining his father, J. M. Booth, in the hardware
business at Pomona. After a year and a half they sold the store and
he and his father and brother, W. E. Booth, and G. F. Vaughn, opened
ji gentlemen's clothing and furnishing store under the firm name oi
Booth, Vaughn and Sons, at 234 West Second Street. The firm is now
known as the Booth and Dehnel Company, and a large and growing
custom testifies to their success in catering to high-class trade. Their
up-to-date establishment is the leader in its line of business in the city
of Pomona. At the end of seven years E. E. Booth disposed of his
interest in the business to W. A. Booth and opened a small garage on
Second Street. His business increased to such proportions that in 1911
he bought the corner at South Park Avenue and First Street, where
Pomona's pioneer livery barn stood. Tearing the old building down
he erected his present commodious and modern garage, known as the
HISTORY AND BIOGR.VPHY 567
Park Avenue Garage. Under his administration the business has
prospered and increased in volume, and in 1913 he assumed the agency
for the famous Paige automobile, for which he is the distributor in
Pomona Valley.
Mr. Booth married Miss Cora Martin, October 12, 1914, at Nor-
walk, Cal., who was born in the East, but was brought up at La Verne,
Cal. Their two children are named respectively, Virginia and Ells-
worth E., Jr.
In his fraternal affiliations Mr. Booth is a member of Pomona
Lodge No. 107, Knights of Pythias, and also Pomona Lodge No. 789,
B. P. O. Elks.
HENRY W. BEALE
An old resident of Pomona and well known and well liked in the
comnKinity where he made his home for so many years, Henry W.
Beale was a native of Pennsylvania, born in Philadelphia on October
24, 1860. He was raised and educated in Philadelphia and was a cab-
inet maker and interior finisher by trade and an expert in his line.
For twelve years he did interior finishing work on the fine cars of the
Pennsylvania Railroad at their shops in West Philadelphia. His
health failing, he decided to seek the less rigorous climate of Southern
California and arrived in Pomona in November, 1892. He bought
a five-acre fruit ranch on East Phillips Boulevard, and planted it to
peaches and apricots, and there he lived, improving the place and in-
creasing its productiveness.
After some years, Mr. Beale thought he wished to return East
for a visit, and selling out his ranch he returned to Philadelphia. He
only remained three months, however, and then returned to Pomona.
For a short time he worked as clerk in the Tarr shoe store; he later
established a butter and egg business and for fourteen years followed
this line, establishing a route and supplying customers in Pomona and
vicinity with fresh butter and eggs, and in his dealings with the public
became possessed of many firm friends. During this time he bought
a four-acre orange grove on Washington Avenue and later moved his
family there from the home he had previously purchased on East
Sixth Street. He greatly improved the ranch, piping water for irriga-
tion and bringing it to a high state of cultivation.
The marriage of Mr. Beale, in Philadelphia, united him with Rose
J. Weegman, also a native of that city, and one daughter, Jeane
Marie, blessed their union, born in Pomona. The family attend the
Congregational Church and in fraternal circles Mr. Beale was a
member of the Fraternal Brotherhood. His death, December 27,
1918, left a void in the hearts of his many friends in the community,
as well as in his devoted family.
568 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
FRANKLIN SMEAD
The son of a Cincinnati banker, Franlclin Smead was born in
Cincinnati, Ohio, December 8, 1832. He was reared and educated in
his native city, and as a young man entered business with his father
in the bank. Not liking the indoor confinement, he purchased 500
acres of land in Winnebago County, northern Illinois, where he fol-
lowed the occupation of a farmer for fifteen years. In 1872 he re-
moved to Washington, Davis County, Ind., and became the owner of
thirty acres of peaches and pears. His fruit was famous all over the
state for its fine quality, and brought the highest prices on the market.
In addition, he followed the occupation of raising stock, cattle and
swine successfully.
In 1907 Mr. Smead disposed of his interests in the East and
removed to Pomona, Cal. Here he purchased seven and one-half
acres on Arroyo Avenue, in the Packard Tract, planted to oranges
and lemons. This orchard has proved to be an excellent producer, and
its owner has received as much as $800 for his lemons from one acre
of trees in one year's time. His orange trees have also been prolific
yielders.
Mr. Smead married Miss Sarah E. Sneath, a native of New
York, now^ deceased. Of the twelve children resulting from their
union six are living, na^mely: Clarence B. of Pomona, Harry of San
Dimas, Roy of Pomona, Mrs. Minnie Cochran of Pomona, Mrs.
Stella Lane of Decker, Ind., and Mrs. Mabel Little of Pomona.
IRA SCOFIELD
A successful and revered California rancher, now deceased, who
always took an active part in Pomona Valley affairs, especially in
orange culture and the problems of water development, was Ira Sco-
field, a native of Montrose, Iowa. When he was a young man, his
father and mother, George and Angeline Scofield, moved to Council
Bluffs, Iowa, and there for a number of years he conducted a general
store, steadily making that reputation for enterprise, reliability and
a desire to please and to accommodate, so valuable to every ambitious
merchant.
In 1893 Mr. Scofield moved west to Los Angeles, and in that
beautiful city of the Southland he remained for five years. Then he
removed to Pomona, assured of its permanent attractions, and bought
ten acres of an orange grove located on Orange Avenue, near San Ber-
nardino Avenue, in bearing condition, and interspersed with prunes.
After a while he took out the prune trees and set out only oranges; and
when he had brought the ranch to a high state of perfection, he sold
half of the grove. On the five acres remaining he erected a new home
HISTORY AND IIIOGRAPHY 569
south of the old place; and there his esteemed widow and an only
daughter now reside, for Mr. Scofield passed to his eternal reward on
January 2, 1916.
Mrs. Scofield was Miss Margaret Bennett, a native of New York
state and a daughter of Adam Bennett and Agnes (Young) Bennett,
before her marriage, which took place at Council Bluffs, and four
children blessed their union: Maie resides at the home place; Hazel,
who became the wife of J. B. Mitchell of Los Angeles, is now deceased,
survived by a son, Milo Mitchell; Albert and Miles live in Council
Bluffs, Iowa. Fraternally, Mr. Scofield was an Odd Fellow.
As president of the Claremont Citrus Association for many yeai-s,
Mr. Scofield did much to advance orange and lemon interests here,
besides developing his own groves into Al producers; and as president
of the Kingsley Tract Water Company, he was a good "booster" of
Valley irrigation. His demise, therefore, may be said to be a public
loss, for during all of his life he was preeminently public-spirited. With
his family he attended the Congregational Church ; but his influence for
good was unhampered by any denominational lines or confines.
PROFESSOR GEORGE GALE HITCHCOCK
The strides made in modern science is well Illustrated in the prep-
aration and work of such men of advanced learning as George Gale
Hitchcock, professor of physics in Pomona College, who was born at
Galesburg, Knox County, 111., on April 24, 1861 — a notable date in
the scientific world, by the way, for it was then that a partially success-
ful electric telephone was first Installed. He remained In his birthplace
until he was fourteen years of age, attending the district schools; but
In 1875 the family removed to Lincoln, Nebr. It thus came about
that our subject was graduated from the University of Nebraska,
1883, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, after which he took a post-
graduate course in physics and general science at the Johns Hopkins
University at Baltimore.
For the next six years Mr. Hitchcock was professor of science In
the Presbyterian College at Pierre, S. D., and then he occupied the
chair of chemistry for two years at the Washington State Agricultural
College at Pullman, Wash. In January, 1893, Professor Hitchcock
came to Pomona College as one of Its pioneer instructors, being pro-
fessor of both chemistry and physics until 1905, and since that time
physics alone. During a part of this time he has been connected with
the University of California, doing extension work In the line of elec-
trical engineering.
On September 7, 1887, in Minnesota, Professor Hitchcock was
married to Miss Abble Williams, a native of Iowa and the daughter of
A. C. Williams, D.D., a Methodist minister, who spent the last four-
570 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
teen years of his life as a preacher in Southern California. She is an
accomplished woman, who has shared a deep interest in her husband's
work; and four children have added joy and honor. Edith M., who
was graduated from Pomona College with the class of '14, is instructor
of music in the Claremont public schools; and Harry W., who was
graduated from the same alma mater with the class of '11, and later
spent two years at Cornell University, is at present expert engineer
with the American Telegraph and Telephone Company of New York.
There are also George G., Jr., and Arthur B. Hitchcock, both of
whom are at home. The latter shows marked musical talent, and at
the age of seventeen is organist of the Congregational Church of
Claremont.
Belonging to the Congregational Church of Claremont, Professor
Hitchcock has served as its trustee and deacon. He has also been
organist of that church, and, indeed, through his knowledge of the
organ, has long been a leader in a field in which Americans in partic-
ular have done good work. He is not only an expert, finished per-
former on the organ, but is thoroughly familiar with its manufacture
and repair. As a result of this valuable experience and knowledge,
Professor Hitchcock was sent East to select the organ now in the
Mission Inn at Riverside, and one of the chief attractions of that
unique hostelry; and he also selected the organ of the Congregational
Church at Long Beach, the organ of the Congregational Church at
Whittier, and the organ in Bridges Hall, Claremont. This experience
goes back to his work as organist at the University of Nebraska at
Lincoln, and as organist in various Baltimore churches, and affords
Professor Hitchcock ample oportunity for advancing not only science
and mechanics, but art and aesthetics, and increasing the measure of
human happiness.
ARTHUR MILLARD LICHTY
The opportunities to be found in Pomona Valley, both in a busi-
ness way, socially, and along educational lines, have proven a magnet
for men of ability from all over the United States, and as they are like-
wise progressive and wide-awake to the possibilities to be found here,
their choice has never been regretted. Among these may be mentioned
Arthur Millard Lichty, a native of Waterloo, Blackhawk County,
Iowa, where he was born September 2, 1878, a son of Hiram J. Lichty,
born in Somerset County, Pa., who came to Iowa in pioneer days. He
was a farmer, and passed away in May, 1916, after a strenuous and
very useful life in that state; the mother, Sarah Ann Miller before her
marriage, was also born in Somerset County, Pa., and came to Iowa
when a child of seven years and was reared on the frontier. She re-
sides in Waterloo.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 571
The fourth child in a family of six horn to his parents, Arthur
Millard received his education at public schools, supplemented by a
course at Waterloo Academy and School of Commerce. He remained
at home on his father's farm until reaching the age of twenty-two,
when he began to farm for himself, and continued at that occupation
until he left Iowa for the extreme West.
In the fall of 1909 Mr. Lichty came to Pomona. For a while
he worked at various undertakings, and came to have a thorough
knowledge of Pomona and surrounding territory, and the future possi-
bilities of this favored section. In January, 1914, in partnership with
Schuyler H. Park, he formed the wholesale flour and feed house of
Park & Lichty, and from its beginning it proved a success, building up
a large business and keeping pace with the increasing growth of the
Valley. Both partners cooperate with the business men of Pomona in
all undertakings for the general upbuilding of the community, and are
recognized as dependable workers for the best interests of the Valley.
This partnership continued till September, 1919, when he sold his in-
terest to Mr. Park.
The marriage of Mr. Lichty, which occurred at Waterloo, Iowa,
June 19, 1902, united him with Miss Helen J. Bellingham, and two
children have blessed their union, Kenneth Bellingham and Forrest
Vincent. The family attend the Church of the Brethren. Mr. Lichty
is a member of the Pomona Chamber of Commerce.
HARRY W. FREYERMUTH
The enterprising, thrifty and progressive spirit, so typical of the
early pioneers of the Golden State, Is exemplified in the successful
career of H. W. Freyermuth, the pioneer painting 'contractor of the
Pomona Valley. He was born in Philadelphia, Pa., on September 4,
1866, and when six years of age the family removed to South Bend,
Ind. Here he was educated and learned the trade of a painter and
decorator, which business he followed in South Bend until IS93.
Believing that California offered better opportunities for enter-
prising young men, Mr. Freyermuth came to Pomona, Cal., In 1893,
arriving with just forty-two dollars, and after paying the freight on his
furniture he had but twenty dollars to begin living in his new surround-
ings and to establish himself in business. But he was rich in those in-
dispensable adjuncts of large success — self-confidence and a deter-
mination to surmount all obstacles — he possessed economical habits
and an Industrious nature. He started in the contracting, painting and
decorating business and successfully followed his trade in the Pomona
Valley for eighteen years, employing as many as fifteen men at one
time. His business extended throughout the Pomona Valley and in-
572 HISTORY AND UlUGRAl'HY
eluded San Dimas, Chino, Uplands, Ontario, La Verne, and besides
many fine residences in Pomona he painted and decorated the State
Bank building and the Brady block.
As he prospered he saved his money and invested in five acres of
land on East Fifth Street, which he improved, planted to oranges, and
sold. In 1910 he purchased his present line orange grove of seventeen
acres on West Cucamonga Avenue. At that time the trees were five
years old and the place was very much run down, but with Mr. Freyer-
muth's excellent care and management the grove has been brought up
to a high state of cultivation and is among the best producers of the
Valley and is now paying him a handsome profit. Of the 1000 Valen-
cia orange trees, 700 are in bearing, and among the lemon trees 160 are
now in bearing. From eight acres of Valencia oranges Mr. Freyer-
muth received in 1918, $7800.
In addition to his orange grove Mr. Freyermuth is one of the
owners of the Golden Terrace pumping plant, which furnishes ten
growers in his district with water for irrigating. He packs and ships
his oranges through the Indian Hill Citrus Association of North Po-
mona.
In August, 1906, Mr. Freyermuth was united in marriage with
Eva MuUendore, a native of Richland County, Wis., where her father
located in 1854. Fraternally he is a member of the Odd Fellows and
has passed through all the chairs of the order, and both himself and
wife are Rebekahs. By persisting in a course of straightforward deal-
ing in all of his business operations, Mr. Freyermuth has gained a
gratifying degree of financial success.
JEROME A. LUDDEN
A leading man in the commercial world of Pomona, who has done
much to put the important trade in drugs upon a scientific, dignified and
economic basis, is Jerome A. Ludden, proprietor of the Ludden Drug
Company, at 300 West Second Street, — not only a Hrst-class, complete
establishment, but historically of special interest as one of the pioneer
drug companies of the city. He was born on May 16, 1881, at Win-
dom, Cottonwood County, Minn., the son of Collins A. Ludden, a
native of New York, now retii-ed. He married Miss Alice C. Flint, a
Kentucky belle, and together they established themselves early among
a circle of devoted friends. Collins Ludden was a druggist for many
years in Windom before coming to Pomona on June 15, 1895.
For the first few years he followed ranching on North San xA.n-
tonio Avenue, but he soon returned to the business to which he had al-
ready given much of his life. He bought out the drug store of S. Cald-
well, at 410 West Second Street, which had been established in the
Valley for many years, and after a few years in that location he moved
the business to 300 West Second Street, at the corner of Main, its
HISTORY AND mOGRAPITY 373
present well-known location. In 1914 he sold out the establishment to
his son, Jerome, and retired; and the latter has since then been respon-
sible for the progressive policies of the up-to-date house. Collins
Ludden has been a Mason in all the branches, including that of the
Shriners; and few, if any, members are more welcome in Masonic
halls. His children, all honorable and honored, and also all active in
their spheres of influence, are Jerome A.-, Merritt W., Morris E., Amy
B., and Hugh C. Ludden.
Jerome A. Ludden received his early education in the home town
of Winciom, Minn., anci was a boy of fifteen when he reached Pomona,
since which time he has been identified with the affairs of the town. He
attended the Claremont high school, and completed a pharmaceutical
course at the University of Southern California, from which he was
graduated in 1900. He was associated with his father from the start
in the Ludden Drug Company, of which, as has been said, he became
sole owner in 1914. Many were the regrets at the announcement of
Collins Ludden's proposed retirement, but general satisfaction was ex-
pressed at the prospect of so acceptable a successor.
At Long Beach, on the 16th day of September, 1903, Mr. Ludden
was married to Miss Minnie Newkirk, a native of Kansas and the
daughter of Frank M. and Lilly Newkirk. She was brought to Cali-
fornia when a child and reared and educated at Long Beach; and now
she is associate matron of the Eastern Star, with which organization
her husband was affiliated for years. One son, Jerome A., Jr., has
blessed this fortunate union. Like his father, Jerome Ludden is also a
Mason and a Shriner.
ALBERT WILLIAM LYTER
An American veteran who proved his real mettle in the tierce
Philippine campaigns of the Spanish-American War, and who thus
established a record for such manly prowess that it is logical enough
he should today be serving his fellow-men at the head of a department
calling for character, common sense and courage, is Albert William
Lyter, Chief of Police of Pomona. A native son, he was born at San
Jose on April 21, 1880, in the family of John and Julia (Houck)
Lyter. The father was a rancher, and so afforded the lad at least a
healthy, outdoor boyhood; and nowadays Chief Lyter is as fond as
ever of life in the great open. John Lyter is still living, but his good
wife has passed away. She was the mother of three children, all boys,
and Albert is the oldest child. John Lyter was a Union soldier in the
Civil War and he also took part in the war against the Indians soon
after; and when Albert was only six years old, the family was taken to
Denver, where he was educated at the public schools. In 1905 the
Lyters came to Los Angeles, and the following year they removed to
Chino.
574 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Good fortune smiled upon Albert in 1910 when he came to Po-
mona to live, about midway in an engagement of five years with the
Southern Pacific as warehouseman; for he found at last the town that
suited him best. In 1912 he joined the police force as a patrolman;
and when Chief H. P. Tracy was killed in 1915, he was appointed, to
everybody's satisfaction, Chief Tracy's successor. He Is a Democrat
in matters of paramount politics; but gladly joins his neighbors in local
movements irrespective of party claims.
When the United States was at war with Spain, Mr. Lyter joined
Company E of the First Colorado Volunteers, and for a year and a
half fought for honor and liberty. Finally, he received his honorable
discharge with a record for attested bravery.
On June 26, 1903, Mr. Lyter was married at Denver, Colo., to
Miss Clara Lucas; and three children have brought joy to their hearth;
they are Donald, Harry and Robert. In fraternal affairs, Mr. Lyter
is a member of the Fraternal Brotherhood.
GEORGE C. GRISWOLD
The sound business judgment of George C. Griswold was exem-
plified in his selection of Pomona Valley as a section in which to estab-
lish his marmalade factory. This Valley is known all over the United
States as the center of the abundant production of citrus fruits of lus-
cious and superior quality and the wonderful pace at which the industry
is growing each year is proof that the newcomers who flock to the Val-
ley yearly appreciate its superior qualifications for the propagation of
the orange and lemon.
George C. Griswold was born in Milo, Bureau County, III., and
is the son of A. R. and Mary (Swarthout) Griswold, natives of New
York State, who removed to Illinois and engaged in farming in Bureau
County. George C. was reared in Illinois and received his primary
education in the public schools of his native state, completing the high
school course at Princeton, 111., and courses at Knox College and Cor-
nell University, graduating from the latter institution in 1892 with the
degree of B.L. After teaching in the University of Washington, at
Seattle, for one year, he went abroad and studied three years at the
University of Halle and, completing his studies, received the degree
of Ph.D. at that university. Returning to his native country, he was
superintendent of schools at Mendota, 111., and Oregon, 111. During
the years he was engaged in educational work, he started a summer re-
sort at Ludington, Mich. He subdivided the place, built and sold cot-
tages and lots and erected the hotel and store there.
After coming to Claremont in 1909, he would return to Michigan
in the summers to look after his affairs there, until he disposed of his
holdings in 1912, since which time he has given California business all
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 575
of his attention. He began the manufacture of marmalade in a small
way, simply because he was interested in it and wanted something to do.
The first year it was prepared over the family cook stove and each year
the amount was increased. Introducing the product in the East, his
business grew and now he has built a large plant on Foothill Boulevard,
equipped with the latest machinery and methods for the preparation,
packing and shipping of the goods. He makes a specialty of orange
marmalade; he ships a great many packages by express to eastern
points, filling orders of tourists to send to their friends, now about 800
packages a year. The capacity of the plant is about one hundred
dozen jars of marmalade per day and each year the production is
increased.
In Phoenix, Ariz., Mr. Griswold was married to Grace Brooks,
a native of Oregon, 111., and they have two daughters, Mary Louise
and Dorothy. In his religious convictions, Mr. Griswold is a Uni-
tarian, and in national politics he adheres to the principles of the Re-
publican platform; fraternally, he is a member of the Phi Gamma
Delta, and was made a Mason in Seattle, Wash., and now is a member
of the Claremont Lodge of Masons.
CARL H. LORBEER
A splendid and inspiring illustration of the possibility of one
making a success of a business or professional undertaking and at the
same time giving much time, thought and faithful attention to a mo\e-
ment for the uplift of society, is afforded by Carl H. Lorbeer, wire
chief and assistant manager of the Pomona Valley Telephone & Tele-
graph Company, who, a native son most proud of his association with
the Golden State, was born at Pomona on August 25, 1884. He at-
tended the Pomona grammar and high schools, and was graduated
from Pomona College in 1906, after making a specialty of biology
and general science.
For two years previous to his graduation, Mr. Lorbeer was a
collector for the Home Telephone Company, and he has been with
them ever since. He started in to learn the business from the lowest
round of the ladder, and now he is next to the head in the practical
management of the establishment.
On November 19, 1908, at Pomona, Mr. Lorbeer was married
to Miss Rose Andersen, born in Pawnee City, Nebr., the daughter of
R. C. Andersen, now of Pomona, and by her he has had two children,
C. Richard and Mary Louise. He and his family are members of the
Pilgrim Congregational Church of Pomona, and he is the teacher
of the Baraca class of the Sunday School.
While a student in Pomona College, Mr. Lorbeer belonged to
the Lyceum and Debating Club, and as a member of the track team
576 HISTORY AND BIOGRAI'IIY
he was one of the best track men that the college ever turned out. This
experience doubtless had much to do with his active interest in the
Boys' Brigade, of which he has been first lieutenant for the past twelve
years, and which has proven a large factor in promoting a high
standard of young manhood among the boys of this city. The brigade
company was organized in the old Pilgrim Congregational Church,
when it was located at the corner of Third and Thomas streets, and
from a start of twenty-three boys the company has grown rapidly until
the membership had to be closed because of the lack of room. The
new recruits were largely from the ranks of boys not attending any
Sunday school, and the officers of Pilgrim school found it hard to
obtain teachers fast enough to take care of the increase.
During the years since its organization, the company has nexer
lost its momentum, and hundreds of boys, between the ages of twelve
and eighteen years, have benefited by the splendid training gained in
the organization. It has been found necessary each year to limit its
membership, although the splendid gymnasium of Pilgrim Church
affords much larger quarters and equipment far more efficient and sat-
isfactory than did the first home of the brigade, which was in the
rented hall of the second floor just west of the First National Bank.
A recent report of the brigade serves to show something of the
careful work done by Mr. Lorbeer and the other officers:
"Starting with a small company of boys, it grew in a few weeks
to many times its first number. Hundreds of boys have been drawn
into the Sunday School as active, earnest scholars, for each boy must
keep up a certain efficiency in order to retain his membership. As Sun-
day School attendance is the main object of the brigade, the result has
been that the average attendance at the weekly drill and Sunday School
is over 92 per cent., which means almost a perfect attendance for each
drill night, and a large number of boys receive each year splendid
medals, many of the boys reaching one hundred per cent., which means
a perfect attendance for each drill night and Sunday School.
"Pilgrim School has an almost unmatched record for having more
boys in attendance than girls, which is due to the brigade. Teachers in
the public schools have many times expressed themselves at the remark-
able change enacted in the character and actions of boys who have been
thought unmanageable. This, together with the high compliments ex-
tended by the superintendent of schools, shows the value of the military
training which is carried on in the company.
"Being a military organization and the boys efficiently instructed
in military drill, when the government decided to install military drill
in our public schools, the superintendent of schools invited the officers
of the brigade company to meet him at his office, where he stated that
the new system would require experienced boys to officer the new com-
panies about to be formed, and he would ask their cooperation, and
the cooperation of the boys of the brigad; to help make the new system
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 577
quickly efficient. This patriotic preparedness became a large factor in
the success of our school military system. During the entire history of
the company, the same officers have given unstinted labor to perfect
the organization."
IGNACIO O. VEJAR
An experienced, painstaking and successful steward of one of the
historic old ranch properties of Southern California is Ignacio O.
Vejar, like his good wife — a descendant of the path-breaking Yorbas
— a representative of some of the best pioneer stock in the state. He
was born at Spadra, in the Pomona Valley, on April 6, 1879, the son
of Ramon Vejar, and the grandson of Ricardo, both of whom are
mentioned in more detail in the life story of Ramon Vejar, printed
elsewhere in this work. Ricardo came from San Diego, and was a son
of that Salvador Vejar, a native of Spain come to Mexico, whom the
Mission Fathers obtained to help build the Missions, particularly that
at San Gabriel. Ricardo settled in the early days on the San Jose
Rancho, lived in an old adobe and ran two stores; made friends with
the Indians, when they were friendly, and fought them when they were
not. Ramon, still living and honored of all who know him, his gray
hairs evidencing the snows of almost ninety winters, long farmed his
share of the estate, and married Teresa Palomares, the daughter of
Ignacio Palomares, whose name the town of Palomares bore — -
one of the "boom" towns of the late eighties, when town lots were
sold to the hungry and thirsty who came for free barbecue, coffee,
lemonade, and even (and for that time rather a luxury) ice water,
without money and without price. There were twelve children in this
flourishing family of Ramon and Teresa Vejar, and Ignacio was the
seventh in the order of birth.
He attended the public schools of Pomona, and then took a busi-
ness course at Lordsburg College, after which he assisted his father
to manage the home place. Later, he spent three years in Guatemala,
Central America, as foreman of a large coffee plantation, and while
there had an excellent opportunity to witness the evolution of a Central
American revolution, and the tactics of the revolutionists. There
were many stirring events, and he had not a few narrow escapes.
Having returned to California and his home place, he has since been
manager of his father's ranch, which is in walnut trees and yields large
crops. Under his far-sighted management, this ranch has year by year
eclipsed its own record of excellent performance, and is today rather a
show place for those making a study of ranch development. Mr. Vejar
has six acres of his own set to oranges; and it goes without saying that
they constitute a model property.
When Ignacio Vejar married, in Anaheim, March 12, 1905, he
allied himself, through Miss Mary Yorba, a native of Orange County,
578 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
with one of the oldest and most illustrious of the Spanish-American
pioneers; and with their children, \'iola, Leo and Carrie, all of whom
still attend school, they add to the number of devout communicants of
the Roman Catholic Church. Mrs. Vejar Is a daughter of Don Vin-
cente and Erolinda (Cota) Yorba. Her grandfather, Bernardo
Yorba, was one of the largest landowners in Orange County. Vincente
Yorba died on his ranch at Yorba, being survived by his widow. Mrs.
Yorba was the third oldest of their six children, and was educated in
the public schools and at the Pomona Business College. Mr. Vejar
is a member of the Knights of Columbus.
THURMAN J. STEVES
In few things, perhaps, has California been more fortunate, on
the average, than in the high order of men to whom has been entrusted
the direction of her municipalities; and this has never been better
illustrated than in the case of Thurman J. Steves, the Chairman of the
Board of Trustees of La Verne. He was born in Redwood County,
Minn., on January 1, 1879, the son of Jonathan Steves, a native of
Montreal, Canada, who came with his parents when a boy to Redwood
County, Minn., where he grew up and became a successful farmer, and
he is still living, honored of a wide circle of friends. He married Miss
Lydia Wiggins, a native of Minnesota, by whom he had four chil-
dren, Ray of La Verne; May, who has become Mrs. Herbert Schisler,
living at Pomona; another daughter, Pearl, now Mrs. J. B. Cleaver,
also of Pomona; and Thurman J., the subject of our review, who is
the oldest of all.
Twenty-six years ago Jonathan Steves came to La Verne from
Minnesota, and bought five acres of raw land on East Third Street,
where he planted an orange grove, so that he was one of the pioneers
that pointed the way to success in that field. That grove, brought
to a good state of perfection, he still owns. He served for four years
as a city trustee of La ^'erne, and is now a director in the Old Baldy
Water Company.
Thurman Steves was educated in the local schools, and for four
years worked at the old Evergreen Orange Ranch, where he followed
the orange industry in the Valley. He now owns an orange grove of
five acres, and is half owner with his father in another grove of ten
acres of oranges in bearing. He, too, has become an active developer
hereabouts of the orange industry, his five-acre ranch, for example,
in 1919 having produced 3,000 boxes of Navel oranges valued at
$5,000 — a fine record. He is secretary and treasurer of the Old Baldy
Water Company, which he helped to organize, a fine system that
serves no less than thirty-three growers with irrigating water. A
_believer in cooperation for fruit growers Mr. Steves was a member of
HISTORY AXD BIOGRAPHY 581
North Pomona Exchange until the La Verne Orange Growers Ex-
change was started, since which time he has been a member of it. He
has been a city trustee for five years, and at present presides over
the dehberations of that august town body.
In September, 1904, at La Verne, Mr. Steves was married to
Miss Amy Lapp", of Iowa, and a daughter of Jacob and Amy Lapp;
and two daughters have blessed the fortunate union — Marion and
May. The family are members of the Brethren Church of La Verne,
of which Mr. Steves is a trustee and an active worker, being the teacher
of the Men's Bible Class. Mayor Steves was active in all Red Cross,
war and Liberty Bond drives, and also serves as a trustee of the well-
organized and well-conducted La Verne public school.
GUY V. WHALEY
The fame of Pomona for its exceptional educational opportuni-
ties, really one of the inducements which has made the city preeminent-
ly a home town, cannot but be extended and assured through the ap-
pointment there recently of Superintendent Guy V. Whaley, late super-
intendent of schools at San Diego, where he was under a four-
year contract, waived in order to be near his parents at Pomona. With
wide experience as an educator, Mr. Whaley comes to Pomona well
prepared to take charge of the city's educational system. His recom-
mendations from the State University and from Stanford University
certify him as one of the best qualified men in the state; through fre-
quent visits to Pomona, he is known to be in complete accord with the
ideals and plans of the newly-elected board of education; and it is
natural that the board is pleased that it has been able to persuade Mr.
Whaley to make the geographical change.
Superintendent Whaley was born at Dow City, Iowa, on February
23, 1877, the son of W. V. Whaley, a native of Ohio, who married
Rebekah A. Simms, daughter of John F. Simms and Catherine Draper
Simms, and a native of Ohio; and as a boy he attended the public
schools at Dow City. Later, he studied at the University of Iowa,
where he specialized in biology; but he had previously been graduated
from the Denison Normal, had taught school in the rural districts of
Iowa for three years, and also pursued courses at Simpson's College at
Indianola, Iowa. All in all, he was eleven years in Iowa schools, and
in that time was principal of the high school at Stuart; supervising
principal of the schools at Corinth; city superintendent of schools at
Correctionville, and also city superintendent of the Perry, Iowa,
schools.
On coming to Pomona, in 1909, Superintendent Whaley did a full
year and one summer session of special work as a student at Pomona
College, receiving departmental honors in economics and history. He
then entered Stanford University and there made a brilliant record
382 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
and was graduated with high honors. After leaving Stanford he was
made principal of the Riverview Union High School at Antioch, Cal.,
and later he continued his education at the University of California,
which gave him his master's degree in education. His old position at
Perry was again offered him at an advanced salary, but he declined,
preferring to remain in California.
A higher salary drew Mr. Whaley away from Antioch to Vallejo,
which had a larger school system with greater responsibilities and
greater opportunities for advancement, and for five and one-half years
Mr. Whaley served Vallejo to the entire satisfaction of the school
authorities there and the people generally. When, however, the San
Diego school board offered him the superintendency there, the circum-
stances leading up to tjieir action was such that he could not well refuse
to accept. The board had aslced the two universities, California and
Stanford, to recommend the most suitable man for the place; and
Mr. Whaley was named and elected before he even knew that San
Diego was seeking a school head. He made no application, therefore,
for the position, but was elected on the recommendations of the univer-
sities. As a matter of fact, Mr. Whaley's work at San Diego was so
successful in every way that the board of education was reluctant to
release him from his contract, and at first refused to let him go; but
when it was understood that his desire was to live near his parents, the
board reconsidered its action.
That Superintendent Whaley is familiar with school administra-
tion was demonstrated many times at the first meetings of the Pomona
board of education, at which he was present. His advice was frequently
sought by the board on important questions, and he was always prompt
with an answer based upon, his knowledge of school law and adminis-
tration, or upon wide experience. His recommendations respecting
the employment of three expert teachers elected by the board showed
that efficiency is his aim, and that the best service, and only the best,
will be offered to public school patrons. Superintendent Whaley
showed the keenest interest- in the problems with which the Pomona
board was dealing, and several times requested that he might be per-
mitted to take an active part in the solution of some of the knotty
matters long before the authorities. He asked in particular that he
might have the supervision of any adjustments respecting new rooms
or new lighting, as his knowledge of modern methods made him natu-
rally interested in such contemplated changes for the Pomona schools.
The members of the board indicated their pleasure at this desire to
render the highest service, and assured Mr. Whaley that his advice
would be eagerly sought, and he should have free control of such part
of the administration.
On August 24, 1905, and at Chesley, Ontario, Canada, Mr.
Whaley was married to Miss Mary Elizabeth Reed, a native of
Ontario, Canada, and the daughter of George W. and Alice Robinson
J^^^^^'^v
HV^^
"^ jyj^^i
\
\
^^^H
*
)>u. (2u^~^ S^yfyn-^-^-c^^--^
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 585
Reed. Two children, Harold Reed and Warren Paul Whaley, blessed
the union. Mrs. Whaley passed away in 1918 after a long illness.
While they had lived at Pomona, Mr. and Mrs. Whaley were active
members of the Trinity Methodist Church; and Mr. Whaley has
retained his membership in that communion.
During the summer session of the San Diego State Normal
School, Professor Whaley was both a teacher and a lecturer. At
Stanford, during his residence, he belonged to the Acacia Fraternity,
and upon graduation was accorded membership in the Phi Delta
Kappa fraternity, which is the honorary educational fraternity of the
United States. While in Iowa, Mr. Whaley became a member of
Burning Bush Lodge, A. F. & A. M., at Correctionville, Iowa, Pal-
myra Chapter, R. A. M., and Gerard Commandery, Knights Templar,
at Perry, in that state.
MISS M. ALICE SEYMOUR
England may boast of the birth of M. Alice Seymour, a lady who
has attained more than local fame in one of the new industries of
the Pacific Coast, and was educated in the schools of her native land,
and came to America In 1906, locating for a while at Hunters Hot
Springs, Park County, Mont. In 1916 she came to California to
make a study of both the citrus and deciduous fruit industries; and
coming to Pomona, she worked as fruit packer in the Pomona P'ruit
Growers Exchange Packing House, and also in the Pomona Valley
Cannery.
After perfecting herself in both branches, she settled at Anaheim,
in Orange County, and entered the employ of the Crawford Marma-
lade Factory. She perfected herself in all the branches of marmalade
making, and was promoted to the head of the cooking department.
In the spring of 1919, a change took place in the superintendency of
the San Dimas factory, and she was then made manager. This would
perhaps call for less comment were it not true that Miss Seymour has
the unique distinction of being one of two women to become managers
of packing or manufacturing plants devoted to the citrus fruit Industry
In Southern California.
The making of marmalade — a toothsome delicacy associated
with memories of orange groves and losing none of Its attraction
because It was a preserve originally made from quinces instead of
citrus fruit — on a large, commercial scale in Southern California was
started by Thomas Crawford at Anaheim, who commenced operations
in a small way and incorporated his undertaking, as the business grew.
Into the Exchange Orange Product Company. The factory in San
Dimas, a branch of the Anaheim factory, was built in September,
1918, and has been wonderfully successful from the start. When run
at full capacity, the San Dimas factory turns out from sixteen to
586 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
eighteen thousand pounds of marmalade a day, which is packed in glass
jars anci marketed through the California Fruit Growers Exchange.
The Company also has a plant in Toronto, Canada, to which point it
ships the raw materials, which are there made up into the finished
product.
Miss Annie Crawford, sister of Thomas Crawford, brought the
recipes for Sunkist Marmalade from Scotland, and this marmalade is
made in California right where the best oranges grow. The spick-
and-span kitchens, supervised by Miss Crawford and Miss Seymour,
where Sunkist Marmalade is cooked, are owned and operated by the
growers themselves, and Sunkist Marmalade is marketed by the^e
same growers through their own cooperative organization — the Cali-
fornia Fruit Growers Exchange. This is the association of growers
which also markets the famous Sunkist oranges, lemons and grapefruit.
In the making of this famous California delicacy, the fresh, ripe
fruit is taken from the groves of members, after which the yellow part
of the peel is carefully removed. The fruit is then cooked down to
get all the rich, pure juice. The thin, yellow peel is finely shredded so
it will not form lumps, and all pulp and white part of the peel are
discarded. Next, the juice and shredded peel are cooked together, and
pure sugar and a little grapefruit or lemon juice are added. Nothing
else goes Into it — no pulp, glucose, no preservative of any kind what-
ever. Two pounds of fruit are cooked down to make one pound of
marmalade, and so the full orange flavor is obtained. The cooking
is done at the factory much the same as it is by most people at home
when they make preser\'es. Small, individual gas stoves are used,
and only a few pounds are cooked at a time; to be exact, less than
four gallons. Nor is there any hurry. There are no "short-cut"
methods. Each kettle is watched individually, and the contents are
constantly stirred and tested until they are done just- right. With the
costlier small stove and slow cooking, the "home taste" is acquired.
All the cooks of the Sunkist factory are women, and they work
under the supervision of a Scotchwoman, a connoisseur of marmalades
and preserves, who brought the recipes to this country, and introduced
the small-stove as the only rational method. She selected, she says,
women cooks exclusively as her assistants because "no man, no matter
how able, was ever a cook by instinct." Thus the Sunkist factory,
now so well established and becoming more and more celebrated, has
three policies — "home materials," "home stoves," and "home cooks"
— looking to real "home taste."
In November, 1919, Miss Seymour severed her connection with
the Exchange Orange Products Company at San Dimas to accept a
position tendered by California Food Products Company of Anaheim,
manufacturers of marmalades, jams and preserves, to which she is
now giving the same careful attention and time. The above is a new
plant just started by the Anaheim Sugar Company.
HISTORY AND DIOGRAPHY 587
E. THEODOR SEDERHOLM
Though born in far-away P'inland, E. Theodor Sederhohii has
spent all of his mature life in this country, and has reached a position
of high standing in his adopted country, which he has served with all
the earnest capability for which his ancestry is noted. A native of
Helsingfors, he was bom January 26, 1860, a son of Clas Theodor
and Sophia (Blomquist) Sederholm, the father a publisher, the author
of several books, and also interested in steamship operation; his life
span was from 1832 to 1881, and that of his wife from 1834 to 1886.
E. Theodor was the eldest in a family of eight born to his parents,
and was educated in the schools of Finland, both elementary, college
and the University of Finland, and obtained the degree of mechanical
engineer in 1880. For a short time thereafter he followed his pro-
fession in Russia, then, in 1881, came to the United States, locating in
Philadelphia, where he was with the Baldwin Locomotive Works a
short time. Later in that same year he went to Milwaukee and spent
most of his time with the Edward P. Allis Company, and also with
Hoffman & Billings Manufacturing Company, as chief engineer,
putting in seven years in all. From Milwaukee he went to Chicago, as
chief engineer of Eraser & Chalmers, Inc., and for fourteen years was
with that firm, during this time acting as consulting engineer for their
English house and traveled for them in Europe, Central America,
Africa and Alaska. His health finally failed under the strain, and he
rested for a few years; and on recovery went back to Milwaukee,
with the Nordberg Manufacturing Company, remaining with them
until 1913.
That year marks the date of Mr. Sederholm's arrival In Pomona,
and here he turned from the more exacting business of following his
profession to that of fruit growing, which he has followed successfully
since that time, and has in the meantime been connected with the
Indian Hill Citrus Association, first as director, then vice-president,
and then as president of the company. In 1918 Mr.- Sederholm
resigned to accept an appointment from the United States Shipping
Board, first as district mechanical engineer of the Great Lakes District,
following which he was district plant engineer, stationed at Cleveland;
he traveled continuously in attending to his important duties, and worked
even harder for "L'ncle Sam" than he had for himself in former
years, giving sixteen months to the work and cheerfully sacrificing his
own interests to those of his country.
The marriage of Mr. Sederholm, which occurred on September
24, 1885, united him with Miss Amanda H. Hintze, a native of Wis-
consin, and into their happy home life they adopted two children:
Jack Robbins Sederholm, serving his native land in the merchant
marine; and Elizabeth, attending high school. Fond of music and
science, Mr. Sederholm has found time to devote to both hobbies, and
588 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
to the study of shipbuilding. Fraternally, he is prominent in Masonic
circles, and is a member of the Knights Templar and a thirty-second
degree Scottish Rite Mason, holding membership in Chicago. In
political belief he is a Republican, and in civic affairs he is actively
interested in all matters which have for their object the further
advancement of Pomona Valley along all branches of development
work. Mr. Sederholm is a member of the American Society of Me-
chanical Engineers, and the Society of Naval Architects and Marine
Engineers. Mr. Sederholm has patented many inventions along the
line of his profession. It would be hard to find a man more in
accord with the spirit of true Americanism than this patriot of many
attainments.
ELMER E. IZER
The founder of the Pomona Manufacturing Company, Elmer E.
Izer, and its president up to the time of his death at Pomona, Cal.,
August 26, 1918, was a native of the State of Maryland, where he was
born at Hagerstown July 22, 1851. When a young man he removed
to Alliance, Ohio, and learned the machinist trade, which he followed
until he came to Pomona in 1898 and engaged in a bicycle repair and
sales shop.
In March, 1902, Mr. Izer organized the Pomona Manufacturing
Company. This plant, which started in a small way in an old barn,
was the first plant in the Valley to make deep well pumps and the irri-
gation valves used in irrigating pipes. The pumps are installed in
orchards and on alfalfa ranches. The business grew and expanded
until it is now the largest manufacturing plant in Pomona Valley and
one of the largest in the United States devoted to the making of deep
well pumps. The company supply three-fourths of the pumps used in
Pomona Valley and occupy a large, modern, up-to-date place of busi-
ness. The United States Iron Works Company of Kansas City, Mo.,
are its Eastern agents.
Mr. Izer married Elizabeth McCain, daughter of Nelson Mc-
Cain, pioneer of Pomona, who died from the effects of a paralytic
stroke April 5, 1919. He was a native of Putnam County, Ind., was
born in 1831, and during his early years engaged in the occupation of
farming. As a young man he was ordained as a minister in the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church and at the outbreak of the Civil War joined
the Union army as a chaplain, and served for four years in that ca-
pacity. Previous to coming to Pomona in 1887, he had spent some
time there, and after 1887 made his home continuously in that city. He
was a man of strong personality and was always held in the highest
esteem by a large circle of friends and acquaintances. Mr. McCain
married Mary Richie in Missouri, where she was born, and she lives at
Huntington Park. Three sons and one daughter preceded him to the.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHV 589
beyond, and five daughters and one son are left to mourn his loss,
namely: Mrs. T. B. Copeland, Los Angeles; Mrs. K. G. Cullen,
Huntington Park; Mrs. D. A. Cullen, Los Angeles; Mrs. E. E. Izer,
Pomona; Mrs. O. L. Butler of Arroyo Grande, Cal., and M. Grant
McCain of Pomona.
Mr. Izer was a man of sterling character and great executive and
business ability, and his untimely demise was deeply deplored by a large
circle of friends. Fraternally he was a prominent member of the
L O. O. F., and had passed all chairs of that organization. Mrs. Izer
has one adopted daughter, Mildred Izer.
GEORGE WILMONT FORESTER, M.D.
Fortunate generally in her representatives of the learned profes-
sion, Pomona has been especially so in such splendidly trained physi-
cians and surgeons as Dr. George Wilmont Forester, who was born
at Lexington, Mich., on January 6, 1864. His father was Wesley
Justice Forester, well known in official and scientific circles as construc-
tion superintendent of the United States Government in the very im-
portant work of erecting lighthouses and building wharves. His wife
was Esther Jamima Beecher before her marriage ; and she was a second
cousin to Henry Ward Beecher, the great pulpit orator. They had
four children, and George was the third in the order of birth.
He began his education at the grammar and high schools at Che-
boygan, Mich., and at eighteen finished his studies at the high school.
In 1884 he went to Dexter, Iowa, where he spent one year at the
Normal School and in 1887 he came to California and attended the
medical department of the University of Southern California. After
this he spent a year at the Northern Indiana Normal at Valparaiso,
then entered Drake University at Des Moines, Iowa, where he was
graduated March 4, 1894, with the degree of M.D. Thus equipped
with a first-class foundation, he next took a course in pharmacy at
Highland Park College and No-rmal School at Des Moines, from which
he was graduated in 1897 with the degree of Ph.G., and since then, to
keep abreast of his profession, he has taken post-graduate work in New
York or other large cities every year. When he began to practice he
had an office three years in Des Moines and there extended his reputa-
tion for learning and skill.
In 1898 he came to Pomona, and he soon aided in building
the first hospital here, at the head of which he officiated for six years,
or until the Municipal Hospital was built. Besides his professional in-
terests, he has orange groves in a high state of cultivation, having had
many of them, some of which he set out and improved.
On March 4, 1891, Doctor Forester was married to Miss Lilly
Belle Williams, a native of Illinois, and three children have come to bless
590 HISTORY AND lUOGRAPHV
their union. Hazel W. is a graduate of the University of Southern
California and is a physician, practicing with her father; the second
child is William, a rancher in Saskatchewan, Canada ; while the third is
Frank, blind but brilliant, a graduate of Perkins Institute and responsi-
ble for several bills passed by the legislature and designed to help in
the educating of the blind. He is now studying law, and bids fair to be
heard from in that field. The family attend the Trinity Methodist
Church.
Doctor Forester is a Republican, but one who is ever ready to co-
operate with neighbors representing other platforms in the improve-
ment of local conditions. He is a Knight of Pythias, an Elk, a Macca-
bee, and also belongs to the P>aternal Aid, and everywhere he is
popular socially.
FRED KALTENBECK
A hotel manager whose wide experience of years have enabled him
to establish and conduct some of the best hostelries, for their size, in all
California, while he has become one of the most popular hosts with the
traveling public, is Fred Kaltenbeck, the proprietor of the Hotel Avis
at Pomona. He is a native of Delaware County, New York, and was
born in Roxbury village and reared on a farm. When a young man,
he removed to Stanton, Montcalm County, Mich., and for twelve years
conducted a general store and at the same time ran a hotel. Then he
located at Middlesboro, Bell County, Ky., where he ran a dairy,
while he also conducted a hotel for seven years. He made his hotel
one of the best in the county, and built up an exceptionally good trade.
Desiring to get into the metropolis, he sold out and moved to New
York City, where he conducted a wholesale produce business on the
corner of Twelfth Avenue and Thirty-fourth Street. His usual ability
to please also stood by him in that venture, so that his seven years there
were years of increasing success.
Having twice visited California and become acquainted with the
wonderful possibilities of the Golden State, Mr. Kaltenbeck came to
California in 1905, and located in Pomona, where he leased the Kellar
House, and soon afterward took over the lease of the Palomares Hotel.
At the end of five years, however, he located in Los Angeles and there
leased two different apartment houses, the Ponet Square and the Fond
du Lac, on South Grand Avenue. He later conducted the Casa Loma
Hotel at Redlands for five years and then leased the Casa Blanca Hotel
at Ontario, which he managed for two years. In June, 1919, he came
again to Pomona and leased the Hotel Avis.
This hotel was erected in 1916 by Walter M. Avis, and is one of
the best hotels in Pomona Valley, and, in keeping with modern de-
mands, has sixty rooms, all a part of a five-story modern brick struc-
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 591
tiire. Many of its appointments are due entirely to the combination of
Mr. Kaltenbeck's experience and taste with the good judgment dis-
played by the original builder.
At Roxbury, N. Y., Mr. Kaltenbeck married Miss Nettie Frisbie,
a native of Delaware County, that state, and two daughters were born
to them, both now deceased. Mary married John Hooper, by whom
she had a son; and Maude became the wife of M. F. Fisk and the
mother of a daughter. Mr. Fisk is associated in business with Mr.
Kaltenbeck.
JOHN L. TYLER, M.D.
A distinguished native of Illinois boasting of good old Scotch-
English ancestry and descent from thoroughly loyal and efficient Revo-
lutionary stock is Dr. John L. Tyler, the well-known veterinary sur-
geon of Pomona, who was born at Chebanse, in Iroquois County, on
February 19, 1870. His father was John Jefferson Tyler, and his
mother was, in maidenhood, Elizabeth Janet Ackley, and soon after
their marriage settled in Illinois in 1850, where they endured the pri-
vations and discomforts of pioneer life on the then frontier.
John L., when fifteen years old, removed to Arkansas, where the
family lived for a time, and then he returned to Chebanse to finish his
common school education. Next he entered and in 1891 he was grad-
uated from the Chicago Veterinary College, but he almost immediately
took up the study of medicine and two years later was given his M.D.
degree and diploma as a graduate of the National University of St.
Louis. Coming back to his native town he practiced medicine there
from 1893 until 1898, and then, having removed to Otterbein, Ind.,
he continued his practice there. He was also a physician at Crowley,
La., from 1900 until 1902, when he returned to Indiana and for two
years practiced medicine at Mexico.
On account of ill-health, Dr. Tyler sought the salubrious climate
.of California, and on May 1, 1904, arrived in Pomona. After a short
time, he removed to Long Beach, where he first began the practice of
veterinary medicine; and a year and a half later he opened an office at
Los Angeles. Such was his success in the new field of medicine that he
continued there as a veterinary until April, 1910, when he located in
Pomona, where he has been active ever since.
While in Los Angeles, Doctor Tyler was appointed Deputy State
Veterinary Inspector, and traveled all over the state; and for the past
six years he has been a member of the Pomona Board of Health. On
August 22, 1919, he was honored by Governor Stephens with appoint-
ment to a membership in the State Board of Examiners in Veterinary
Medicine; and at a meeting of the Board in can Francisco early in
October of that year he was elected secretary. In his private practice
he specializes on cattle, and has recently perfected and put on the
592 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
market a valuable instrument known as the "dilator," which has fast
attained popularity. He owns a fifteen-acre ranch east of Chino, on
which he raises beans, corn and walnuts. Thus, fortified with a
thorough knowledge of medicine in general, Doctor Tyler has become
one of the best-known veterinary surgeons in the state, with an envi-
able experience in agriculture useful to one dealing with cattle.
At Onarga, 111., Doctor Tyler was married to Miss Lucretia M.
Peck, a native of Illinois, by whom he has had one daughter, Irene,
now the wife of M. L. Chaney of Whittier, Cal. Doctor and Mrs.
Tyler are active members of the South Methodist Church of Pomona,
where the doctor is chairman of the board of stewards; and Doctor
Tyler is a Mason, a Knight of Pythias and a Modern Woodman.
IRA A LEE
A public official of Pomona whose untiring activities affect the
daily accomplishments of many of the citizens of both town and Valley,
and whose integrity, high sense of duty, and varied and valuable ex-
perience form the most desirable assurance that whatever he under-
takes will be carried to the most successful conclusion possible, is Ira A.
Lee, the secretary and manager of the Irrigation Company of Pomona.
He was born in Dallas County, Iowa, on April 25, 1873, the son of
Aaron M. and Caroline (Macey) Lee.
The fourth child in the order of birth, Ira A. attended the rural
schools of his district, and supplemented what he learned there with
studious reading and keen observation of daily life. He remained
with his father on the farm until he was twenty years of age, during
which time he mastered the many sides of Middle West agriculture,
and came to California and Pomona in the great "boom" period of
1888, as a young man, when young men especially were trying to make
things hum here.
Five years after first locating in this favored region, Mr. Lee
entered the employ, as outside man, of the Irrigation Company of Po-
mona, and then as Zanjero of the water district, filling a time-honored
office that descended, with its historic name, from early California
days. Since 1912, Mr. Lee has had the office work of the company
to look after; and no one ever did it more thoroughly or to the greater
satisfaction of those with whom the water company have to deal.
Mr. Lee has also followed the development of real estate, in
which he himself has from time to time dealt, and with especial quali-
fications for just that kind of enterprise, he has become an authority on
land valuations. He is appraiser for the Los Angeles County probate
court of Judge J. C. Reeves, and was selected by the judge as appraiser
of the very important Louis Phillips estate of Pomona — the largest
and most \-aluable estate in the Valley, and one running into the mil-
HISTORY -VXD BIOGRAPHY 593
lions. In this assignment, in particular, Mr. Lee has been very suc-
cessful, satisfying the interests of all concerned, and displaying that rare
combination of experience, knowledge and every-day common sense, so
essential in cases of such responsibility and many-sided features.
Mr. Lee has been a standpat Republican in national politics, with
broad views as to non-partisanship in much that is of paramount local
import, and for four years he was one of the most popular members of
the City Council of Pomona. During his term in office the new City
Hall was built and the era of street paving was begun. He also be-
longs to the Chamber of Com.merce of the city, and avails himself of
this association to do all that he can to advance the interests of this
portion of Los Angeles County and bring Pomona into closer and more
helpful relations with the rest of Southern California. Asan official
of the water management to whom is enti-usted much responsibility, he
is a member of the executive committee of the Mutual Water Company
of California.
On April 6, 1909, at Pomona Mr. Lee was married to Miss Eva
Ulery, r. native cf. Indiana and the daughter of Joseph F. Ulery, for
twenty years a resident of Pomona. Two sons have blessed this union,
Leonard J. and Robert M.
G. LUTHER TRAVIS
A dealer in and authority on insurance, who has done much, while
also operating extensively with loans and surety bonds, to place this
very important branch of commercial and financial endea\or on a dig-
nified, safe and attractive basis, is G. Luther Travis, the agent for the
Investment Office Building of Pomona, where he has his own finely
appointed headquarters. He was born near Louisville, Ky., on No-
vember 9, 1854, in a farming district, where there were only country
schools, and as a young man started railroading with the Louisville &
Nashville Railway. At first he was agent at Louisville and then at
New Orleans; and for nine years he was traveling auditor for the same
railroad.
In 1902 he came to Pomona as the agent for the Southern Pacific
Railroad; and when, after six years, the company wished to transfer
him to Los Angeles, he resigned, since he had become so attached to
Pomona that he preferred to remain here.
He then started in the insurance business, and in that field, dealing
in all kinds of insurance, he has been phenomenally successful. He
represents the Home Insurance Company of New York, the Fireman's
Fund, the Queen of America, the Philadelphia Underwriters, and the
National, and also the New York Life and the Hartford Accident. He
built one of the finest homes in Pomona, located at 322 East Holt
Street, greatly beautified the grounds and sold the same to D. C.
594 HISTORY AND lUOGRAPHY
Crookshank. He bought the home in which he at present resides at
498 Kenoak Dri\'e, one of the choice residences of the town. He has
frequently been asked to run for public office, but always has refused.
In the year 1883 and at Franklin, Tenn., Mr. Travis was married
to Miss Minnie Kersey, who was born in Indiana, the daughter of
David M. and Catherine (Vernon) Kersey, pioneers of that country.
He belongs to Pomona Lodge No. 789, of the B. P. O. Elks, in which
he has attained all chairs except that of Exalted Ruler, which he re-
fused to accept on account of the demands of his business. He is prac-
tically a charter member of the Elks, for he joined shortly after the
lodge was formed. In social circles, therefore, as well as in the world
of commerce, Mr. Travis is kept busy on account of his popularity.
Mr. Travis has been closely associated with the growth and de-
velopment of the Pomona Valley, and is one of the men who, when
railroading, was one of the best posted on affairs of all kinds in the
Valley.
ROBERT STUDER
The genial proprietor of the Clarembnt Inn, Robert Studer was
born in Canton, St. Gall, Switzerland, September 25, 1871. His
father, John R. Studer, migrated from Switzerland to New York City
as a young man and for some years was engaged in business there,
until he returned to Switzerland and while living there the son Robert
was born, and when he was a babe of nine months, his parents again
returned to New York City.
Robert Studer was reared in New York City and in Hoboken,
N. J., receiving a good education in the public schools, after which he
learned the cooper's trade, which he followed until he moved out to San
Antonio, Texas, where he followed his trade and ranching for eleven
years. In 1901 he came to Los Angeles, where he had charge of the
grading of streets in Florencita addition for Mr. Rowan, after which
he removed to Santa Clara County, where he was in the employ of
Hays Bros.' packing house for a period and then he leased and ran a
farm for a time, when he returned to San Antonio and for the next six
years engaged in gardening. However, his liking for California was
so great it overshadowed his interest in Texas and he came back to Los
Angeles and soon afterwards located in Claremont. In 1916 he pur-
chased the Claremont Inn, where his ability and amiable manner has
made him successful and he has built up a large and splendid business,
which is rapidly growing.
In San Antonio, Texas, occurred the marriage of Mr. Studer and
Mrs. Emma Fangerou. She was a native of Germany and they have
three children: Annie (Mrs. Strange), of Ontario; Robert J., and
Paul R.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 595
By her first marriage Mrs. Stiider had five children : Mata ( Mrs.
Crowe), of Texas; Walter, who is a member of the Fraternal Order
of Eagles and is assisting Mr. Studer in his business; William was with
the Pacific Electric in Los Angeles until he enlisted in the United States
Army, serving overseas as a sergeant; Emma (Mrs. Patterson), of
Pomona; and Mrs. Gretchen Ziovanazzi, of Los Angeles.
Mr. Studer is a Republican in national politics and is a very liberal
and enterprising citizen.
HENRY A. KREHBIEL
An aggressively-operating wholesaler who has always found time,
in the midst of a busy life, for public-spirited work, is Henry A.
Krehbiel, the well-known dealer in flour, feed and potatoes in Pomona.
He was born in West Point, Lee County, Iowa, on May 14, 1865, the
son of John C. Krehbiel, a Mennonite minister, who was widely
esteemed for practicing what he preached. His wife was Katherine
Raber before her marriage, and she became the mother of ten chil-
dren. Both now rest from their earthly labors.
Henry A., the youngest child, had the ordinary advantages of
the country school, and in time he worked at various occupations until
he entered the flour mills of McPherson County, Kans., in which field
he advanced more and more until he had rounded out twenty years as a
miller. Then, in November, 1908, he decided to leave the Middle
West and settle on the Pacific Coast.
Fortunately for all concerned, Caiifornia attracted him in par-
ticular; and more fortunately, he had his attention directed to Pomona,
and here early settled. He established his present expanding business,
and ever since he threw open the doors, he has been rewarded with
success. Besides this well-planned and well-directed enterprise, Mr.
Krehbiel also has an apple orchard in Yucaipa Valley in a high state
of development; and to this" venture he gives much of his time. He is
a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and actively supports its
ever-changing, but important programs.
When Mr. Krehbiel married, at Mound Ridge, Kans., and on
December 24, 1891, he chose for his wife a lady of the same family
name, but in nowise related to. him — Miss Katie L. Krehbiel; and by
her he has had four children. Myrtle F. has become Mrs. A. B. Crane
of Osage City, Kans.; Donald died in Kansas in 1907, in his eighth
year; Delyte attends the high school of Pomona, and Harold is in the
grammar school. A Republican in national politics, Mr. Krehbiel has
served as a city councilman in Lindsborg, Kans. ; while as a Presby-
terian he has always worked for the extension of the Gospel and the
improvement of spiritual aftairs. He was active in all the war drives,
and put his shoulder to the wheel to help along the Liberty Loans and
the beneficent work of the Red Cross.
596 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
WILLIAM WILLARD STOVER
Interested in the orange Industry here for twenty years, William
Willard Stover aided in that branch of development work in the
Valley, his latter years being given over to the personal supervision
of the work in his grove. Born in Lena, Stephenson County, 111.,
January 30, 1863, he was a son of Zacharias and Margaret (Willard)
Stover, natives of Pennsylvania and Ohio, respectively, who early set-
tled in Lena, where the father was a merchant and stock raiser. After
finishing his grammar school education William Willard attended the
high school and after his graduation he took a course in the Phila-
delphia College of Pharmacy. His father having removed to Re-
public, Kans., and engaged in banking, William was called from
college to be cashier in the Republic County Bank, now the Citizens
State Bank. He continued as cashier from twenty-one years of age
until the bank was sold in 1902. As early as 1892 he made a trip to
California and purchased his origina'l orange grove at Ontario, making
occasional visits to look after it. The grove had just been set out and
he had it cared for, so that in 1902, when he moved hither, it was ten
years old and bearing. On locating here, the family resided in Po-
mona for seven years, engaged in buying, improving and selling orange
groves. In 1909 they moved to Claremont, and soon afterwards built
their beautiful residence at 845 Indian Hill Boulevard. Here he
passed away, on January 17, 1912. He always retained the original
orange grove which he had bought in 1892. While in Kansas he was
also interested in farming and keeping stock, owning a farm of 400
acres and leasing 320 acres more on which he raised corn and alfalfa.
He was a Republican in political beliefs and in fraternal circles be-
longed to the Ancient Order of United Workmen. In church affairs,
with his family he was a member of the Congregational Church,
having been a trustee and deacon of Pilgrim Congregational Church
at Pomona.
The marriage of Mr. Stover, on December 24, 1887, at White
Rock, Kans., united him with Miss Frances Pairan. She was born in
Lancaster, Fairfield County, Ohio, the daughter of Charles Pairan,
who was born in Wolfanger, Hesse-Cassel ; his father, Antone Pairan,
was a native of France and later a teacher in Germany. Charles
Pairan learned the mercantile business in his early manhood, coming
to Lancaster, Ohio; he- married Marie Louise Mayer, a native of
Lancaster, Ohio, and here engaged in the merchandising business, until
he removed to White Rock, Republic County, Kans., where he took
up the same line of business. Later he removed to Portland, Ore., and
lived there retired until his death. Mrs. Pairan now makes her home
with her daughter, Mrs. Stover. Mrs. Stover was the second youngest of
a family of seven children, four of whom are living, and was educated in
Ladies' Institute, in Atchison, Kans. Since Mr. Stover's death she has
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPFIY 597
resided at the old home on Indian Hill Boulevard, superintending her
fifteen acres of orange grove, as well as the Kansas holdings. Mr. and
Mrs. Stover had four children, three of whom are living: Willard
Pairan, a graduate of Pomona College, enlisted in the United States
Naval Reserve forces and was stationed at San Pedro and Mare
Island, and received a commission as ensign. He is now manager of
the orange and walnut exchange at Hemet; Louise, after completing
her work in the musical department of Pomona College and the Los
Angeles Conservatory of Music, where she graduated, is now teaching
piano in Claremont and Pomona; Margaret was a junior in Pomona
College and died in May, 1918; and Clarence is a junior in Pomona
College.
CHARLES G. SPENCER
A supervising official who thoroughly understands his responsible
field of work and has long contributed toward greater efficiency in
certain industries, is Charles G. Spencer, the far-seeing foreman of
construction and installation for the Southern Counties Gas Company
of Pomona. He was born in Morgan County, 111., on October 23,
1885, and grew up in a prosperous farming section, where he attended
the plain but excellent district schools, the most disappointing feature
of which was the shortness of the school terms. He worked hard and
long on his father's farm, so that it was left to him largely to acquire his
education and to solve his destiny. However, by hard, persistent study
Mr. Spencer has made up for much that was then denied him, and he
has become, to a remarkable degree, a well-educated man.
With the exception of two years spent in the coal mines of Mul-
berry, Kans., he worked on the home farm in Illinois until March,
1906, when he arrived in Santa Ana, Orange County, Cal.; and, as
with so many other young men who first came out here, his first employ-
ment was in the orange groves, picking fruit. Later still, he put in
a year in the packing houses, and then he secured employment with the
Edison Company, in the gas department of that corporation in Santa
Ana. He began at the lowest round of the ladder, so to speak, and
gained a very thorough knowledge of the manufacture of gas; and
when he had held the position for three years in that city, he was trans-
ferred to Long Beach, to serve in the same capacity, and still later to
Whittier, where he remained for five years.
When the Southern Counties Gas Company was organized in
1911, it took over the gas department of the Edison Company, and
Mr. Spencer then became associated with the Southern Counties Gas
Company, on which account he has the honor of having been one of
their employees since its start. In June of 1916 he was transferred
to Pomona, and made foreman. Since 1916, the company has been
using natural gas, and Mr. Spencer has had to familiarize himself with
598 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
the new departure. His position is a responsible one, for he is called
upon to direct and to look after the welfare of a considerable number
of men. The company is constantly making expenditures, laying new
mains and spreading out over the Valley; and as Mr. Spencer has
entire charge of all outside work, he is a very busy man. Able and
devoted, it need hardly be said that he gives his employers and the
public entire satisfaction.
At Santa Ana, on November 5, 1906, Mr. Spencer was married
to Miss Ada Hix, a native of Santa Ana, and the daughter of Alva
and Blanch Hix, pioneers of Orange County, who came to Santa Ana
thirty-seven years ago, when the town had only a couple of stores and
few houses. One son has blessed the union, a lad named William A.
Spencer. Mr. Spencer is a member of the Odd Fellows.
EDWARD WALTER THOMAS
One of the old settlers of San Dimas, Edward Walter Thomas
was born at Galveston, Ind., September 28, 1862. His father, David
Thomas, was born in Johnstown, Pa., while the grandfather, also
named David Thomas, was born in Wales and settled at Johnstown,
Pa. Edward's father was a millwright and came out to Indiana when
a young man, where he built and operated flour mills. Later on he
engaged in building and running sawmills and lumber manufacturing,
being located at Galveston, Lid., where he had a large lumber yard.
Li 1879 he removed to Grand Island, Nebr., where he was among the
early settlers to break prairie and improve a farm. In 1890 he located
in Pomona, setting out an orange grove on Holt Avenue. He died in
Pomona, aged eighty years. Mr. Thomas' mother was Miss Louise
Jane DeMoss before her marriage, and she was born in Galveston,
Ind., of French descent, and she also passed away in Pomona two
years after her husband. This worthy couple had three children : Mrs.
Mariella McEndree of Pomona; W. F. Thomas of Pomona, and E.
W. Thomas, the subject of this sketch. The youngest of the family,
he was reared in Indiana till 1879, when he came to Grand Island,
Nebr., and received a good education in the public schools, after which
he learned the dry goods business. Later, he bought out the store of
his employer and continued in business until 1889, when he sold, came
to California, arriving in Pomona in January, 1890, and six months
later he engaged in the dry goods business on Second Street, continuing
until 1893, when he disposed of his store and located in San Francisco
in the employ of the Hamburgers. There he continued for one year,
when he quit to locate in Sacramento in the employ of Wasserman,
Davis & Company for two years, when he resigned and returned to
Pomona, and then he located in San Dimas and soon purchased an
orange grove and engaged in citrus culture. Since then he has owned
five different groves, every one of which was a success, and was sold at
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 5W
a profit. In 1914 he entered the employ of the Elwood Fruit Com-
pany, and since then has been foreman of their packing house at San
Dimas, as well as being engaged in citrus growing.
In Pomona occurred the marriage of Mr. Thomas and Myrtle
R. Cowan, a native of Thorntown, Ind., of whom he was bereaved in
1912, leaving him a daughter, Nadine, now the wife of J. G. Middle-
ton of San Dimas, a progressive, enterprising and liberal citizen.
Mr. Thomas is an ardent protectionist and Republican.
JOHN CARSON BOWEN
In disposing of the chances that have come his way in life, John
Carson Bowen has evinced both discretion and sound business judg-
ment and has won a place among the business men of his locality.
Self-made in every sense implied by the term, he has become the
proprietor of a business establishment by his own persevering efforts
and is meeting with the success deserved by men of his caliber. Born
October 20, 1884, Mr. Bowen is a native of Mt. Gilead, Ohio, and the
son of John F. and Julia A. (Jenkins) Bowen. Five children were
born to John F. and Julia Bowen, and the family have lived in Pomona
since April, 1896. The father has passed on, and the mother is still
living with her family surrounding her.
The youngest child born to his parents, John Carson Bowen, was
educated in the public schools of Pomona, and on finishing his school-
days, learned bicycle repair work with E. E. Izer, later in the same
business with Padgham & Abbott for four years. He then found
employment with Midgley Brodiers, in the clothing business, remain-
ing with them six years, two years with Harris Brothers, and for the
next three years was with Evans and Combe.
After this length of time given to clerking, Mr. Bowen felt
himself fitted to engage in business on his own account, and on Feb-
ruary 14, 1914, he opened an establishment of his own, with an up-to-
date and carefully selected stock of men's furnishing goods. Since his
first opening he has met with the encouragement Pomona affords to
enterprising and progressive men, and when these attributes are com-
bined with energy and strict integrity, success is an assured fact.
The marriage of Mr. Bowen united him with Miss Wimifred
Hill, the ceremony occurring October 9, 1907, and one son has blessed
their union. Jack. Fraternally Mr. Bowen is a member of the Mason •,
and of Pomona Lodge No. 789, B. P. O. Elks, of which he is a past
exalted ruler. Fond of outdoor life, as are most of Pomona's citi-
zens, he takes his recreation in golf and other outdoor sports. With
his own business to look after, he is never too busy to aid in all public-
spirited movements for the betterment of the community, and is
readily interested in projects which favorably affect Pomona Valley.
600 HISTORY AND rJoGRAPHY
PROF. BENJAMIN S. HAUGH
The best talent obtainable In the instructors it employs is ever
sought by La Verne College, and foremost among these are Prof.
Benjamin S. Haugh and his talented wife, instructors in music and
expression at that institution, who are accomplished musicians with a
record for thorough mastery of their art and the ability to impart
their knowledge to others. Professor Haugh was born, at Lima,
Allen County, Ohio, December 9, 1873. He is the son of Jacob and
Mary (Miller) Haugh, natives of the Old Dominion, born in Rock-
ingham County, Va. They were married in Allen County, Ohio,
whither they had emigrated in their youth, and there Jacob Haugh
engaged in farming and contracting and building, afterwards remov-
ing to Johnson County, Mo., and still later to McPherson, Kans.,
where he resided until his death on December 2, 1909; his widow
.survived him and she still makes her home at McPherson. Mary
Miller Haugh was very musical, possessing a rare lyric soprano
voice, so the son, Benjamin, naturally inherited a love and talent for
music which found expression to such an extent that at the age of
sixteen years he began teaching vocal music and directing classes, so
when it came to his college course he majored in music as a matter
of course. His early boyhood days were spent in Ohio, but at the
age of ten years he accompanied his parents to Johnson County, Mo.,
where he finished his public school education, after which he spent
one year at Mt. Morris College, Mt. Morris, Ogle County, 111. tie
then entered McPherson College at McPherson, Kans., where he
was graduated from the academic department as well as the school
of music and expression and the department of stenography. During
his college course he was assistant teacher in the vocal department,
directing the chorus classes as well as public audiences, which gave
him an unusual and valuable experience in that line of his profession.
Professor Haugh's marriage, which took place on August 31,
1904, at McPherson, Kans., united him with Miss Laura E. Harsh-
barger, born in Huntingdon, Pa., a lady of culture and refinement;
she also took the academic course and studied expression and sten-
ography at McPherson College, graduating in these courses, making
her way by teaching stenography at the college. She then spent two
years at North Manchester College (Indiana) , as head of the Depart-
ment of Public Speaking. Mrs. Haugh's parents are also residents
of La Verne. Her father, J. P. Harshbarger, was born in McAlevys
Fort, Pa., and married Mary Van Dyke, who was born in McVey-
town. Pa. He was a contractor and builder in Pennsylvania, Ne-
braska and Kansas, and a pioneer homesteader in Scott County, Kans.
As a young man he was ordained a minister in the Church of the
Brethren and later an elder, and was active in pioneer missionary
work, preaching gratis and following contracting and farming for a
§^
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 603
livelihood. From Scott County he removed to Hutchinson, Kans.,
where he was superintendent of the Old People's Home, a position he
filled ably for a number of years; he then went to McPherson, Kans.,
where he resided until he and his wife came to La Verne, Cal., where
they now reside. At sixty-five years of age, Mr. Harshbarger is still
actively employed at his trade.
Both Professor and Mrs. Haugh took post-graduate courses
and studied vocal music with Prof. D. A. Clippinger of Chicago, 111.;
additionally he took a course in harmony and ear training as well as a
course at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. In 1904 they came
to La Verne College as teachers of music and expression. After
remaining at the college for three years they returned to Chicago,
where Professor Haugh taught piano and voice at the Bethany Bible
School and his wife, while teaching expression at Bethany, studied
three years at the Bible School and also finished her course at Co-
lumbia College of Expression. While in Chicago they were members
of the Madrigal Club, a musical organization which gave regular
concerts in the Music Hall and at the University of Chicago. In
1911-1912 they became teachers at McPherson College, their old
Alma Mater, where Mr. Haugh was head of the vocal department
and Mrs. Haugh of the school of expression. In the fall of 1913
they returned to La Verne College, where they have since held their
respective professorships.
Mrs. Haugh received the degree of A. B. from La Verne Col-
lege, and preceding this she took a course at the University of Southern
California and Is still continuing the study of voice at that institution
under Professor Cogswell, thus developing her beautiful lyric soprano
voice with which she has so often favored Pomona Valley audiences
and given so much thorough enjoyment and pleasure. She is a gifted
woman of a charming and pleasing personality, being much loved and
esteemed by her numerous students who have the good fortune to
study under her as a teacher of expression. She also displays much
talent as an artist, having taken a three years' course in painting, and
her home is beautifully decorated with paintings from her own brush.
The summer of 1915 Mr. and Mrs. Haugh spent at Berkeley,
taking special courses at the University of California. Both are
inveterate workers and are never Idle. Aside from his numerous
duties Professor Haugh continues his study and research in music
and has almost completed a course for the degree of Bachelor of
Music at the University of Southern California. As an author he has
composed several hymns and vocal solos; among the latter Is "Twi-
light by the Sea," and all have met with a favorable reception. Pro-
fessor and Mrs. Haugh have a host of admirers, and at their beautiful
home on Fourth and E Streets they enjoy dispensing the good old-time
hospitality to their many friends, who thoroughly appreciate their
comradeship anci cheer. As members of the Church of the Brethren
604 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
they have for years been leaders of the chorus and congregational
singing, and Mr. Haugh further has been selected as the musical
director of the annual general conferences of the church held at Los
Angeles, Des Moines, Iowa, and at Winona Lake, Ind. At the Los
Angeles Conference, held at the Temple Baptist Auditorium in 1907,
he was paid a glowing tribute by the late Robert J. Burdette for the
masterful way in which he directed the vast assembly.
Their faithful efforts to develop the technical proficiency of their
pupils as well as to cultivate an appreciation of the aesthetic side of
the art have borne rich fniltagej and there is no question that in devot-
ing their lives to teaching music and expression, Professor Haugh
and his accomplished wife are in their proper sphere. In their work
at La Verne College they have successfully brought forth "Queen
Esther" and "Joseph," dramatic cantatas, and given many other
musical entertainments. Mrs. Haugh, in her career as a teacher in
various places, has staged a number of difficult plays which have
been successfully produced to large, appreciative audiences, repetitions
being given by request. Among them are : In His Steps, Lost Para-
dise, The Servant in the House, Price of the Prairie, and Rose O'
Plymouthtown. During the recent war they were active in Y. M. C. A.
work, visited Camp Kearny, sang at hospitals and used their talent
in entertaining the soldier boys.
ETHAN G. BANGLE
A prominent real-estate operator of Pomona who has put through
many important deals of direct bearing on the future of both the city
and the Valley, is Ethan G. Bangle, who is a native son, born near
Rivera, in Los Angeles County, on September 26, 1884, the son of
John and Mary (Buchanan) Bangle, natives of North Carolina and
Tennessee, respectively. Mary (Buchanan) Bangle comes of promi-
nent old American stock on her paternal side, being a second cousin
of President James Buchanan; on the maternal side she is a descendant
of the Monroe family and a third cousin of President James Monroe.
Mr. and Mrs. Bangle crossed the plains to California in the stirring
fifties. He settled at length near Rivera, and became one of the
earliest walnut growers of Southern California, engaging in that line
for many years. Mr. Bangle experimented with different varieties of
walnuts, and in order to secure the best nuts obtainable he brought in
walnuts from different countries, and so has the distinction of intro-
ducing the soft-shell English walnuts in California, which has become
the most popular and profitable variety grown here. In time he came
to own the largest walnut orchard in the state, and his exhibit of wal-
nuts at the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893 brought the first
prize, so it is easily seen what a prominent part he took in forwarding
the horticultural interests of the state.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 605
Ethan began with the ordinary school advantages at Rivera, and
topped off his studies at the Southern California Business College in
Los Angeles. Then he learned the trade of a brick mason, and in
partnership with his brother, James A. Bangle, followed brick, cement
and concrete contracting in Los Angeles, Pasadena and Sierra Madre.
Later, alone, he continued contracting until 1909, when he located in
Pomona, and entered on his career in real estate. He has made a
specialty of buying and selling alfalfa ranches in the Chino district
of the Valley, and has also dealt largely in orange and lemon ranches.
In 1912 Ira Neibel became his partner, which was continued until
Mr. Neibel's death in 1915, and a year later he entered into a partner-
ship with L. M. Mills. Mr. Bangle has been very successful, and
during his eleven years' experience he and his partners have a record
second to none, and it is the consensus of opinion of those qualified
to judge that he has sold more real estate than has any other firm
during the same period.
On August 22, 1906, at Los Angeles, Mr. Bangle was married
to Gertrude Martin, a native of Illinois, who was educated in Whittier
and Los Angeles. Three children have been born to them : Carl
Orville, Harold E. and Wilma. Mr. Bangle is an active member of
the Chamber of Commerce and belongs to the Knights of Pythias of
Pomona, in which order he is past chancellor commander, and there
is no more welcome member in that flourishing order.
THADDEUS SMART
A man of virile character who has led an active life, full of
interest and the vigorous prosecution of his chosen occupation, Thad-
deus Smart was born in Marshall County, W. Va., January 20, 1840.
He was raised there and received his education in the country schools
of that state. In the spring of 1865 he removed to La Salle County,
111., and bought a 160-acre farm, and the next thirty years of his life
were devoted to the development of this acreage. He met with the
success which comes to all men of his caliber, and became noted for
his business-like and thorough methods of farming, and as a raiser
of fine blooded stock, a prominent man in his district.
Mr. Smart maintained a dairy in connection with his farm, and
helped build the cheese factory at Dana, 111., and was a stockholder
and director of the company. His Shorthorn and Holstein dairy
cows were of the best of their breed, and his Poland-China hogs were
of fine blooded stock. He imported a pure-blood Belgian stallion,
"Brilliant," which he exhibited at the Wenona, 111., Union Fair, and
received second premium on sweepstakes over sixty head of horses;
his brood mares were of Norman stock, and he raised and sold many
fine colts in his stables, which were noted throughout that part of the
state. During his residence there Mr. Smart served as school trustee
606 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
and as superintendent of roads. When he sold his farm he moved
to Storm Lake, Iowa, bought 400 acres of land and farmed it for
two years, then decided to come to California and enjoy the remainder
of his life in this balmy climate. He had made three previous winter
trips to the state, and after looking around, decided that Pomona was
the ideal place for a home.
In October, 1905, Mr. Smart settled in Pomona, -and purchased
a lot and erected a home at 263 East Fourth Street, where he lives
retired from active cares and enjoying the fruits of his early industry.
He has never regretted his choice of Pomona for his home, and is
a firm believer in even greater future prosperity for this section of
the state.
The marriage of Mr. Smart, in 1862, united him with Isabelle
Cox, a native of West Virginia, and two daughters were born to them :
Mrs. I. Kemp of Bloomington, 111., and Nancy Smart, who keeps house
for her father. The wife and mother passed on in January, 1917.
JOSEPH A. FITCH
An enterprising operator on a large scale in Pomona real estate,
who has done much, through his unique methods of advertising, to
make known to the outside world the advantages and attractions of
the homelike city and flourishing Valley, thereby not only showing his
own faith in the future through investment in land and other property,
but inducing many others to settle here and establish themselves com-
fortably, is Joseph A. Fitch, the well-known real estate agent. He was
born in Ontario, Canada, the son of the Rev. Heman and Amanda
(Corlis) Fitch, both of whom are now deceased.
Joseph A. Fitch was educated at the public schools of Canada,
and during an active boyhood and youth laid an excellent foundation
for later aggressiveness, despite the fact that he spent all of his time
in his home town prior to coming to California. In the middle of the
nineties he moved west to Riverside County, and there he lived for five
years, getting acquainted with Californlan ways.
At the beginning of the century, he came to Pomona, assured of
the superior openings here, and for a couple of years was connected
with a large department store, having charge of one of the depart-
ments. His farsightedness, however, showed him the far greater field
in California realty, and especially in lands with their steadily appre-
ciating values around Pomona, and giving up general merchandising, he
became a broker in real estate. Since he launched his original cam-
paign here, it may be truthfully said that no one has done more to
advertise this favored region of the Golden State. A very active sup-
porter of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Fitch is also influential in
the councils of the Republican party.
^i^r^X--:^ W.O^r
HISTORY .\XD lUOGRAl'IIY 609
Mr. Fitch married Miss Charlotte A. Montrose of Ontario,
Canada; and one daughter, Rosa P., now deceased, and one son, W.
Warren Fitch, now a practicing dentist in Pomona, blessed the union.
Mr. Fitch belongs to the Masonic order, holding membership in the
lodge, chapter, council and commandery in Pomona, and the Shrine in
Los Angeles.
The success attained by this wide-awake and thoroughly progres-
sive representative of the best business spirit in Pomona is not surpris-
ing, for he has both ventured and invested heavily hereabouts, and so
has been able easily to inspire others with faith to "go and do likewise"
— excellent advice whenever applicable to Pomona and environs.
SCHUYLER HOWARD PARK
The steady growth Pomona has made attracts the attention of
men of affairs who appreciate the fact that it is a rich and ample field
for the sagacious use of money, brains and energy. In 1914 the
wholesale and retail flour and feed house of Park & Lichty was estab-
lished, and from its inception proved a success. On August 15, 1919,
Mr. Park purchased his partner's interest in the business and con-
tinues alone, and is doing a large business, which has been a valuable
aid in the development and upbuilding of Pomona.
Schuyler Howard Park was born at Cranford, N. J-- February
5, 1880, and is of English and Scotch extraction. He is the son of
Noel Robertson and Edith (Norwood) Park. The father, who con-
ducted a grocery and coffee brokerage business in New York City,
was a member of the National Guard of New York, and during the
Civil War served in the Twenty-second New York Volunteer In-
fantry, and was ranking captain when he retired after the close of the
war.
In a family of four boys and one girl, Schuyler Howard is the
fourth child. He received his education in the public and high schools
of his home town and was a student at Princeton University for four
years. He afterwards became a salesman for the National Biscuit
Company, and during the four years that he was in their employ
traveled to California in the interests of his firm. His first trip to
Los Angeles was in 1905. It was the old story again repeated. He
became enraptiired with the land that has caused so many Easterners
to forsake their former homes when once they have visited the land
by the Western sea, with its vistas of distant mountains, its rich and
luxuriant valleys, and its blue skies rivalling those of far-famed Italy.
Mr. Park purchased an orange grove north of Pomona, lived on it
four years, then disposed of it and in 1914 embarked in his present
business.
On July 12, 1906, he was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth
Blakeman at Pomona. Two children have been born to them, Noel
610 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Robertson and Rufus Blakeman by name. In politics Mr. Park favors
the Democratic party, but consitiers the character and qualifications
of the candidate, supporting the man best fitted for the office, regard-
less of party affiliations. In his religious convictions he is a Presby-
terian. He is a member of the Pomona Chamber of Commerce, and
finds wholesome recreation in out-of-door life.
DR. FRANCIS HEMAN GEER
A man who by his devotion to the upbuilding and development of
Claremont has endeared himself to the citizens of the place is Dr.
Francis Heman Geer, a physician and surgeon of high repute, well
known in the various sections of the country in which he has resided.
He is descended from good old New England stock and is a native of
Conneautville, Pa., where he was born December 18, 1848, the son of
Heman and Lydia (Williams) Geer, natives respectively of Vermont
and Connecticut. Heman Geer was educated at Oberlin College, being
graduated from the Theological department and then ordained a
minister in the Congregational Church. He preached in Ohio, Mich-
igan, Kansas and Iowa, but most of the time was spent in Ohio, al-
though he died in Iowa. His widow survived him fourteen years, pass-
ing away in Nebraska. During the Civil War Reverend Geer was a
member of the Christian Commission and for a time stationed at
City Point.
In the family of six children born to this worthy couple, Doctor
Geer is the third in order of birth. Reared in Ohio, he received his
education primarily in the public schools, then studied at Oberlin Col-
lege, working his way through college. He had a talent for singing,
and being endowed with a beautiful lyric tenor voice, he studied vocal
music. During his college course he spent some time at Olivet College,
Michigan, where he had charge of the Conservatory of Music. Re-
turning to Oberlin, he was graduated in 1871 with the degree- of A.B.
After taking up the study of medicine, his first year was at Wooster
University, Ohio, and while there sang in the churches in Cleveland,
which assisted him towards his degree, as well as teaching school at
Chillicothe, Ohio, to make his way through the medical school. He
completed his medical course at Ohio Medical College, Cincinnati;
where he was graduated in 1877 with the degree of M.D., a self-made
man, having earned the money with which he secured his education.
He afterwards took post-graduate courses in Chicago and New York.
After practicing his profession in Ohio, he removed to Columbus,
Platte County, Nebr. There he practiced for some years arid then
located in Chicago and while there was assistant to Dr. F. H. Martin
in the Post-Graduate Medical College for two years, when he again
returned to Columbus, Nebr., and resumed the practice of medicine
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 611
and surgery, building up a very large practice and becoming well and
favorably known. This continual strain for twenty-one years made
inroads on his health and the necessity for change of climate caused
him to come to Los Angeles, Cal., in 1904, and in 1905 he came to the
Pomona Valley. It was in 1907 that he located in Claremont. In time
he became owner of four residences which he afterwards turned over
to Claremont College. He was chairman of the board of city trustees
for four years and as mayor gave the city a good administration. He
has been intensely interested in improving the cemetery, it being a
hobby of his, and as superintendent has seen to the improvements and
care of it for nine years, until it has became a beautiful garden spot.
Doctor Geer is also the city health officer.
Doctor Geer's first marriage, in Ohio, March 24, 1872, united
him with Miss Alice Howard, born at Rock Creek, Ashtabula County,
Ohio, of whom he was bereaved in Claremont. Two children had been
born of the union : Ella, deceased, and Howard, an electrical engineer
in Columbus, Nebr. June 24, 1910, Doctor Geer married again, be-
ing united with Mrs. Mary Ellis, a native of Vermont. In politics he
is a Republican. Doctor Geer was made a Mason in Globe Lodge at
Madison, Nebr. He is also a member of the Royal Arch Chapter,
the Knight Templars, and a member of Tangier Temple, A. A. O. N.
M. S. He feels a warm interest in the future of Pomona Valley and
its advancement in all lines and his efforts are unselfishly devoted to
the general welfare of the community. A talented man, endowed with
a pleasing personality. Doctor Geer is much enjoyed and highly es-
teemed by everyone and his example Is well worthy of emulation.
PHEBE ESTELLE SPALDING, PH.D.
Marked success has attended the career of Phebe Estelle Spald-
ing, Ph.D., teacher, author, lecturer, and professor of English litera-
ture at Pomona College, Claremont, Cal., since 1899.
She was born at Westfield, Vt., March 13, 1859, and Is the
daughter of the Rev. B. P. and Ann (Folsoni) Spalding. Her father,
a Methodist divine, was a leading light In his denomination in Ver-
mont and New Hampshire, who spent his last years In North Dakota.
In a family of four children, all of whom are living, Phebe Estelle
Spalding Is the third child In order of birth. She was educated In the
district schools of Vermont and New Hampshire and took an academic
course at Montpeller, Vt. She became in her early teens a teacher in
the district schools of New England, afterwards teaching for a brief
period In the public schools of North Dakota. She was principal of
a school at Moorhead, Minn., for two years, then entered Carleton
College, in Minnesota, as a student, graduating from the literary de-
partment of the Institution in 1889 with the degree of B.L. F>om
612 HISTORY AND r.IOGRAPHY
Carleton she came direct to Pomona College, at Claremont, Cal.,
where she became an instructor, and was soon afterwards elected pro-
fessor of English literature. She traveled abroad in 1898-99, vis-
iting England and the Continent, and during this time obtained
material for a thesis on Wordsworth, in recognition of which in 1900
the degree of M.L. was conferred upon her by her alma mater.
After several more years spent in teaching, she attended Boston Uni-
versity in 1909-10, receiving the degree of Ph.D. from that institution,
her work there being a distinctive thesis on the English Chronicle plays
of Shakespeare. In the spring of 1914 she went to England and was
there at the breaking out of the World War, remaining until October
of that year, when she returned to her home. During these years,
she has been an occasional lecturer and a contributor to academic
periodicals chiefly on interpretative studies in literature and art. Her
first book, "Womanhood in Art," was published in 1905. Among
other later literary works from her pen is the booklet poem, "The
Master Came," published in 1906, and "The Tahquitch Maiden,"
published in 1911.
Professor Spalding is a member of the Congregational Church,
and in club affiliations is an honorary member of the Shakespeare Club,
and of the Woman's Club of Pomona; and an active member of the
Rembrandt Club, and the Cactus Club, Claremont. She is a member
and ex-president of the Phi Beta Kappa Gamma chapter of California
and is a member of the Claremont chapter of the Daughters of the
American Revolution.
A woman of fine characteristics, genial manner and personal
magnetism, she has used her rare mental endowments in furthering
the cause of education and for the good of the common weal and
among her host of admiring friends her companionship is a pleasure
never to be forgotten.
CLINTON BERTRAM AFFLERBAUGH
Prominent in the civic, business and social life of Pomona, Clinton
Bertram Afflerbaugh has been a resident of the city since a small lad
of eleven years, and has both watched the city grow and has been a
part of its growth. Born in Clay County, Nebr., October 11, 1887, he
is the son of Thomas J. and Carrie Afflerbaugh, the father a pioneer
of Nebraska, where he engaged in ranching. The family came to
California in 1898 and the parents now reside in Claremont.
Clinton Bertram Afflerbaugh received his education in the public
and high schools of Pomona, and was one of the first class that entered
the new high school. After graduating from that institution he took
a course in pharmacy at the University of Southern California, finish-
HISTORY AND niOGRAl'IIV r,i.^
ing in 1906. He then entered the employ of Mr. E. E. Armour at
Pomona for one year; then was with the Owl Drug Company at Los
Angeles for a year and a half.
After this preliminary business experience Mr. Afflerbaugh
opened his new, modern drug-store in Pomona, and the firm has been
very successful from its first opening. Progressive in every sense of the
word, Mr. Afflerbaugh has carried that characteristic into his business
life, and his store ranks equal to the best in its line. Besides his busi-
ness interests, Mr. Afflerbaugh takes an active part in the work of the
Pomona Chamber of Commerce, was a director in 1916, and always
a willing worker for the advancement of community interests. He
also interests himself in civic affairs, and was elected, in April, 1919,
alderman of the fourth ward, to serve in the city council. Among his
other work to bring Pomona to the fore in Southern California, he has
taken an active part in the floral pageants, both here and at Pasadena,
designing and decorating his own floats, and his float took a prize at
one of the Rose Carnivals at the latter city, and first prize in his home
town of Pomona, in 1915, and again in 1919, during the Pageant
of Progress.
The marriage of Mr. Afflerbaugh, which occurred September 19,
1907, on Pomona, united him with Miss Edna Fich of Pomona, and
they have been blessed with one child, Kenneth Jack. Fraternally,
Mr. Afflerbaugh is a member of the Pomona Lodge of Elks, and was
exalted ruler of the order in 1915. Always athletic and fond of out-
door life and fishing, during his high-school days he was well known
in football circles and was chosen for the all-star team. In these busy
days he still enjoys his outdoor recreation when possible, taking an
especial pleasure In plying the fisherman's rod. In political matters
he is of the Republican party, and in church affairs the family attend
the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Pomona Valley might almost be said to have more than its share
of progressive, wide-awake men of this caliber, and to this fact is due
the really remarkable growth evidenced here within the last ten years.
LEWIS N. SMITH
We find in writing the history of Pomona Valley, so many men
and women who have come here to make their home, from all quarters
of the globe, and from occupations totally different, eager to take up
a branch of development work as new to them as their surroundings,
and to adapt themselves and all work toward the common welfare;
a remarkable illustration of what mankind can accomplish when actu-
ated by the best of hurnan motives, the good of the many. Among
these, we find Lewis N. Smith, a horticulturist in the Claremont
section. Born in Wilmington, Vt., October 10, 1840, he is the son
of Ruel and Lucinda (Adams) Smith, natives of Ashford. Conn., and
614 HISTORY AND I'.IOGRAPHY
Wilmington, Vt. His father came to \'ei-mont when four years of age
and they ^yere farmers at Wihiiington; the mother having passed away
when Lewis N. was but four years old.
Lewis N. Smith was educated in the public schools of Vermont
and Townsend Academy, and left home at the age of nineteen to
engage in clerking in a store, first In Wilmington, and then Chicopee
and Springfield, Mass., and later went to Troy, N. Y. In the latter
place he went into business for himself and remained there for eight
years. From there he went to Worcester, Mass., and finally, in the
fall of 1898, came west, first locating on a ranch one mile west of
Claremont. In 1900 he came into Claremont, and has since that time
been engaged in the citrus industry here. He now has an orange
grove west of town.
The marriage of Mr. Smith, on March 14, 1866, united him with
Miss Elizabeth Wardwood, born in Worcester, Mass. After a wedded
life of fifty-three years, he was bereaved of his faithful wife, July 18,
1919. They were the parents of one son, William L., a civil engineer
by profession. Mr. Smith is a member of the Congregational Church,
and has held various offices in the church body, being treasurer when
the edifice was erected. Fraternally, he was made a Mason in Chic-
opee Lodge, in Massachusetts, in 1861, and now is a member of Clare-
mont Lodge No. 434, F. & A. M. In civic affairs he has been a mem-
ber of the Claremont board of trustees, and was the first president
of the board when the city was first organized. A man of civic pride
and progressive views, he has been active in the advancement of Clare-
mont and \icinity, and is respected and esteemed in this section where
he makes his home.
MARK H. POTTER
A man of vigorous activities, who knows how to persevere and
to give his courage, his strong will and unusual energy to the accom-
plishment of whatever interests him, to whatever he plans to do, Mark
H. Potter is a fine example in that phase of his sturdy character. His
breadth of interests, wise counsel and efficient execution have greatly
aided in the upbuilding of Pomona and the surrounding fertile Valley,
and his patriotic labors for the welfare of the community as a whole
and the development of its natural resources are worthy of praise
and Emulation.
Mr. Potter is a native of Minnesota, born in Lanesboro, Fillmore
County, October 15, 1878. When a youth of sixteen, in 1894, he
came to Pomona, but later returned East to finish his education, which
had been under way there. On his return to Pomona, he interested
himself in real estate, and he bought, developed and sold a number
of orange groves in the Valley, at the same time carrying on a general
life and fire insurance business.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 615
Mr. Potter put upon the market four of the leading subdivisions :
Alvarado Court, the Kenoak Drive Tract, the Lincoln Park Tract and
the Antonio Heights Tract, in all of which some of the finest residences
in Pomona have been erected; and he was instrumental in the erection
of the three leading business buildings in the city, and the only ones
with elevators installed. He organized the company for the Pomona
Valley Hospital and superintended the construction of the build-
ing, together with the architects, Davis & Higgs, and he secured the
bonus which assured the construction of Hotel Avis. In 1910 Mr.
Potter was instrumental in building the Pomona Investment Company
Building at the corner of Thomas and Third streets, and also handled
the old Congregational Church corner, and in doing this he headed
the syndicate which bought the church property, moved away the
building and erected the present improvements in its place. His keen
foresight enabling him to see far into the future and to properly
appraise the present, Mr. Potter has proved a most important factor
in bringing Pomona to its present place of importance in the state, and
that in a remarkably short time, as the growth of cities is reckoned.
To such men as he should be given due credit for the real and lasting
things accomplished during their allotment of time.
The marriage of Mr. Potter, which occurred December 20, 1904,
united him with Minnie L. Peck, and one daughter, Madeleine, has
been born to them. Fraternally, he is a member of the Masons and
the Elks of Pomona.
QUINCY A. BULLA
The ideal conditions surrounding Pomona, educationally and
socially, as well as the climate and physical attractions, have brought
to the Valley many who have searched the state through for their
homesite and future dwelling-place. Their active and successful busi-
ness operations in Eastern states have enabled them to enjoy the re-
mainder of their lives in hospitable California, and here they reap the
fruits of their years of industry. Among these Quincy A. Bulla is
prominent in local affairs in the Valley. Born in South Bend, St,
Joseph County, Ind., September 21, 1848, he was raised on a farm
and received his education in the country schools of that locality, and
spent two years at Notre Dame University. In 1868 he removed to
Iowa, and settled near Des Moines, where he engaged in farming.
In 1886 he came further west, to Nance County, Nebr., and there
farmed three-fourths of a section of land until 1903, which year marks
his arrival in Pomona.
Far-sighted and with keen business acumen, Mr. Bulla at once
saw the wonderful opoprtunities here in the Valley, and his loyalty
to this section has never wavered since first taking up his residence
here. While living quietly and enjoying the peace and beauty of his
616 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
surroundings, he has interested himself in business affairs as well, and
is a director and one of the organizers of the Home Builders Loan
Association of Pomona, and is also a stockholder in the Pomona
Manufacuring Company.
The marriage of Mr. Bulla united him with Miss Lorind A.
Ritter, a native of Indiana, December 15, 1868. They were the
parents of six children, all deceased. They attend the Unitarian
Church, and enjoy the esteem and friendship of all who come in contact
with them in their many years of life in the Valley. It is such citizens
as these who have helped to bring Pomona to its present place in
the sun.
JOSEPH O. LUSSIER
A business man not only keeping pace with, but leading the spirit
of commercial enterprise in San Dimas is Joseph O. Lussier, pro-
prietor of the Groceritorium on Bonita Avenue in that town. The
word Groceritorium was originated and coined by himself. He was
born in Woonsocket, R. I., on July 31 of the year celebrated as the
rounding out of our first century of independence. His father, Francis
Lussier, was born in Bordeaux, France, and came to Woonsocket,
R. I., when a young man. There he married Miss Lulu Pippin, who
was born in Quebec of an old French-Canadian family. He was
engaged in the bakery business in Woonsocket until his death in 1884,
when Joseph was eight years of age. Soon after this the mother
migrated with her family of four small children to St. Paul, Minn.,
and here Joseph received his education in the public schools.
In 1896 Mr. Lussier came to California, and after visiting a
number of places in the state, located in San Dimas the same year;
here his first work was the agency and delivery of the Los Angeles
Times, the San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle. He covered his
route of thirty-three miles on a bicycle and took in the district of San
Dimas, La Verne and Charter Oak. Later he completed a course in
the Riverside Business College and after graduating he entered into
partnership with J. O. Enell and bought out the Torrey Grocery store
at Lordsburg, now La Verne. Purchasing the interest of his .partner,
he conducted this for a while alone; but at the end of six years he sold
out his business to W. H. Poston & Company, who conducted a chain
of grocery stores in Pomona Valley. After selling out he was manager
for Mr. Poston for two years at La Verne and a year in his San
Dimas store. He then went to Los Angeles and entered the employ
of the Los Angeles Gas and Electric Company as a solicitor.
Returning to San Dimas in 1910, Mr. Lussier bought out the
grocery store of J. E. Schneider, with Walter Hoist as a partner, and
together they conducted business under the firm name of Lussier &
Hoist. In two years' time he bought out his partner and the firm was
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 61<)
dissolved, and Mr. Lussier has since been conducting the business
alone. In January, 1918, he established the Groceritorium — a new
system very popular with the buying public, where the customer helps
himself and pays as he goes out. On account of the popularity en-
joyed by the new method, Mr. Lussier has been able to build up a
large and flourishing trade. In return, he has grown very loyal to
Pomona Valley, and one always to be counted upon for supporting
every sensible movement making for the progress of the whole com-
munity.
In August, 1900, at Riverside, Mr. Lussier was married to Miss
Lulu Goodwin, a native of Illinois, the daughter of Dr. J. W. Good-
win, a pioneer physician of Pomona. Of the Ave children born to
Mr. and Mrs. Lussier, Joseph is the eldest and is a student at Pomona
College ; and there are Warren, Jack and Raymond. One son, Charles,
is deceased. Mr. Lussier belongs to San Dimas Lodge No. 114,
I. O. O. F., and in politics is a Republican. Mrs. Lussier is a member
of the Wednesday Afternoon Club and in religious matters is an ad-
herent of the Christian Church.
KIRK W. THOMPSON
A public-spirited, progressive native son who is particularly well
posted on the past history and growth of Spadra and vicinity, and is
therefore often consulted as to fact or future prospects thereabouts, is
Kirk W. Thompson, who was born in that town on September 8, 1877,
the son of Joseph W. Thompson, a native of Indian^, who married
Sarah Jane Justice, like himself a Hoosier, and with him now deceased.
In 1852, when he was eight years of age, he crossed the great plains
with his parents, and located at El Monte, in Los Angeles County,
where he was reared and educated, growing up on a farm. As a young
man he followed farming and teaming, and later he came with a
brother, Elbridge R. Thompson, to Azusa, in 1885, and there engaged
in farming.
From his sixth to his nineteenth year, therefore, Kirk Thompson
was reared in Azusa, attending the Azusa schools and working in the
orange groves. Now, for a number of years he has been in the employ
of the Phillips family on the Louis Phillips ranch at Spadra, and he
has seen many changes in the Valley. Looking backward, he has the
supreme satisfaction of realizing that he, for one, has been instru-
mental in bringing some of the changes about.
Popular in social circles, Mr. Thompson is nowhere a greater
favorite than with the Knights of Pytjhiias, being a member of the
Pomona Lodge, where he has passed through all the chairs; he also be-
longs to the Fraternal Aid. He is public spirited and has done
his bit during the period of the recent crisis and distress in the United
States, and in relation to the Great War.
620 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
WILLIAM I. T. HOOVER, PH.D.
Prominent among the faculty of La Verne College, Cal., of
which institution he is Dean and occupies the chair of philosophy, is
Prof. W. I. T. Hoover, well known in college and educational circles.
He was born at Dayton, Ohio, March 8, 1869. The foundation
for his future education was laid in the country schools adjacent. His
academy and college education was acquired at Mount Morris (Illi-
nois) College; Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio; DePauw Uni-
versity, Greencastle, Ind., from which he received the degree of
Bachelor of Philosophy in 1894, and subsequently the degree of
Master of Arts pro merito; and later the degree of Doctor of Philoso-
phy from Central University.
He taught philosophy in Manchester College, Indiana ; Bridge-
water College, Virginia, and Blue Ridge College, Maryland; at the
last institution he had the honor of remaining when the trustees de-
cided to enlarge the institution and secured a new charter from the
state legislature in January, 1910. He was very active in the de-
velopment and advancement of this college in various ways, one of
which was the securing from the state legislature of a perpetual annual
apportionment of $5,000. The college has received other important
favors from the state of Maryland. Professor Hoover was solicited
for the presidency of this and three other institutions of like character,
which he thankfully declined, and was asked by the trustees of Blue
Ridge College thrice to return and accept a professorship in it.
Having been offered a professorship in La Verne College, he
resigned his position in the East and arrived in California September 3,
1912. He is active in the Church of the Brethren, being one of its
ministers, supplying the pulpit on various occasions, and is a lecturer
of note in the conventions of his church and is frequently called to
deliver special addresses in the various churches of his denomination
and occasionally in other denominations. He is also active in Sunday
school work, teaching an active, growing Men's Bible class; served two
years as first vice-president of the Los Angeles County Sunday School
Association, and is still a member of the executive committee of the
State Sunday School Association; he is also active in local and county
Y. M. C. A. work. During the period of the war he visited Camp
Kearny at various times, giving addresses anci taking college students
down who gave entertainment for the soldiers.
His marriage united him with Miss Carrie M. Yundt of Illinois,
and they have become the parents of two sons and two daughters:
LeRoy Y., who is a B.A. graduate of La Verne College, and Roscoe
M., the two being in partnership in the poultry and fruit business at
950 East Franklin Avenue, Pomona. Roscoe M. served eighteen
months as a volunteer (being only eighteen years old at the time of his
HISTORY A\D BIOGRAPHY nil
enlistment December 1, 1917, at Camp Kearny) in the United States
Army. His enlistment was in the Signal Corps, being rapidly ad-
vanced to a first-class sergeant. He was later sent to P>ance, and just
as he was being sent to the battle front the armistice was signed. Be-
fore entering the army he had for two years been manager of the
Evergreen Pigeon Lofts at La Verne, which lofts contained 3,000
pigeons of both utility and fancy breeds. He is a member of the Los
Angeles Tumbler Club of fancy pigeons. He has also served, while
stationed at Camp Kearny, as pigeon judge in their annual summer
exhibition. Vera, the youngest, is a college freshman this year in La
Verne College. Last year she won the freshman scholarship offered
by the trustees to the one meeting a very high standard of scholarship
in the graduating class of the academy. The other daughter died at
the age of nine and one-half years.
In his scholastic attainments, genial disposition, strong and per-
suasive as a public speaker, noble in character, progressive in all his
activities. Doctor Hoover is making a strong impression upon the
growth and development of La Verne College.
WILLIAM E. FUNKHOUSER
The popular constable of San Dimas, William E. Funkhouser,
was born in Champaign County, 111., January 1, 1872. He was edu-
cated in the public schools, and at the age of eighteen, in 1890, went to
North Platte, Lincoln County, Xebr., and engaged in ranching with
his father. He also conducted a garage at one time, and was employed
by Uncle Sam as mail carrier on one of the rural routes. Politics was
also among the things that engaged his time and attention, and he was
at one time road overseer, and deputy assessor, and in 1910 took the
census for the United States Government.
He came to San Dimas in the fall of 1912 and entered the em-
ploy of the R. M. Teague Nursery Company. He was also night
watchman at San Dimas, and September 1, 1917, was appointed con-
stable. He is now under civil service appointment. Among various
occupations at which he has been employed, he ran a tractor, working
among the orange groves of the district. At present, besides filling the
position of constable, he is again one of the trusted employees of the
R. M. Teague Nursery Company.
His marriage united him with Miss Lillie Stone, a native of
Indiana, and they are the parents of ten children. Clarence W., who
is with the Stewart Fruit Company; Evelyn is Mrs. Thomas Boddy of
San Dimas; Grace, Glenn, Nellie, Doris, Ruth, Marie, Fern and Jack.
Fraternally he is associated with the Modern Woodmen. He has
made a very efficient officer and is a respected citizen of his commun-
ity, enjoying the high esteem of a host of friends and acquaintances.
622 HISTORV AND BIOGRAPHY
WILLIAM S. ERCANBRACK
A descendant of sturdy Holland forefathers, William S. Ercan-
brack was born in Johnstown, Montgomery County, N. Y., July 11,
1827. He followed the sea as a young man for two years; then, on
March 15, 1859, went to McHenry County, 111., and for many years
was prominent in civic affairs there; served as road commissioner for
twelve years, and as a school director the same length of time; he was
also sheriff of McHenry County for several years and during his entire
residence there was active in politics.
In>1887 Mr. Ercanbrack removed to Sheldon, Iowa, and farmed
there for five years. In the spring of 1893 he came to Pomona; here
he bought his orange grove and engaged in the citrus development
work so prevalent in the \^alley at that time, his grove having just been
planted, and he brought it to a state of productiveness and devoted his
time to its development, and since his death, August 19, 1904, this
work of improvement has been continued and the ranch kept in splen-
did condition by his widow. Mr. Ercanbrack had been a Mason of
long standing, having joined the order in Hebron, 111.
He was twice married, and by the first union was the father of five
children: Charles, of Santa Barbara; Mrs. J. V. Aldrich, of Rich-
mond, III; William, of Elburn, 111.; Mrs. William Cole, of Jennings,
La., and George, of Los Angeles. Mr. Ercanbrack's second marriage
united him with Matilda Tresmer, a native of Wisconsin, and she has
carried on the horticultural work started by her husband in a most
efficient and capable manner, the grove, on East Kingsley Avenue, a
finely improved property, showing the care which has brought it to its
present thriving condition.
FRANCIS CLARK EELLS
A man of increasingly important affairs, who has found time
in a life of exceptional activity to devote some of his best energies
for the benefit of others, and who therefore may reasonably claim
to have made his career one of double fruitfulness, is Francis Clark
Eells, the well-known grower of citrus fruits and alfalfa, and a
director in the Mountain View Fruit Association. He was born at
Virginia City, Nev., on January 20, 1879, and is the son of George
Nelson Eells, born at Delhi, N. Y., who came to California around
Cape Horn in 1852. He engaged in mining in this state and in
Nevada; and in Virginia City, in 1863, married Miss Mary Clark,
who had reached California in the early fifties. Both father and
mother became prominent in the musical circles of Virginia City and
had much to do with the development of that live municipality. In
1884 George Eells came to Pomona, his family joining him In 1887.
The parents are now both deceased.
HISTORY AND lUOGR.VPHY 623
Francis Clark Eells was educated, therefore, in the public schools
of Pomona and grew up in the fields of agriculture, water development
and banking. At the age of eighteen he entered the employ of the
Consolidated Water Company, and when twenty-two he was made a
director and office manager of the company, a position he filled ably
and well for about one year, when he was elected cashier of the
Savings Bank and Trust Company of Pomona. After five years he
sold his interest in the bank and became an investment broker, being
a partner in the firm of Bradley & Eells. In twelve years this firm
has sold more than $9,000,000 of Pomona Valley property, and he
has thus been instrumental in the agricultural development of the
Valley as well as in the improvement of residential subdivisions and
the advancement of realty values. He has taken a very active interest
in civic affairs, including the preparing of the present city charter,
has participated in the different war activities and assisted in the
erection of the splendid Congregational Church edifice and the new
Y. M. C. A. building.
A stanch Republican of very broad, non-partisan views as to local
matters, Mr. Eells has always worked for good government and an
enlightened, free America for progressive Americans. This energetic
endeavor in behalf of social and political uplift is rather natural, con-
sidering that the Eells family dates back to the seventeenth century,
when certain forbears settled in the central part of New York state.
George Nelson Eells came to California by way of Cape Horn, and
had a very eventful voyage, for smallpox raged on the ship, and he
was one of the volunteer nurses to help care for the stricken. The
Clark family, that of the mother, dates from the second trip of the
Mayflower, and they are known in history as influential in the de-
velopment of New England colonial life, the mother having been born
and educated in Boston.
At Pomona, on March 6, 1907, Mr. Eells was married to Miss
Ethel May Howard, who was born in Pomona, and grew up and was
educated here, and is active In all things pertaining to the best welfare
of the city. Two children have blessed this union: Howard Clark
Eells and Edith Frances Eells.
A Sunday school teacher in the Pilgrim Congregational Church of
Pomona for the past nineteen years, Mr. Eells has been in charge for
twelve years of the important boys' work known as the Boys' Brigade,
and to him is due the chief credit for the brigade's remarkable success.
In this important post he has proven a wonderfully efficient officer,
but his work has not stopped there, for he has made every member of
the brigade his personal friend, and in such an exceptional relationship
has sought to promote the highest welfare of the members.
30
614 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
FRANK FLETCHER PALMER
Thanks to the exceptional number of "moving spirits" in Clare-
mont — for some persons not only have the initiative to move them-
selves, but are also most effective in inducing others to follow where
they lead — this beautiful interior town has developed in recent years
at a far more rapid rate, and on broader, safer lines than most new
cities of the West; and prominent among her citizens noted for both
aggression and progression, is Prof. Frank Fletcher Palmer, the pro-
ficient principal through whom the Claremont high school has been
raised to a high state of efficiency. He was born at Ainsworth, Wash-
ington County, Iowa, on September 18, 1880, and his parents were
Abraham L. and Nancy (Potts) Palmer. His father was a minister In
the United Brethren in Christ, and passed to his eternal reward, leav-
ing an enviable record for hard, unselfish toil to redeem his fellow-
men. Mrs. Palmer is still living, the mother of six children, among
whom Frank was the youngest child. He began his education in his
home town; but when he accompanied his folks to California in 1892,
he entered and graduated from the preparatory department of Pomona
College, in 1903, and from Pomona College in 1908, when he re-
ceived the degree of A.B.
Taking up teaching as a profession, Mr. Palmer became principal
at San Dimas, but after a year, moved to Claremont, and here he has
worked to develop the high school since 1909, although actual organi-
zation did not take place until 1910. Since that time he has been its
principal. To him in particular is much of the credit due for a new
high school building; and the present structure, of which the citizens
are so proud, was erected in 1911, at a cost of approximately $65,000.
About 125 pupils are enrolled; while the commodious structure, such
an architectural ornament to the town, is large enough to accommodate
double that number. All its provisions evidence the trained mind of
Professor Palmer and those associated in carrying out this great trust
for the present and future generations.
At Upland, on March 27, 1909, Mr. Palmer was married to Miss
Grace Greenleaf, a native of Indiana, and the daughter of C. A.
Greenleaf. She is an accomplished lady, also attractive for her intel-
lectual gifts, and was before her marriage a teacher of public school
drawing. Four children have blessed this fortunate union — Nancy be-
ing the eldest, Fletcher the next, Allan the third, and Elizabeth the
youngest. The family are members of the Congregational Church.
Professor Palmer is a Republican, but he is too large-minded to be
limited to any one party creed, and takes pleasure in casting aside all
narrow partisanship in local affairs and working only for the good of
the community in which he moves and thrives. Quite safely may one
make the prediction that the educator, Frank Fletcher Palmer, will yet
be heard from in larger and still more influential fields.
HISTORY AND mOGRAPHY 625
HARRY H. HINMAN
Among Pomona's wide-awake and successful business men is the
manager of the firm of E. Hinman & Son, Harry H. Hinman. Mr.
Hinman was born at Cambridge, Henry County, 111., November 9,
1886, and is the son of Elliot and Nora (Nolan) Hinman. His
parents came to California in 1891, and of their three children Harry
H. is the youngest. He received a liberal education in the public and
high schools of Pomona, then entered business with his father at Po-
mona. The father died November 7, 1917, and the son continued
to conduct the business, which is prospering under his administration,
and he has eight people in his employ.
The lady he chose for his wife and to whom he was united
November 25, 1916, was Miss Lucy Barry before her marriage.
Politically, Mr. Hinman supports the principles of the Republi-
can party, and in his fraternal associations he is a member of the
B. P. O. Elks and of the Knights of Pythias, and is a member of the
Chamber of Commerce.
While devoted to his business interests, Mr. Hinman still ha-s time
to enjoy the out-of-door life of which he is fond, and which the climatic
conditions of California make so enticing at all seasons of the year.
He is deeply interested in the progress and development of Pomona
Valley and is ever ready to lend his influence to further its interests.
ARTHUR DURWARD, A. M.
Scotland has long since claimed the honors of birth of numerous
men and women distinguished in foreign lands, and especially in the
field of education has she been well represented by those who, having
first seen the light of day under her bonnie skies, have gone forth to
wrestle with some of the most serious problems of life, and to assist
in the progress of the world to broader, higher and better things.
Among such educators who look back with pride to the land of Scott
and Burns, and forward with anticipation to the new Republic of
Longfellow, Emerson and Horace Mann, is Arthur Durward, A.M.,
the scholarly principal of the Bonita Union High School at La Verne.
He was born near Aberdeen on December 23, 1870, and when
one year old was brought to the United States, where he was reared
on a farm near Boulder, Colo. For a while he attended the public
schools of his locality, and when old enough went to the State Uni-
versity at Boulder, from which well-known institution he was grad-
uated with the Class of '93, with the degree of B. S. He next attended
Harvard University at Cambridge, Mass., where he took a course
in science and engineering, and still later he did some graduate work
there, and was assistant instructor in physics in the same university,
receiving his Master of Arts degree in 1897.
626 HISTORY AXD lilOGRAPHY
The same year he arrived in California and for a year taught
at St. Matthew's Boys' School at Burlingame, a military academy,
after which he taught for four years in the Hanford High School.
Coming to Pomona in 1902, Mr. Durward was vice-principal of the
Pomona High School for another four years. In 1907, luckily for
the Bonita Union High School, he became its principal, and this posi-
tion of responsibility Mr. Durward has filled to the satisfaction of
the community ever since. He has not only been placed at the head,
but he has been a large factor in the school's development. A number
of new and important courses of study have been added, and these
include manual training, domestic science, agriculture and music.
Mr. Durward served for four years as city trustee for La Verne,
and during that time, for two years, he was president of the board.
The bond issue was then carried, and a municipal water system was
provided. Good roads were then built, and many streets were paved.
Besides being a member of the Board of Trustees, Mr. Durward has
been active in the First Methodist Church, and as an educator, a
man and a fellow-citizen, he has shown his intense interest in and
loyalty to Pomona Valley.
Mr. Durward has also embarked in orange culture and now
owns two groves; one, of ten acres, lies to the south of the Pacific
Electric Station; the other, of seven acres, is near the Bonita High
School. Associated with others, he has developed water by sinking
wells and put in pumping plants, from which they irrigate their
ranches.
While at Pomona, on November 30, 1899, Arthur Durward
was married to Miss Clara Pitzer, a native of Iowa and the daughter
of S. C. and Alice Pitzer, pioneers of Pomona. Three daughters
have blessed this union, and they bear the names of Ruth, Lois and
Alice. Mr. Durward is a member of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science, also the Council of Education of the
soythern section of the California Teachers Association.
VINCENT W. BAKER, D.D.S.
Among the successful orchardists of Pomona Valley, Vincent W.
Baker, D.D.S., deserves mention. He is a native of New Jersey,
where he was born at Boundbrook, July 4, 1866, and is the son of
Abraham and Mary J. (Blauvelt) Baker. The father was a capitalist
of New York City, and in a family of seven children Vincent was the
youngest. He completed his education in the high school at
Asbury Park, and attended the New York College of Dentistry, grad-
uating from that institution with the class of 1888. He practiced his
profession In Plainfield, New Jersey, for fifteen years, came to Cali-
fornia in 1901 and located on a ranch at La Verne. Since then he
HISTORY AND i;i(3GRAPHV 629
has devoted his entire attention to citrus culture, abandoning the prac-
tice of dentistry. He had charge of seventy acres, and now has fifty-
eight acres under his supervision. However, he malces his home at
1269 Harvard Avenue, Claremont.
His marriage with Miss Bessie Hull was solemnized September
26, 1893. In his religious convictions Mr. Baker is a member of The
First Church of Christ, Scientist, of Boston, Mass. Politically he does
not adhere to any party. He is broad-minded and liberal in his views,
and active in the management of his business interests, of which he has
made a pronounced success.
FRANK A. HICKMAN
An enthusiastic advocate of and an authority on good roads is
Frank A. Hickman, the well-known citrus grower of San Dimas,
who for twelve years was street superintendent of Road District
No. 112, formerly known as the old San Jose road district. He was
born at Fairmount, Vermilion County, 111., on January 9, 1868, the
son of H. H. Hickman, who married Miss Ivy Snyder, and who was
active as a farmer in the Prairie State until the outbreak of the Civil
War, when he enlisted in the Twenty-fifth Illinois Regiment and
served throughout the great conflict, in which he was severely
wounded. In the fall of 1868 they removed to Kansas and located
on a homestead in Anderson County on the frontier, where roamed
Indians as well as countless antelope and buffalo, and there they
resided until their death. The parents had five children, all of them
still living, the youngest brother still residing on the old home farm.
Frank A., who was second in the order of birth, was taken to
Kansas at the age of eight months, and there was educated in the
public schools. He assisted his father on the home farm until he was
of age and then followed farm work and cattle feeding, principally
for J. M. Broady. After seven years in his service Mr. Hickman
moved to the vicinity of Cripple Creek, Colo., and there, also for
seven years, he was employed at lumbering and logging. Desirous
of getting a first-hand view of California, he came out to the coast
in 1902, purchasing a three-year-old Valencia orange grove of ten
acres in Los Angeles County, which he cared for and improved until
he sold it in 1906 for $1,000 an acre, and then returned to Colorado.
In 1909, however, haunted by alluring memories of the Golden
State, Mr. Hickman came back and bought his present orange grove
near San Dimas, for which he paid $15,000. There are twelve acres
in the tract, devoted to oranges and grape fruit. He has made many
improvements on the place and built a fine large residence, so that
it is now one of the most attractive places in the ^"alley, and reflects
the painstaking, intelligent labor that has been expended upon it. A
630 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
self-made man in every sense of the word, has entered enthusiastically
into the life of the community, and is a director in the New Deal
Land and Water Company and a member of the San Dimas Orange
Growers Association and the San Dimas Lemon Growers Association.
On March 5, 1901, Mr. Hickman was married at Colorado
Springs to Miss Minnie E. Allen, born at Cedarville, N. J., the
daughter of William P. and Hannah A. (Conklin) Allen, natives of
New York state. Her father served in the Third New Jersey Cavalry
Regiment in the Civil War. He was a contractor in Bridgeton, N. J.,
until he removed to Manitou, Colo., and there he engaged in' the same
line of work. Both he and Mrs. Allen are deceased. Mrs. Hickman
was seventeen years of age when the family took up their home in
Colorado and she completed her education in the schools at Manitou.
On the Allen side she is a lineal descendant of Ethan Allen, the hero
of Ticonderoga in the Revolutionary War. On her maternal side she
is of the old New York Conklin stock.
Mr. Hickman's party affiliation is Republican, but he is at all
times above party and partisanship, when the best interests can be
served by voting for a rival candidate or measure. In 1919, Mr. and
Mrs. Hickman made a trip of three months to the East and South,
visiting Colorado, Kansas, Illinois, Missouri, Alabama and Florida.
They returned home at the close of the year more pleased than ever
with this section and their experience leads them to the conclusion
that there is no state in the Union equal to California for climate, resi-
dence nor the opportunity for making money.
RICHARD N. LOUCKS
A citizen of Pomona for nearly forty years who has contributed
his share to the permanent and substantial development of the city, and
a man who has witnessed the marvelous growth of the city of Pomona
as well as the prosperous development of Pomona Valley, is Richard
N. Loucks, who for twenty-five years has been actively engaged in the
general insurance business here.
Mr. Loucks was born in the parish of East Baton Rouge, La.,
May 31, 1848, where he was reared. Before he had reached his six-
teenth birthday, Mr. Loucks entered the Confederate Army as a mem-
ber of the Sixth Louisiana Cavalry, and was captured near Mobile,
Ala., December, 1864, and on May 6, 1865, was paroled.
After the Civil War, Mr. Loucks accepted a position in a mer-
cantile business at Baton Rouge and later on conducted a general mer-
chandise store for himself in that city until 1881, when he migrated
to California.
It was in the year 1882 that R. N. Loucks arrived in the then un-
important little town of Pomona, and here for a number of years he
conducted a general merchandise store on East Second Street. In
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 631
1894, Mr. Loucks realized that Pomona offered a first-class oppor-
tunity for a good general insurance business, whereupon he opened an
office and has since then been engaged in this particular line of en-
deavor as the representative of some of the best insurance companies
in the country. During his long residence in Pomona he has aided in
the material development of the city.
In the second year after coming to Pomona, Richard N. Loucks
was united in marriage with Cora E. Cromer, a native of Indiana, and
this union has been blessed with three sons, and by a prior marriage
three boys, and all grew to manhood in Pomona : Robert G. and
Frank H., residents of Los Angeles; Sylvester D., Richard N., Jr.,
Howard F., and John W. During the late World War, Mr. Loucks
had the proud distinction of having five of his sons in the United
States Army, two of whom were in active service with the American
Expeditionary Force in France. John W. received the Croix de Guerre
with bronze star.
Fraternally, Richard N. Loucks is a member of Lodge No. 789,
B. P. O. Elks, Pomona, and also a charter member of Pomona Lodge,
No. 107, K. of P. His keen business judgment has won for Mr.
Loucks a commendable position among the progressi\'e business men of
Pomona.
FERDINAND DAVIS
One of the pioneer builders of Pomona, and a man of sterling
character, Ferdinand Davis was born in Cushing, Maine, February 8,
1840. He learned the carpenter trade as a boy, and at the age of
ninteen went to Lebanon, N. H., to engage in that business. At the
outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted, September 21, 1861, in the
Seventh New Hampshire Regiment, and took part in sixteen engage-
ments, first seeing service in the Tenth Army Corps, Department of the
South, and later in the Army of the James, General Butler in com-
mand. He was wounded in Florida, and was afterwards attached to
the brigade staff of General Hawley of Connecticut, and mustered out
at Concord, N. H., December 22, 1864, though in service till February
8, 1865.
After the years spent in the service of his country, Mr. Davis
returned to Lebanon and resumed work at his trade; he worked for a
New York firm who took contracts for interior finishing, and later
took up this line himself in New York City, gradually working into
architectural drawing, for which he had a natural inclination.
In 1887, Mr. Davis came to California as a licensed architect
and located for a short time in Pasadena; soon after he came to La
Verne in charge of building operations there, and in 1888 he settled
in Pomona. Here he immediately became identified with the building
up of the town, and drew plans for all the business blocks on the north
632 HISTORY A\D lUOGRAPHY
side of Second Street, from the First National Bank Building to Geary
Street, and the four business blocks on the four corners of Garey Ave-
nue . He drew the plans for Trinity Church, and was associate archi-
tect for the Congregational Church. Mr. Davis also was architect
for the Ebell Club House, the Masonic Temple, the Investment Build-
ing, in Pomona, among other work; and the Masonic Temple and other
buildings at Ontario; modern business blocks and residences in Clare-
mont; and the packing houses at San Dimas and Glendora.
Besides his business interests, Mr. Davis has given time to orange
growing, and owns an eight-acre grove in the Ontario district. Since
his first settling in the Valley he has been a part of its growth, and has
been a factor for progress and upbuilding in the community. In fra-
ternal circles he is a member of the Commandery in the Masons, and is
also a member of Vicksburg Post, G. A. R.
Mr. Davis married in Lebanon, N. H., January 8, 1867, to Eliza
A. Thompson, and four children were born to them: Bernice G. ;
Mrs. Nellie Hibbard; Raymond M., manager of the Bank of Italy
at Modesto, and Mrs. Beatrice Ashworth of Santa Barbara. The
family attend the Trinity Methodist Church.
FREDERICK W. BOWEN
Prominent among the pioneer residents of Pomona Valley, where
he has resided for the past thirty-four years, is Frederick W. Bowen,
who was born near Buffalo, Erie County, N. Y., September 1, 1849.
At the age of twelve he removed with his father's family to Cerro
Gordo County and three years later to Humboldt County, Iowa, where
he was brought up on a farm. In 1869, soon after the continental
railroad was completed, he came to California on one of the first trains
across the continent, and after remaining one year on the Pacific Coast
he drove a horse and buggy north, from Sacramento, Cal., to Albany,
Ore., and returned to Iowa, where he resumed the occupation of farm-
ing. In 1885 he came back to California to make a permanent home
and spend the remainder of his days. He settled in Pomona Valley,
where he purchased the place where he now lives, which lies west on
Holt Avenue, near Huntington Drive. He planted the land, which
was a barley field at the time he purchased it, to orange and apricot
trees, and sold four acres of it. The remaining four he still possesses.
It is planted to budded Navel and seedling oranges, and some apricots.
Before the days of the packing house he sold his fruit to com-
mission men in Pomona. The average yield for five years on one acre
of apricots was ten tons a year — a fine record. Nearly all the apricot
trees were taken out and orange trees planted. The grounds around
his home contain many beautiful and rare shrubs and plants. There
are two rose bushes that are thirty-four years old, and he has the tallest
HISTORY AXD lllOGRAl'ilV 633
apricot trees in the state on his place. There are also apple trees,
vines, pepper trees, etc. The soil is very rich and productive. He has
made all the improvements on the place himself, even to finishing the
interior work on his house.
Mr. Bowen has been very active in water de\elopment in the
Valley. He is president of the Currier Tract Water Company and
also of the Irrigation Association of Pomona. The latter system
serves about 2,000 acres of fruit land east and south of Pomona. The
water formerly came from artesian wells, but an air-compresor pump-
ing plant is now used. The Currier Tract Water Company serves over
100 acres of land north of Pomona and owns two water rights; the
water Is pumped by electric power.
In his domestic relations Mr. Bowen married Miss Sara Wickes,
a native of the state of New York. A son was born to them, who died
in infancy. They then took a niece of Mrs. Bowen's, Cornelia Lor-
beer, who took the name of Bowen and who was a school teacher in
Los Angeles County for several years. She died In 1903.
Mrs. Bowen, who has been a teacher In the First Presbyterian
Sunday School for the past thirty years, has heard all of the ministers
who have preached in that church during that time. She Is very active
in the missionary society of the church and also In Red Cross work, and
is an active member of the W. C. T. U. When she first came to
Pomona there were only 500 inhabitants in the place, which supported
seventeen saloons. She and seven other ladies banded together, and
through their efforts in the cause of temperance the saloons were
banished from Pomona.
Mr. Bowen Is a deacon in the First Presbyterian Church, and is
also very active in temperance work, and with his wife shares In the
esteem and affectionate regard of the community.
HOWARD E. ULERY
A merchant with extensive Valley connections, who has witnessed
many changes in the transaction of business since he first entered busi-
ness, Is Howard E. Ulery, the well-equipped dealer in feed, fuel and
seed. He was born near Adel, Dallas County, Iowa, on August 11,
1887, the son of Joseph F. and Susan (Miller) Ulery, natives of Ohio
and Indiana, respectively, who became farmers In Dallas County, Iowa,
and became the parents of six children — three boys and three girls;
and Mrs. Ulery died in California in 1907. In 1896, Mr. Ulery came
west and started In the feed business at Pomona, on West Second
Street, and he has remained more or less active in that line since com-
ing here.
The fourth child in the order of birth, Howard enjoyed the usual
common school and high school advantages, graduating from the latter
634 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Institution here in 1907, and then attending Pomona College for a
couple of years. Thus, little by little, he prepared for those responsi-
bilities in life which he has always discharged in the most conscientious
manner. In 1909, he entered his father's business as a partner, the
firm having formerly been Hoffman & Ulery. When he bought Mr.
Hoffman out, however, the firm name changed to Ulery & Son, but
for the last year, Howard Ulery has assumed the management of the
business. Besides his interests there, he owns a tract of good land
in Chino.
In Pomona on June 22, 1910, Mr. Ulery was married to Miss
Rita Rogers, whose parents were W. J. and Luella J. Rogers, and who
was born in Kansas. They have a son, Howard E., Jr., and another
named Roger Edwin; and the family attend the First Methodist
Church. Mr. and Mrs. Ulery are public spirited, and ever ready to
do their full duty as citizens, and especially as residents of the most
flourishing and beautiful of inland towns — Pomona.
CARLTON H. SANBORN
A contractor of Pomona accustomed to operate on an extensive
scale is Carlton H. Sanborn, a native of the City of the Angels, who
is justly proud of the fact that both his father and his grandfather have
been prominently identified with the upbuilding of the Valley. He was
born at Los Angeles on May 11, 1888, and his father was Arthur
Sanborn, who was born in Minnesota and married Lucy Dickenson, a
native of England. He came from Missouri with his father, Isaac
N. Sanborn, a New Englander, in 1886, just when California was
beginning to "boom," and, locating in Pomona, they engaged in brick
contracting. Later, Arthur Sanborn moved to Los Angeles, but in
1902 returned to Pomona. Isaac Sanborn and his son Arthur erected
nearly all of the brick buildings in and around Pomona, including the
Sunset Cannery, in which they were both interested financially; the Con-
gregational Church, the various school buildings, the Masonic Temple
at Ontario, as well as other buildings there; the Odd Fellows' Building
at Azusa, and they burned the brick for the Union Block in North
Pomona on the Mesa. The grandfather died in 1911, and Arthur
Sanborn died a year later. Mrs. Lucy Sanborn lives at Victorville,
and is the mother of five children, two deceased. Those living are:
John Halvor, a forest ranger; Carlton H.; and Mrs. Ruth Lester.
Carlton attended the public schools of Los Angeles and came to
Pomona with his folks. Here he attended the high school and later
learned the bricklaying trade under the direction of his father. On
the death of the latter, in 1912, he took up contracting for brick work,
and since then has erected all the brick buildings in Pomona except
two. These include the Hotel Avis, the Washington School, the Home
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 635
Telephone Building, the White, Booth, Wurl, Opera and Richter
garages, all in the city itself, as well as the cooling plant for the Indian
Hill Packing House at North Pomona, the building of the La Verne
Orange and Lemon Growers Association, the addition to the First
National Bank, Azusa, the business blocks in San Dimas and Puente,
the Pacific Electric Station and several other buildings in Claremont,
a business block in Cucamonga, and the George Junior Republic Boys'
School south of Pomona, each- of which is a credit for its durability,
workmanship and style.
Mr. Sanborn married Sallie Dossett, a native of Kentucky and
daughter of James L. Dossett of Pomona, the ceremony taking place
at Long Beach in 1911. Three children have blessed the union,
Wilma, Ruby and Carlton H., Jr., all of whom may be proud of the
family name, since many of the edifices erected by the Sanborns will
stand as monuments to their building genius and honesty. Mr. San-
born is a member of the Pomona Lodge of Odd Fellows, and also
belongs to the Knights of Pythias.
DANIEL MACKENZIE
A gentleman of Canadian birth who, having brought with him to
California a valuable experience, has been able to be of real service
to the community while advancing his own interests, is Daniel Mac-
kenzie, who was born at Unionville, Canada, of Scotch parentage. He
was reared and educated in his native locality and then learned the
trades of blacksmith and carriage builder and followed his trade and
carried on a large carriage manufacturing business for years, and later
a sales business of all kinds of agricultural implements, at Owen
Sound, Ontar'fD.
Coming to Pomona, Cal., in March, 1905, Mr. Mackenzie
bought his present place at the corner of Holt and Union avenues.
The ranch was in a run-down condition at time of purchase and he has
made many valuable and needed improvements, among them the erec-
tion of a comfortable residence and necessary outbuildings. He has
given the trees a scientific cultivation and has increased the production
of oranges from a mere 106 boxes a year to an average of 2,500
boxes. This country home has been given the name of Tulloch Ard,
the rallying cry of the Mackenzie clan for hundreds of years, in the
Highlands of Scotland, and is the center of a kindly hospitality.
Mr. Mackenzie is superintendent of the Orange Gro\e Tract
Water Company, which owns a finely-equipped system for supplying
water for irrigation and domestic use to more than 600 acres in the
Packard Orange Grove Tract. This is one of the best systems in the
whole Valley, commanding a continuous flow of water from wells and
elevated by means of powerful pumping plants. All ranches are on
meter and the consumer pays only for what he uses.
636 HISTORY AND IlKJGRAPHY
In Canada occurred the marriage of Daniel Mackenzie and Mar-
garet Mitchell Levins, the latter born in Banff, Scotland, and they have
one child, a daughter, Helena Bruce Mackenzie, who is widely known
for her ability. She studied art and drama at Pomona College, gives
readings and recitations that afford pleasure and uplift to many. She
is now teacher of art and assistant in dramatics in the Claremont High
School. Mrs. Mackenzie, who holds a life certificate in Canada as a
teacher, also one to teach school in Los Angeles County, has, since
1916, conducted a private school at Tulloch Ard for children who are
in need of individual instruction, and her pupils have been promoted
and made their grades in the schools of the city.
It is through such worthy settlers as Mr. and Mrs. Mackenzie
that Pomona and many of the most desirable residential cities of
California have been rightly developed and permanently and safely
established.
IRA W. POLING
What Pomona Valley has done and, therefore, what the Valley
may do again for the orange grower, is well illustrated in the success
attained by Ira W. Poling, who came to California a little over a
decade ago. - He was born near Kewanna, Fulton County, Ind., on
March 18. 1852, the son of Arnold and Lydia (Hudkins) Poling,
born in Virginia, who removed to Indiana and became farmers there.
Ira W. grew up on the home farm until he was twenty-three years
of age. Then, in 1875, he removed to Pawnee County, Nebr., where
he bought a quarter section of land near Pawnee City, which he im-
proved and brought to a fine state of cultivation. Selling out, he went
to Jackson County, Kans., near Holton, and there bougkt eighty acres,
which he farmed for a short time. Once more selling out, he removed
to Shawnee County, in the same state, and there secured a quarter
section of land near Topeka, which he farmed and afterward traded
for a quarter section near Oklahoma City, Okla., where he engaged
in agricultural pursuits for fourteen years. In Kansas he was a
member of the Farmers' Alliance, and both profited and contributed
toward the association with others in the same field.
In the fall of 1906, Mr. Poling came to Pomona, and here he
purchased an orange grove on San Bernardino Avenue, consisting of
nine and a third acres, which he afterward sold. Then he bought his
present fine orange ranch of ten and a third acres, at 700 East Kingsley
Avenue. He erected a fine residence and other desirable buildings,
and otherwise greatly improved the property; and after he had intro-
duced the most scientific methods in its management, he took in 1913
about $9,000 worth of fruit from the farm. Since then he has dem-
onstrated that in good years his ranch will produce 6,000 boxes of
fruit. He also bought a fine grove on East Holt Avenue of eight
tVS
^
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 639
and a half acres. As might be expected of so enterprisuig and repre-
sentative an orange grower, Mr. Poling identified himself with the
Pomona Fruit Growers Exchange and also with the Palomares
Irrigation Company.
In Pawnee County, Nebr., on March 26, 1878, Mr. Poling was
married to Miss Myra E. Ennefer, a native of Eureka, Woodford
County, 111., and the daughter of William and Rebecca (Carpenter)
Ennefer, born in England and Ohio, respectively. They removed
from Illinois to Nebraska in 1876. The father died in Jackson
County, Kans., being survived by his widow, who is now 84 years
old. Mr. and Mrs. Poling have had five daughters, all popular in
their several circles. Lulu, the eldest, and Esther, the youngest, are
at home; Nellie is the wife of C. F. Compton of Los Angeles, and
the mother of two children; Minnie is the wife of E. C. Beesley of
Ontario; and Eva has become Mrs. O. C. Williams of Pomona, and
is the mother of three children.
Mr. Poling sold his orchards in Pomona in 1919, and removed
to Anaheim, where he purchased twenty-four acres on East Center
Street, which is devoted to raising Valencia oranges, and he is now
a member of the Anaheim Citrus Fruit Association. With his family
he is a member of the Christian Church in Anaheim.
HENRY B. DAVIS
A sclentltically-tralned ranchman whose expert knowledge of the
citrus Industry has led to his selection for most important posts of
responsibility is Henry B. Davis, the ex-president of the Indian Hill
Citrus Association of North Pomona, who was born near Monticello,
Wayne County, Ky., on August 16, 1855. When onlv a year old
he was brought to Putnam County, Mo., and in 1879 he graduated
from the State University at Columbia. The next year he moved
west to Deer Lodge, in the county of that name, in Montana, and
there established himself in his profession as civil engineer.
It was not long before Mr. Davis became assistant engineer in
charge of construction work for the Northern Pacific Railway, and
by 1891 he had become mayor of Deer Lodge, an evidence of the
esteem in which he was held. For fourteen years, too, he was county
surveyor of Deer Lodge County.
At the same time, Mr. Davis became president of the Davis &
Williams Live Stock Company, and with two others owned 17,000
acres of land and 20,000 sheep. In 1891-92, when Powell County,
Mont., was formed, he was made chairman of the first hoard of
county commissioners.
Fortunately for Pomona as well as for the subject of our Inter-
esting review, the year 1910 found Mr. Davis in Pomona, an orange
640 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
grower, and in 1914 the possessor of a fine home on Hiawasse Avenue,
which he erected that year. In 1889, at Deer Lodge, Mont., he was
married to Elizabeth Woolfolk, a native of Kentucky and the daugh-
ter of the Rev. A. M. Woolfolk, also a native of that state.
In 1913 Mr. Davis became a director in the Indian Hill Citrus
Association, and he became its president in June, 1918, to fill a
vacancy, but in September of that year he was elected president, a
position he held until the return of Mr. Sederholm in November,
1919, when he became vice-president. He is also a director in the
Canyon Water Company, and a stockholder and director in the
Pomona Investment Company. During his term of president he rep-
resented his company in the San Antonio Fruit Exchange. "
Especially popular in fraternal circles, Mr. Davis is a Mason,
a member of the Lodge, Chapter, Commandery in Pomona, and
belongs to the Los Angeles Shrine. His oldest child, Harry B., is
with the Standard Oil Company at Bakersfield; Alexander W. Davis,
another son, is an attorney of Los Angeles; Julian R. is assistant
cashier of the State Bank at Idaho Falls, Idaho; while Charlotte is
a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, a member of.
the Class of '19, and now a teacher in Clifton, Ariz.
HAROLD C. DEWEY
Among the many good citizens that the Empire State has con-
tributed to increase the population of California, Harold C. Dewey
is worthy of mention. He was born in Lincoln, Wayne County,
N. Y., January 26, 1880, the son of Morris M. and Julia (Lee)
Dewey, the former born in Delta, Oneida County, N. Y., and the
latter in Somers, Conn.; she died in Pomona in 1893, leaving three
children — Mamie, Mrs. Harris, now of Yuma, Ariz.; Helen, Mrs.
Chown, living in Portland, Ore.; and Harold C, of this review. The
family settled in Pomona, Cal., in 1883, where the father was in the
employ of J. E. Packard and others, in setting out orchards and vine-
yards in this Valley, and later engaged in the real estate business in
Pomona for many years. He is now in business in Portland, Ore.
Harold C. was but three years old when the family settled in
Pomona Valley, where he has passed nearly all the years of his life,
therefore is full of reminiscences concerning Pomona when it was
but a struggling village. As a boy he shot rabbits in what is now
the main business section of the town. Here he attended the gram-
mar and high schools, graduating from the latter in 1900, and when
he was able he assisted his father in his work of setting out and caring
for citrus and deciduous orchards, later taking up the real estate and
building business, which he has since followed. He has built many
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 641
residences and business structures in Pomona and nearby cities for
himself and has owned four orange groves. He has put on the
market and sold off three subdivisions, and has dont as much to
develop the Valley as any one man within its confines. The position
he has attained has been through his own efforts and his display of
good business ability and reliability in his transactions.
The marriage of Harold C. Dewey and Miss Bernice Surtees, a
native of Colwich, Kans., was solemnized in Princeton, Kans., in June,
1907, and they have become parents of two children — Mildred H.
and Virginia A. Mrs. Dewey is active in social and club life, and
is president of the Ebell Club (1919). Mr. and Mrs. Dewey are
members and workers in the First Methodist Church of Pomona.
GEORGE R. TYLER
A pioneer horticulturist of Pomona Valley and one who has done
much toward developing that industry in this section of the state,
George R. Tyler has in the last decade seen many changes in the
growth and upbuilding of this wonderful Valley and has done his share
in aiding it to a successful and prosperous state of development. Born
in Perry County, 111., March 22, 1871, he was raised in that state
and there received his early training along horticultural lines which
fitted him for his work in the West. He later went to Kansas and
lived there for a time, then, September 16, 1890, came to Pomona.
After his arrival he first worked in the orchards then being set out in
the Valley; and later, with his brothers, Lewis and Charles, engaged
in budding and grafting oranges, lemons and grapefruit, and the Tyler
brothers became well known throughout the Valley for their expert
work in that line, and their services were much in demand.
Later, Mr. Tyler assisted in the development of the property
south of Claremont known as the "Loud Ranch." He was super-
intendent of the ranch and set out many trees, also developed the water
system on the property. Mr. Tyler did more of this kind of work
than any other one man in the Valley, and the value of his services
in horticultural development can readily be seen.
Since 1905 Mr. Tyler has been in the fertilizer business, a pioneer
in that line. He has been most successful in this undertaking, and not
only sells the product, but his thorough knowledge of horticulture
enables him to give advice as to its use, and all who have used it ha\e
greatly increased the yield of their orchards.
The marriage of Mr. Tyler united him with Bertha Barrett, a
native of England, and two sons have been horn to them: George G.,
who enlisted in the One Hundred Forty-fourth Field Artillery in
service in the World War, was sent to France, and was discharged
642 HISTORY AND P.IOGRAPHY
June 29, 1919; and Arthur, a student of Pomona College, taking a
course in civil, hydraulic and structural engineering, and now attending
Stanford University.
In the midst of his development work and business interests, Mr.
Tyler has found time to devote to the social and fraternal life of the
community. He is a member of the Pomona Lodge of Odd Fellows
since 1900. Energetic, and with progress for his watchword, Mr.
Tyler believes that the way to get things done is to get to work and
do them, and the results show that he is a man of keen vision. In his
early reminiscences of this section, he tells of shooting quail and rabbits
where the Pomona High School now stands, and also on the present
site of Claremont. This section has developed with such remarkable
rapidity that a young man can still be an old pioneer here!
JOHN P. EVANS
Like many of his fellow citizens in Pomona, John P. Evans had
varied and interesting experiences, in tra\el and business, before set-
tling down in this peaceful and prosperous Valley. He is a native of
Lexington, Davidson County, N. C, born August 27, 1877. His
parents were Alexander and Eliza (Clodfelter) Evans, farmer folk
in the Southern state; the father entered the Southern army when six-
teen years old and ser\'ed with Lee three and one-half years; he is still
living.
The youngest of eight children born to his parents, John P. Evans
received his education in the rural schools of North Carolina, and in
the school of experience. At the age of twenty he followed in his
patriotic father's footsteps and enlisted in Company F, Second Mis-
souri Volunteer Infantry, at Clinton, Mo., to serve in the Spanish War
as a private; he was made a corporal and later received his honorable
discharge from the service. On his return to business life the young
man went into the shipping room of a wholesale grocery house, and
when twenty-one years of age worked ten hours a day and then attend-
ed night school and took a business course; an example of ambition and
industry which speaks for the character of the man.
In 1900 Mr. Evans came West and settled for a time at Colorado
Springs; for one year he worked in a grocery store, then was interested
in mining for a few months, and later worked for the Colorado Mid-
land Railway, in the bridge and building department, remaining in that
employment fourteen months. He found his natural leaning to be
toward mercantile pursuits, however, and for four years worked for
B. G. Robbins Clothing Company; then for three years was with Gid-
dings Brothers Dry Goods Company, and with a partner maintained
a clothing store under the firm name of Evans & Gorton for one year.
This business he sold out and in 1910 came to Corona, and here pur-'
HISTORY AND lUOGRAPHY 643
chased an orange grove. February 15, 1911, Mr. Evans opened his
present business, a men's clothing and furnishing establishment, in Po-
mona, and has met with success in the line he had spent years of ex-
perience in learning.
The marriage of Mr. Evans, on October 4, 1905, united him
with Miss Mary Grace Combe, and one son has been born to them,
John Alexander. During his business- career Mr. Evans has found
time to take part in fraternal organizations ; he is a member .of Pomo-
na Lodge, No. 789, B. P. O. Elks, and past exalted ruler of that order;
is a member of the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodman, and in
business and civic affairs belongs to the Chamber of Commerce, in
which he is a director. He was active in war w^ork during the years of
the World War, and was second Ireutenant of the Pomona Home
Guards. Since his first residence here Mr. Evans has shown himself a
man of public spirit and progressive ideas, and has won the respect of
his community in his willingness to cooperate in advancing the welfare
of this section along all lines of endeavor.
GEORGE H. WITTENMYER
A master artisan, whose continuing and increasing success for
years has undoubtedly been due to the superiority of his workmanship,
is George H. Wittenmyer, the decorator and painting contractor of
1050 East Sixth Street, Pomona. He was born at Centerville, Appa-
noose County, Iowa, on October 12, 1882, and there attended the
public schools, while he grew up on a farm. At the age of sixteen,
however, he went to Minneapolis for a year, but then returned to
Iowa; and from his eighteenth to his twenty-first year of age, he
worked in the boiler making shops of the Chicago, Burlington &
Quincy Railroad at Centerville, in that state. When he first went to
Chicago, he was fireman with the Illinois Northern Railroad; then he
entered the wholesale store of Sells, Schwab Shoe Company, and after
that he was employed by Marshall. Field & Company, the Cutler Shoe
Company, and the Edison Electric Company. In the end, he removed
further west, to North Dakota.
In 1909, dissatisfied with even the best that the Dakotas and other
sections of the West had to offer, Mr. Wittenmyer moved on to Cali-
fornia, and in Ontario he worked for a while with C. M. Kellog, the
painting contractor. Next he removed to Pomona and here entered
the employ of Harry W. Freyermuth; for two years he filled that post
with ability and satisfaction to everybody, and then he concluded to
strike out for himself.
From the beginning, Mr. Wittenmyer has been unusually success-
ful, as even the briefest list of some of the edifices he has decorated
will show. These include the residences of Fred H. Baringer, Thomas
644 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
A. Williams, B. Chaffee Shepherd, Anson C. Thomas, Mrs. J. S.
Brownell and H. G. Witte, also the Beckley and Head residences, all
in Pomona. He also has painted, among others, the homes of Charles
Barnum at Claremont, George W. Chessman and Fred B. Palmer in
Walnut, and G. D. Tageman in San Dimas. He decorated the interior
of the Pilgrim Congregational Church, the Ebell Club House, the
nurses' home of the Pomona \'alley Hospital, the State Bank Building,
and the interior of the Orange Belt Emporium Block. He was called
upon to add the finishing touches to several of the finest homes at
Riverside and Rivera.
In addition to his busy life as contractor in the field mentioned,
Mr. Wittenmyer has been identified with real estate de\'elopment in
this section in an interesting manner. He bought ten acres of raw
land in the Ontario district, and traded the same for two lots on North
Park Avenue in Pomona. This he in turn traded for two acres on
Phillips and White avenues, Pomona. He set the same out to walnuts,
and established a fine irrigation system, and then traded that for a
Seventh Street residence, which once more he traded for his present
home at 1050 East Sixth Street.
In San Bernardino Mr. Wittenmyer was married to Ethel I. Hull,
a native of Jamestown, N. Y., by whom he has had two children,
Durward E. and Loretta May. His family are members of the First
Methodist Church. Mr. Wittenmyer is a member of the Knights of
Pythias of Pomona.
TODD & PATTERSON
The firm of Todd & Patterson, undertakers, is on a par with the
other up-to-date business establishments in Pomona, and ranks as one
of the best in this line in the Valley, with every modern convenience
for the conduct of their business, and the two partners give their entire
time and undivided attention to the thorough management of the same.
Walter B. Todd, the senior member of the firm, is a native of
New York state, born May 20, 1847, at Brewster, Putnam County.
At the age of one year he was taken to Ohio by his parents, and
was reared in that state, attending the public schools. His first busi-
ness venture was one of seven men to organize the A. B. Chase Organ
Company at Norwalk, Ohio, and he was associated with the company
for ten years, when he took up the retail business of musical instru-
ments In Norwalk.
In 1905, Mr. Todd came to California and settled in Pomona,
and here engaged in the undertaking business in partnership with J. E.
Patterson on Second Street, continuing for eighteen months. He then
engaged in business for himself. On July 1, 1914, he formed a partner-
ship with Tillman W. Patterson under the firm name of Todd & Pat-
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 645
terson, and the business has grown with the passing of the years, in
keeping with the growth and expansion of the city, and the firm now
occupies a modern establishment at 570 North Garey Avenue, with
everything in keeping with the surroundings. Both partners are
licensed undertakers, and take pride in their reputation for work that
is recognized as the best in that class of business. They have a Winton
motor hearse, ambulance service car, and three touring cars. The
establishment has a chapel in connection, and a lady attendant in the
parlors.
Mr. Todd has also been interested in orange growing, and owns
a thirteen-acre bearing orange grove at La Verne. He is prominent in
fraternal circles, a member of the Masonic fraternity, lodge, chapter,
council and commandery in Pomona and the Shrine of Los Angeles, and
past patron of the Eastern Star; and is an Odd Fellow. He is an
officer in the First Methodist Church. In all civic affairs Mr. Todd
has taken a prominent part and has always had the welfare of his
district at heart.
Mr. Todd has been twice married, and by his first wife, Fannie
S. Green, he has two children, Charles W. of Great Falls, Mont., and
Bertha (Mrs. C. H. Landmeister) of Bellevue, Ohio. His second
marriage united him with Miss Emily Richardson of Ohio, and one
son has been born to them, John R., who as chief yeoman In the
United States Navy, saw service in France during the World War.
Returning from the service he has taken a course of embalming at
Columbus, Ohio, and on January 1, 1920, became a partner In the firm
of Todd & Patterson. He Is a Mason and a member of the Knights
of Pythias.
Tillman W. Patterson, the junior member of the firm of Todd &
Patterson, was born in Linn County, Iowa, March 29, 1880, and when
seven years old came to Pasadena, Cal. Returning to Iowa, he was
raised on a farm In that state, and educated In the public schools,
finishing with a college course near Barnesvllle, Ohio.
After finishing his education, Mr. Patterson entered the employ
of Ihe Providence Life & Trust Company of Philadelphia for two
years. He then returned to Iowa and with a brother carried on a farm
implement business In Springvllle, that state. The West was his goal,
however, and In the summer of 1910 he returned to California and
settled in Pomona, first conducting an undertaking establishment alone,
at 230 North Garey Avenue, continuing this business until July 1, 1914,
when he joined forces with Mr. Todd and the firm of Todd & Patter-
son was formed, a full description of the business being given In the
senior partner's sketch. Mr. Patterson received an extensive training
in the work to which he devotes his time; in 1906 he graduated from
the Barnes School of Embalming of Chicago, and in 1907 received his
license as an embalmer in the state of Iowa.
646 HISTORY AXD BIOGRAPHY
Since first taking up his residence here, Mr. Patterson has been
active in fraternal circles as well as in the business life of the city; he
is a member of Pomona Lodge, No. 789, B. P. O. Elks, a member and
deputy grand chancellor of the Knights of Pythias, and has passed
through all the chairs of the Pomona lodge, also attending meetings
of the Grand Lodge of that order; he Is active In church work in the
community, and is secretary of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church
Sunday School.
The marriage of Mr. Patterson united him with Harriett B.
Williams, a native of Iowa, and two children have been born to them :
Orrin T. and Cecil A. Mrs. Patterson Is as Interested in civic affairs
and the welfare of their home community as is her husband, and she Is
active In the Pythian Sisters, in which she is past chief, and in the Red
Cross work in Pomona.
ROBERT WHITE
Among the highly-trained artisans of Pomona, such as are always
an asset to any community, one cannot fail to mention Mr. Robert
White, the expert foreman of the moulding department of the Pomona
Manufacturing Company on East Bertie Street. He was born at Cres-
ton, Union County, Iowa, on May 16, 1876, and attended the public
schools there until he was twelve years of age. Then he started to
learn the trade of a moulder in a small shop of the town, managed by
the Brennan Company. This was a combination blacksmith shop and
foundry, and that was where Mr. White got his ilrst idea of the
moulder's trade.
At eighteen, he left Creston and followed his trade In some of the
largest foundries In southern Wisconsin. He was with the Fuller-
Johnson Company of Madison, the Westbrick Foundry Company of
Galena, and the Baker Manufacturing Company of Evansville, Wis.,
and at Beloit he was foreman in the moulding shop of the Berlin
Machine Works, and had charge of a large crew of men, since over
two thousand men were employed, all in all, in the foundry. He also
followed his trade In Texas.
In 1908, attracted happily to the Pacific Coast, Mr. White came
to Southern California, and was for a while with the Union Tool Com-
pany of Los Angeles. Later still, he was in the employ of the Hot
Point Company of Ontario. In each of these establishments he was
able to show both his superior natural ability and his superior training.
In 1909, Mr. White entered the employ of the Pomona Manufac-
turing Company, where he was active for two years as a moulder, and
then he was appointed to the foremanship that he now holds. His
years of experience in many of the best shops of the Middle West
^^^^lU^ <^ c>/iWiC^^^
HISTORY AND IlIOGRAPHV 649
made him from the beginning of the engagement a valuable man to
have in town; and each year his value increases, both with respect to
his employers and to the public.
Rather naturally, Mr. White was not long in identifying himself
with Pomona, and in the most permanent fashion. The same year that
he came to Pomona, he bought five acres of raw land in the Ontario
district, located on Central Avenue south of F'irst Street, in the Monte
Vista tract, and this, having built there a house and barn and planted
orange trees, he has developed into a fine place. His Navel orange
trees are now se\en years old and in bearing.
Mr. White joined the Odd P'ellows when he was twenty-one years
old, and he now belongs to the Pomona Lodge, I. O. O. F.
ROBERT LEE MORTON
Pomona Valley and adjacent districts are noted for the large
number of automobiles, and their progressive and enterprising citizens
demand the best conveniences of modern twentieth century ci\'iliza-
tion. The fact that there are so many garages throughout the country
is a sure indication that this is a business both popular and profitable.
Robert Lee Morton, proprietor of the Motor Inn Garage, at
La Verne, Cal., is a native of San Luis Obispo, Cal., and was born
May 23, 1892. His father, Robert B. Morton, was born in Ohio,
and his mother, who in maidenhood was Miss Alice Andrews, was
born in San Luis Obispo, Cal., and is a daughter of the San Luis
Obispo pioneer family founded by J. P. Andrews of '49er fame.
Robert B. Morton was reared in Ohio and came to California in 1851,
where he followed the vocation of school teaching. Later he turned
his attention to tilling the soil, in which occupation he has had experi-
ence all over the state of California. He was one of the early settlers
at Redlands, and later, in 1888, located at Ontario. At present he is
living at Pasadena and owns a ranch at San Gabriel.
Robert Lee Morton located in Pomona in 1910. He worked
his way through Pomona high school and in the meantime used his
spare time in working in the garages of Street and Zander and E. W.
Davis at Pomona, gaining a thorough knowledge of the business.
After finishing his education he entered the employ of W. B. Gates at
Pomona, and later was in the employ of the National Motor Car Com-
pany of Los Angeles. He then entered the employ of the Layne &
Bowler Company at Los Angeles, manufacturers of turbine pumps
for irrigation purposes, and came to Chino, where he installed pumps
on the ranches in that district. For a short time he was located at
Grays Harbor, Aberdeen, Wash., in garage work, then returned to
California and entered the employ of the Burt Motor Company at
Los Angeles. From there he came to La Verne and worked for C. H.
Larimer in his garage for two years, when he resigned and purchased
650 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
a one-half interest in that garage with H. M. Daily. They named
it the Motor Inn Garage, and carried on the business together, until
1918, when Mr. Morton bought his partner's interest and continued
as proprietor of the Motor Inn Garage. It is a modern, up-to-date
building with a pressed brick front, and Mr. Morton carries a full
line of Goodyear and Mason tires and does a fine business.
In Pomona, July 20, 1915, he married Miss Lorie Norcross,
and they have two sons, Robert N. and Hobart. In his religious
associations Mr. Morton is a member of the First Presbyterian
Church at Pomona.
LUMAN RUTTY
Few can. imagine, probably, the peculiar satisfaction of such a
pioneer as Luman Rutty who, having made a positive success in his
chief undertaking prior to coming to California, sacrificed much in
order to settle where he believed that the inducements were greater
and the field of opportunity for doing good infinitely broader and
more inviting. From the beginning he has had faith not only in the
Golden State, but in Pomona Valley, and from the beginning he has
known that it is only a question of time when the forces of evil will be
routed, and California made one of the choicest and most desirable
places in all the world to dwell in. One such evil — King Alcohol —
has just tottered and fallen; and it is natural that this fact alone should
give every recompense to one who for years, at much cost of one kind
or another, advocated prohibition and the right and the duty of every
good citizen to declare it an outlaw.
Mr. Rutty was born on September 25, 1849, near New Haven,
in Middlesex County, Conn., close to the Atlantic Coast, and in the
eventful year of 1861 he emigrated to Jefferson County, Kans. He
was, therefore, a pioneer who saw Kansas grow, and he is proud of the
fact that he early helped to make that state dry. He was an ardent
Prohibitionist, and for forty-three years always voted the ticket of
that party. At the same time, realizing that a man's first duty is to
himself and family, and that no one can well serve society until they
first care for themselves, he attended strictly to his agricultural interests
and had one of the best farms of its size anywhere in the state. He
farmed a half section of land situated along a creek, finely improved,
whereon were no less than thirteen farm buildings.
Notwithstanding that this prosperity had made him a man of
prominence in that part of the country, Mr. Rutty removed west and
in 1903 settled for a while in Redlands. He found it too hot, however,
and so came to more beautiful Pomona, locating here in 1905. Now
he owns three ranches, and each is a credit to him. The home place is
at 1371 South White Avenue, where he has ten acres of walnuts and
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 651
deciduous fruits; and he also has ten acres on East Grand Avenue de-
voted to Navel oranges. Another five acres, also set out to oranges, is
on Holt Street.
Believing that Pomona is the finest of all places west of the Rocky
Mountains, Mr. Rutty has never failed to be a good "booster" for the
Valley and without doubt has done much to attract others both to visit
and settle here. He never tires talking of the rich soil hereabouts and
its possibilities, and finds no difficulty in pointing to his own success in
drawing out the qualities of the rich earth.
When Mr. Rutty was married, on September 12, 1878, in Atchi-
son County, Kans., he took for his wife Miss Jennie C. Bechtel, of
Kansas, a charming woman and a poetess of note, who has made a
good wife and devoted mother. Four children have blessed their
union: Carl, Ellen, Eunice and Ruth. The family attend the First
Baptist Church.
W. B. GATES
One of the enterprising and progressive young business men of
Pomona, W. B. Gates, as proprietor of the Studebaker Garage, 410
East Second Street, has built up a far-reaching and successful business
and in keeping with the growing prosperity of the city and surrounding
territory. A native of Kentucky, he was born in Graves County, Sep-
tember 20, 1883. His father, J. B. E. Gates, was a physician, and the
young lad received his education in the country and public schools of
Graves County until twelve years of age when the family moved to
Obion County, Tenn. He entered and graduated from the Valparaiso
(Ind.) College. On finishing his schooling he remained at home for a
year, and later was with the railway mail service for twenty months
between Cincinnati and Nashville.
On October 12, 1907, Mr. Gates came to California, and Decem-
ber 12 of that same year marked his arrival in Pomona. F'or a time
he worked at orange picking; then built his home and followed car-
penter work in and around Pomona for four years, assisting in the
building of many of the fine homes here.
May 1, 1911, he entered the employ of Mr. Davies of the Stude-
baker Garage, and on May 25, 1912, Mr. Gates bought out his em-
ployer and became sole owner of the garage, which he operates in a
thoroughly modern and efficient manner, and has the agency for both
the Studebaker and Franklin cars, having sold over 400 of the former
since being in the business for himself.
The marriage of Mr. Gates united him with Millie M.
Murphy, a native of Indiana. He is a member of Trinity Methodist
Church, and in business circles, of the Chamber of Commerce. Very
loyal to his home city, he is interested in everything that makes for
local reform, improvement and expansion, and keeps abreast of the
times in every respect.
652 • HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
FRANK C. ROBINSON
Many of our worthy Canadian cousins have crossed the border
and made homes for their families in the United States. Among these
is Frank C. Robinson, a leading blacksmith at Pomona. Mr. Robinson
was born in Ontario, Canada, February 6, 1860, and is the son of
William and Eliza (Morrison) Robinson, Canadian farmers, now
deceased.
In a family of ele\en children, Frank C. was the fifth child, and
received his education in the schools of Canada and in the larger
school of experience. He remained on the farm until he attained the
age of sixteen, and was then apprenticed to the blacksmith trade.
After four years spent at home, he went to Duluth, Minn., and from
there to Fargo, N. D. He spent one year in the railroad business,
then went to Lisbon, N. D., where he remained for thirteen years. He
next went to Salt Lake City, L'tah, and spent the succeeding thirteen
years. He was then attracted to San Diego, Cal., where he lived one
year. In 1909 he came to Pomona, and opened a blacksmith shop.
His far-sighted wisdom In his choice of a location has been exemplified
in the prosperity he enjoys in this last business venture.
September 17, 1888, Mr. Robinson was united in marriage with
Miss Jennie Durbin, and their union has been blessed with the birth
of three children: Ruth May, Mildred and Allan D. Mr. Robinson
is an enterprising, public-spirited citizen, deeply Interested in all that
pertains to Pomona and the Pomona Valley, and a booster of all
enterprises tending toward the public welfare. He has gained a high
place in the esteem and confidence of his fellow citizens, deeply Inter-
ested in the cause of education. In his religious association Mr.
Robinson is a Methodist. Politically he Is a Prohibitionist, and frater-
nally he belongs to the Masonic order and the Woodmen of the World.
ARTHUR V. STOUGHTON, M.D.
In the eight years that Dr. Arthur V. Stoughton has been practic-
ing his profession In Claremont he has become substantially Identified
with the medical fraternity In Pomona Valley. His career has neces-
sarily not been of lengthy duration, as he is still a young man, but his
success thus far presages a future which shall bring him even greater
honors in his profession than he has already attained.
He was born at Terryville, Conn., November 2, 1872, and accom-
panied his mother to California for her health in 1882. He attended
the public and high schools of San Bernardino, and entered Pomona
College at Claremont in 1890 as a senior preparatory student, graduat-
Ing from that institution in 1895 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
He graduated from the Ohio Medical University, Columbus, Ohio, in
1898 with the degree of M.D., and after practicing his profession in
'A^lAy^
HISTORY AND CIOGRAI'IIV 653
western Wyoming for three years returned to his home town, Terry-
ville, Conn., and continued the practice of medicine. He took a post-
graduate course in Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and also in
the Harvard Medical School, and after a European trip, where he con-
tinued his medical research in the universities on the continent, he locat-
ed at Claremont in 1911. He was Assistant Professor of Psysiology
and Hygiene in Pomona College and at present is Associate Professor
of Physiology in the College as well as college physician.
He chose for a wife Clara Benson, a nati\'e of Iowa. He is an
active member of the Claremont Church, and in the line of his profes-
sion, is a member of the American Medical Association, the state and
the county medical associations.
WILLIAM FERRY
An Irish-born gentleman who has had a most interesting expe-
rience in his development to the enviable position of an American by
adoption prominent among the settlers of Pomona Valley, is William
Ferry, the well-known citrus grower, who first saw the light of day
in County Donegal, Ireland, on April 16, 1854. His father was
Daniel Ferry, a farmer, who married Miss Ann Ferry, who although
of the same name, was of no direct relationship. They had eight
children, and among them William was the oldest. Both parents are
now dead, and their memory is reverenced by all who knew them.
William received the usual advantages of a common school edu-
cation in Ireland, but having early to help support the family, he was
denied extensive study, although able also to attend the night school.
His mother died when he was fourteen years old, and that misfortune
increased the demand for his services. He was therefore apprenticed
to a stonemason and plasterer for five years, but he had a hard time
of it, on account of the small pay allowed such apprentices. After
completing his apprenticeship he worked at his trade for seven years
in Scotland, and finally decided to come to America.
In 1881 he reached Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, and there he
remained for two years. Then, crossing into the States, he went to
Vermont and remained until 1887. In that year, when all America
was talking of the phenomenal and rapid growth of California, he
came West and worked at his trade at La Verne until the boom bub-
bles broke; whereupon he moved his house from La Verne to San
Dimas.
Here, beginning in 1889 with one acre, he engaged in citrus
growing, setting his land out to oranges. In 1895-96 he bought
eighteen acres of land. He raised his own nursery stock and set out
his entire eighteen acres himself from trees developed in the nursery.
In the early days he went through many hardships while raising his
654 HISTORY AND lilOGRAPHV
orchard so he worked at his trade and at contract, making tunnels and
sinking wells to make a living until the orchard came into bearing.
He first sunk a well on his place, but it proved no good. He then
bought water till 1900, when he helped organize the Frostless Belt
Water Company that sunk wells and installed a pumping plant to irri-
gate 100 acres. He was made manager and later was also made
president of the company, a position he filled with ability until he sold
his ranch, when he resigned. He now resides in San Dimas, where he
owns the corner of Gladstone and Grand avenues, the most beautiful
building site in San Dimas. He was indeed active in water develop-
ment and made a success of the water company. The members of the
same appreciated his services and speak in glowing terms of his work
for the company. Always for cooperation he was a member of the
Indian Hill Orange Growers Association, then the San Dimas Citrus
Union, and later the San Dimas Orange Growers Association, of
which he was a director until he sold his ranch, when he resigned.
In February, 1883, Mr. Ferry was married to IVIiss Catherine
McGlanchey, the ceremony taking place in Sherbrooke, Canada, and
eight children have blessed the union, five of whom are living. Annie
has become Mrs. Cornelius Thomas; Winifred is Sister Mary Fausta
in the convent at Oakland; Agnes is at home; William served in
the American Army in France; and Hugh James was chief yeoman in
the United States Navy. The family attend the Roman Catholic
Church, and Mr. Ferry is a member of the Knights of Columbus.
FRED E. WHYTE
Interwoven with the history of Pomona Valley is the history of
the men who have given of their best efforts to make it reach its present
wonderful state of development. It is a record of commercial, indus-
trial and educational achievement, and the highly important part
played by these public-spirited men cannot be too fully praised when
preparing the annals of this section of the state; as a writer says,
"Biography is the only true history." Among such men whose vigor-
ous activities have aided in the growth of the Valley may be mentioned
PVed E. Whyte, former president of the Pomona Chamber of Com-
merce.
Mr. Whyte is a native of Canada, born May 31, 1877, in Strath-
roy, a son of Edward A. and Mary Ann (Bowles) Whyte. There
were twelve children in the family, and Fred E. was the fourth child
born to his parents. He was educated in the schools of his native
town, and in the school of experience, as were so many of our ablest
men. When a boy of sixteen he worked in a hardware store, remain-
ing so employed for seven years.
At the end of his first business venture in Canada, Mr. Whyte de-
cided to seek new fields, and journeyed to California. First locating at
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 655
Ontario, he there gained his first experience in the laundry business
with Lorbeer Brothers, operating under the firm name of the Ontario
Laundry Company. On January 23, 1908, Mr. Whyte became a mem-
ber of the firm, at which time the business was incorporated, and he
remained until 1911. In that year, J. Lee and Robert Cathcart, Ed-
ward M. Doyle and Mr. Whyte purchased the Lorbeer interests in the
San Bernardino Steam Laundry, the Ontario Laundry Company and
the Pomona Steam Laundry, then Mr. Whyte came to Pomona as
vice-president and manager of the Pomona Sanitary Laundry, which
concern was owned by the Cathcart Brothers and Mr. Doyle, and also
as general manager of the other plants. He remained in that position
until September 1, 1919, when Mr. Whyte and his associates formed
the Southern Service Company, taking over some fifteen laundries in
Southern California, which they own and operate, Mr. Whyte being
vice-president and general manager of the new corporation. In the
local plant at Pomona seventy people are employed and it has been a
success from its first establishment.
The marriage of Mr. Whyte, on June 9, 1903, united him with
Miss Charlotte Leach, of Ontario, and one son, James Gordon, has
been born to them. The family attend the Pilgrim Congregational
Church. Fraternally, Mr. Whyte is a member of the Masonic order
and is a Shriner. As president of the Chamber of Commerce he devot-
ed much time to the business interests of the Valley with his fellow-
workers, keeping the community abreast of the times in all matters
pertaining to the welfare and best interests of the Valley as a whole.
JOHN C. GAPP
An orange grower in the La Verne district for the past twelve
years, John C. Gapp has given of his time and study to this branch of
advancement in the Pomona Valley. Born in Dane County, Wis.,
August 16, 1860, he was the youngest of five children his parents gave
to the development of their adopted land. Antone and Agatha Gapp,
they came from the foreign shores in 1849, and were pioneers of the
timber lands of Wisconsin. From there they journeyed to Nebraska
in 1870, continuing their pioneer labors in that state, and there both
parents passed to their reward.
John C. Gapp was educated in the rural schools of his early en-
vironment, and also gained knowledge in the school of experience, and
with his brothers helped the father on their pioneer farms. He later
came west to Salem, S. D., and engaged in the grain business there
for eighteen years, a period covering rapid development in the Da-
kotas, in which Mr. Gapp took an active part and met with deserved
success.
In the fall of 1908 he came to California and settled in Pomona,
since which year he has devoted his time exclusively to his orange
656 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
groves, with the characteristic concentration which made for success in
his earher business ventures.
The marriage of Mr. Gapp, occurring January 11, 1888, united
him with Miss Adelia M. Rand, and three children were born to them:
Hazel died at the age of twenty-six years; Verner died at eight years,
and Eben C, in business with his father, and who served his country in
the United States Army for one year in the World War.
Mr. Gapp has always shown his public spirit in local affairs, in
politics placing man above party, and working for the general welfare.
Fond of the great outdoors, he is a man of correspondingly broad and
wholesome views and takes his recreation in hunting and fishing sports.
Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic Lodge and Knights Temp-
lar, and in business circles of the Chamber of Commerce, and with his
family attends the Methodist Church.
ORIX J. HALL
Among the progressive citizens of the Pomona Valley who have
demonstrated their ability by success in the important Held of dairying
must be mentioned Orin J- Hall, who was born in Linn County, Iowa,
on May 4, 1867, where he was educated In the common schools. At
the early age of twelve he started to work for a living on his father's
farm, and later still, during the years 1895-97, he rented land in Linn
County and farmed for himself. Studying the latest and most scien-
tific methods, and profiting steadily by his own experience, Mr. Hall
soon came to that natural leadership among farmers and in the great
work of mid-west agriculture that he was able not only to get the
highest results as the reward of his own labor, but to point the way
to others, and lead them on to their success.
But Mr. Hall could not remain long busy in the ordinary fields
of agricultural endeavor and so soon specialized, responding to a
pressing demand of the times. He studied ^•eterInary surgery anci
for fifteen years practiced that science, to the alleviation of animal
pain and the elevation of the standard of live stock. His headquar-
ters were in Central City, Iowa, and from there he went for miles
in answer to calls. His fame extended, and he was kept busier and
busier as the years went by.
In 1911 Mr. Hall, attracted by the superior advantages of Cali-
fornia, came west to the Golden State and fortunately located at
Pomona, where for four years he worked at various employments. In
that year, having selected nine fine cows of mixed breed, he started
his dairy on East End Avenue, and now he has a herd of thirty-five
cows, each of superior breed, housed In one of the most modern of
farm buildings. There Is, besides the sanitary barn, a large silo and
a roomy, spotless milk house; and as his test runs high — from 4^^ to
Qi yp^^. 7>^^ SJ£^ X4.^
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 65'v
SYc- — he is able to command the highest price for his mill;, delivering
to customers in Pomona and shipping even to Los Angeles. No pains
are spared both to create and to maintain a very high standard for
this dairy, and Pomona may well feel a pride in what Mr. Hall has
accomplished in the few years in which he has been a residL-nt of this
favored part of the state.
At Central City, Iowa, November 25, 1890, Mr. Hall and Miss
Ella F. Clark, a native of Central City, and daughter of Cyril and
Francelia (Crane) Clark, were married; and five children have blessed
their union. Vinnie M. is the wife of John B. Madole, of Pomona,
and the mother of a son. Dale; Othol D. assists his father in the dairy,
and Beryl is the wife of Harry Taylor of Pomona. A daughter,
Wilma Luella, died aged eight months, and Darrell Oswald met an
accidental death when twelve years old, in 1918. The family attend
the First Christian Church, in which Mrs. Hall is active as a church
worker; Mr. Flail belongs to the Modern Woodmen and the Odd
Fellows.
BERTRAM FICH
An orange grower of Pomona Valley, and a Californian by adop-
tion, who reflects credit on his native country, is Bertram Fich, among
those distinguished for their loyalty to both the present interests and
the future welfare of the Golden State . He is a native of Denmark,
having been born at Svenclborg, Island of Fyen, on August 18, 1852.
He received the foundations of a good education in the schools of that
country, and in proof of this, he learned English in his native land. His
father was a painter and interior decorator, and under his guidance he
learned the decorator's trade.
Arriving at the age of 18, Bertram volunteered in the navy, but
was transferred to the infantry, which was not to his best interests, so,
with the consent of his father, he left Denmark for America, and he ar-
rived in New York on April 25, 1872. He was lucky to meet an old
friend of his father in Brooklyn, who induced him to stay there and
take up his trade; and he soon secured a position with a contractor in
painting, in whose service he remained for six years. Then he worked
as a journeyman for a number of years, and finally he himself began
to contract for extensive jobs.
He set up as an interior decorator, and painted and ornamented
fine homes, theaters and hotels in Brooklyn and New York; and by
employing as many as forty-five men, made a fair amount of money,
and was generally deemed very successful. In 1899, however, the
health of his daughter demanded a complete change of climate; and
he decided to come west and try California.
660 HISTORY AND DIOGRAPHY
Locating at Pomona in 1900, he bought an orange grove, con-
sisting of nine acres of four-year-old trees, in the Kingsley Tract on
Washington Avenue, which he improved and generally has been a fine
producer.
While in Brooklyn, Mr. Fich was married in 1882 to Miss
Florence Norton, a New Yorker by birth, by whom he has had three
children. Julietta has become the wife of Clarence Hawley, of
Ventura County, now a successful fruit and walnut grower of Saticoy.
He was a graduate of Stanford University and formerly a teacher
of history in Pomona High School. Bertram, Jr., is with the Walk-
Over Shoe Company of Los Angeles; and Edna is the wife of C. B.
Afflerbaugh, the druggist, of Pomona.
Since 1878 Mr. Fich has been an Odd Fellow, having joined
the Magnolia Lotige of Brooklyn, N. Y. He is also a member of
Pomona Lodge No. 246, F. and A. M., and Pomona Lodge No. 789,
B. P. O. Elks. He is fond of hunting and fishing, being a true
sportsman, and has a fine collection of California birds, stuffed by
himself, and also mounted trout he has taken in Bear Lake. Much
that Mr. Fich has accomplished might well serve as an example and
an inspiration to American youth.
ARTHUR E. WATERS
A progressive rancher whose prosperity is largely due to his
highly intelligent industry and the application of the last word in
science to the every-day problems of agriculture is Arthur E. Waters,
who was born in Hendricks County, Ind., on February 28, 1878, where
he grew up on a farm. He received a good education in the local
institutions and later taught in the high school at Salem, Ind., and at
Orchard Lake; Mich., in a military academy. This experience in
directing the minds of others improved his own mental capacity, and
well prepared him for the responsibilities of life confronting him on
his removal to the Coast.
He arrived in Pomona in 1905, and for a while worked in the
cannery of his uncle, George H. Waters, and he has followed the fruit
industry ever since. He owns a ranch of ninety acres in the Chino
district, planted to apricots, peaches and apples; and he makes his
home on West Philips Boulevard, formerly his uncle's home ranch,
which he bought. There he has six acres planted to walnuts, and he
has one of the best-improved ranches of fifty-three acres in the valley.
Mr. Waters' marriage occurred in 1906, at Pomona, when he
was united to Miss Eva Mosher, a native of Kansas, and the daughter
of Ezra D. Mosher. He was a prominent farmer in the vicinity of
Emporia, Kans., who came to Pomona in 1893 with his wife and
thirteen children, and bought fifty acres of land south of the town.
HISTORY AND iilOGRAPlIV 661
which he planted to alfalfa. Later he built a home in Pomona, for
he was a carpenter by trade, at the corner of Palomares and East Holt
avenues. The family, which attended the First Christian Church,
includes Dr. George Mosher, D. D. S., now engaged in missionary
work in the Congo, in Africa; John Mosher, a teacher in the high
school; Frank Mosher, an ensign in the U. S. Navy during the war;
five daughters living in Pomona — Mrs. Charles Carter, Mrs. E.
Morgan, Mrs. J. S. Riddle, Mrs. W. Gladman and Mrs. A. E.
Waters. Another daughter, Mrs. A. A. Roach, lives at Los Angeles,
while two daughters live at Glendale — Mrs. J. McBride and Miss
Ella Mosher, who is with her mother there.
Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Waters, six living —
Harriett, Lucile, Doris, Arthur Clay, Helen and Paul Woodrow
Waters; George Howard and Muriel died in infancy. The family
attends the First Christian Church, in which Mr. Waters took his
uncle's place as leader of the choir.
BERNARD G. STEINRUCK
Any man is entitled to a pride in his achievements when through
his own efforts and ambition he has advanced from the bottom round
of the ladder to a position of authority and trust. One of these
in Pomona is Bernard G. Steinruck, district superintendent of the
Southern Counties Gas Company. B. G. Steinruck was born in
Burlington, N. Y., November 1, 1881 ; when nine years old he moved
to Pueblo, Colo., and there attended the grammar and high schools,
finishing with a course in civil engineering. He became associated
with the engineering department of the Colorado Fuel and Iron
Company, at Pueblo, remaining there until 1905, when he came to
California, first locating in Los Angeles, and was with the Baker Iron
Works there for a short period.
In 1910, Mr. Steinruck moved to Monrovia and there entered
the employ of the Southern Counties Gas Company, starting at the
very bottom with a pick and shovel. In 1917 he came to Pomona as
assistant district superintendent, and on March 3, 1919, became dis-
trict superintendent of the company, a rapid advance and one which
only ability and devotion to his employer's interests could bring to
pass.
With most of his efforts devoted to the business under his man-
agement, Mr. Steinruck finds time to take part in the social life of the
community, to which he brings the same enthusiasm and genuine quali-
ties that he has shown in his business career. He is a member of Po-
mona Lodge No. 789, B. P. O. Elks, of the Knights of Pythias, \o.
107, and the Woodmen of the World, No. 722, and is a popular figure
with his associates in a community where sterling qualities of mind and
662 inSToRV AND BIOGRAPHY
heart are more thought of than in most. Mr. Steinnick is a member of
the Episcopal Church; while in Pueblo he was a singer in the choir of
the Holy Trinity Church, and while a resident of Monrovia he was
vestryman of the Episcopal Church of that town.
The marriage of Air. Steinruck united him with Elsie P. Tucker,
a native of Ohio, and two sons have blessed their union, Ned and Lyle,
both born in California.
JOHN O. SHEWMAN
An ever alert and experienced fire chief of whom any town might
well be proud is John O. Shewman, head of the Pomona Fire Depart-
ment. He was born at Petrolia, in Ontario, Canada, on October 28,
1872, the son of Carlton M. Shewman, a native of Canada, who had
married Elizabeth Harrison and brought his family to Pomona in
1884, when he bought an orange gro\e of ten acres on White Avenue,
commencing there at the height of the famous boom in land. He was
really a California pioneer, for he had visited the Golden State for the
first time in 1850, when he tried his luck at mining, later returning east
by way of the Horn. He came here, in fact, a second time, traveling
by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and once more returning home.
After his third trip, he remained, and in time followed the nursery
business in Pomona Valley, where he made a specialty of walnut trees.
After an active and useful career, he died in 1916.
John followed the shoe business in Canada, and when he came to
California engaged in printing with his brother, opening a shop at Los
Angeles. Returning to Pomona, he worked for the A. S. Avery Shoe
Company; but having seen four years of service in the Los Angeles
Fire Department under Walter Moore, he early entered on his
twenty-five years as a member of the Volunteer Firemen, and so It
was natural enough that, in 1916, he should be appointed fire chief of
Pomona. Since taking office, he has never failed to prove his efficiency
and supreme fitness for the responsibility reposed in him.
A stirring incident in the history of the department well illus-
trates this. A carload of cotton from the Imperial Valley, some of the
bales of which had evidently been tampered with and "loaded" with
phosphorus, took fire in the night of January 16, 1918, on its way west,
near Colton, and after it had been rushed to Pomona, and sidetracked
here, the Pomona Fire Department tackled the job and in two hours
had the fiames under such control that only $175 worth of damage was
done, although car and cargo were valued at $7,500. So well was the
matter handled that Popular Mechanics illustrated the story in a
special article.
The Pomona Fire Department, now so fortunate in its leader-
ship, was organized in 1884 in the creation of Hose Company No. 1,
HISTORY A\D IJlOGRArHV 663
which had a cart, hand-drawn, and some 750 feet of hose, two niches
in diameter. A tire district was formed, a special tax levied, and ap-
paratus bought and a fire house huilt. In 1889 a hook, and ladder
company was formed. In 1892, another reel and more hose was
bought and a company organized from among the members of the
Pomona City Guards. In 1895 a Holloway Chemical Engine was
purchased, having a thirty-five double-gallon tank, and in 1895 the
department was reorganized under the statutes of California. In 1903
seventy-five volunteer m^n were in the department, and no company
of volunteer firemen in the state made a better showing both on dress
occasions and when the laddies got down to the real work for which
they were organized. In 1914 an American La France combination
hose and pump was bought and two years later a Moreland city service
truck. In October, 1918, a new Brockway combination hose and
chemical engine and 1,000 feet of hose were added. At this writing,
in 1919, there are five paid men, consisting of three drivers, a mechanic
and a fire chief; and fifteen call men, with a first and second assistant
chief and a secretary; and five hundred feet of new hose have been
added, making it in many ways one of the best-equipped departments
of the size on the Coast.
At Pomona on May 6, 1894, Mr. Shewman was married to Lena
Earle, a native of Missouri and the daughter of E. H. and Ellen
Earle. She died in 1907, the mother of eight children. Carl is in
San Diego; Frank is a member of the Eighth United States Infantry
and is now in France; Harry and William are at school; and there are
Ellen, Bessie, Lena and Maude.
Mr. Shewman belongs to Lodge No. 246 of the Odd Fellows,
both the Encampment and the Subordinate Lodge, the Woodmen of
the World and the Maccabees, in which he has reached all the chairs.
He attended the Grand Lodge the last two sessions and thus worthily
represented both his order and his town.
JOHN G. ROBERTSON
In the growth of the modern civilization it is the boy reared on
the farm that gives new impetus and furnishes the enthusiasm and vim
necessary to the successful business life of our cities.
John G. Robertson was born in Delaware County, N. Y., October
4, 1845. At the age of fourteen, like many another youth, he wended
his course toward the great metropolis of our country. New York City.
Later he located at Belle Plaine, Benton County, Iowa, where he was
engaged in a general store. He was prominent in the civic life of the
place, served as city trustee, was trustee of the Congregational Church
in that city, and for ten years was a member of the Belle Plaine fire
department. He came to Pomona for his health November 30, 1890.
664 HISTORY AXD BIOGRAPHY
The Packard Orange Grove Tract was then beuig set out and he pur-
chased nine and one-half acres in this tract, five acres of which had just
been set out to trees by Mr. J. E. Packard. The remainder of the
property Mr. Robertson set out himself. Forty men were employed
in grading, laying out and planting the Packard Tract and their camp
was located opposite Mr. Robertson's ranch. In the early days part
of the ranch was in deciduous fruits, later these trees were taken out
and orange trees planted. Mr. Robertson's ranch is a fine producer,
both as to quality and quantity of fruit, ani bespeaks the good care
bestowed upon it.
He married a native of the Pine Tree State, Miss Louisa Wass,
who was born in Machias, Maine. Of their three children, Helen L.
is at home; George W. of the United States Navy served on the
steamship Nevada during the World War; and Jane C. is a teacher
at Glendale, Cal.
Mr. Robertson is a charter member of the Pomona Fruit Growers
Exchange, was one of the first men to sign up to the association and
was a director for many years in the institution. He was director in
the Packard Orange Grove Water Company. In his religious convic-
tions he is a member of the Congregational Church, and fraternally is
a charter member of Pomona Lodge No. 246, F. & A. M.; also be-
longs to the Chapter and Commandery in Pomona, and to the Modern
Woodmen of America. Both he and his wife are charter members of
the Pomological Club of Claremont and Mrs. Robertson and daughter
Helen are prominent members of the Woman's Club and of the Order
of Eastern Star at Pomona.
EDWARD MYRON WHEELER
Among the representatives of California who are natives of the
Green Mountain State is numbered Edward Myron Wheeler, the able
manager of the San Dimas Orange Growers Association. He was
born May 7, 1872, in South Hero, Grand Isle County, Vt., and is the
son of Henry O. and Elizabeth (Martin) Wheeler, natives, respec-
tively, of Vermont and New York. The father was educated at the
University of Vermont and while there the Civil War broke out and
he enlisted as a private in the First Vermont Cavalry, rising to the
rank of captain In the same regiment. At the Battle of the Wilderness
he was severely wounded, taken prisoner and sent to Libby prison,
afterwards being exchanged and returned to his command. After the
war was over he completed his college and law course and practiced
his profession. In addition to being an attorney, he was superin-
tendent of schools at Burlington, Vt., until 1913, when he removed to
San Dimas, Cal., where he resided until his demise in 1918. His
widow survives him, still making her home at San Dimas.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 665
In a family of five boys, Edward Myron is the oldest child. He
received his education in the grammar and high schools of Burlington,
Vt., and then spent one and a half years in the University of Vermont,
and in 1892 came to San Dimas, Cal., where he engaged in citrus grow-
ing for a number of years. He then became associated with the San
Dimas Water Company in the capacity of manager, remaining with the
company seven years, from 1898 to 1905. He was next in business
at Long Beach for one year, when he removed to Tulare County,
where he followed orange growing for a period of four years, after
which he returned to San Dimas and became manager of the San Dimas
Orange Growers Association in 1910.
In San Dimas, on May 17, 1900, Mr. Wheeler was married to
Mrs. Susie C. Bowden, born in Arkansas, of whom he was bereaved
in 1917, leaving two daughters, Elizabeth and Zoe Louise.
In national politics Mr. Wheeler favors the principles of the Re-
publican party. Fraternally he was made a Mason in San Dimas
Lodge, F. & A. M. Although still on the sunny side of life's prime
he has achieved a substantial position financially and socially in the
community and is adding prestige to an honored family name. He
gives his influence and active cooperation to all worthy objects, is deep-
ly interested in the citrus industry and the general development of this
section of Southern California.
DAVID C. W. PORTER
How many and interesting are the links between the Old World
and the New, especially, perhaps, between America and Scotland, is
shown in the life story of David C. W. Porter and his family connec-
tions. He came to Pomona Valley at the beginning of the new century,
and he has since become one of the well-known ranchers.
He was born in London, Ont., Canada, on March 12, 1872, a son
of John and Margaret (McMahan) Porter, naturalized American
citizens, and there grew up amid surroundings calculated to develop
the best that was in the lad. His education was obtained in Canada
and the United States. Urged on, however, by a wandering disposi-
tion, he set out on an extensive tour of the States, and finally arrived at
Colton, Cal., in 1901. For three years he was foreman of the Cali-
fornia Portland Cement Company of Colton, but in 1906 he removed
to Spadra and became superintendent of the F. L. Spalding Rock and
Gravel Quarry. During the building of the highways in Los Angeles
County in 1910, 1911, 1912 and 1913, a large quantity of the rock
came from the Spadra quarry.
In the fall of 1918, Mr. Porter settled on his home ranch on West
Holt Avenue, near Union, taking charge of a five-acre orange grove
formerly owned by his wife's father, James Young. Under his skilful
C66 HISTORY A\D lilOGRAPHY
direction this ranch has become more than ever a good producer, yield-
ing in 1919 not less than 2,500 boxes. Mr. Porter is a well-known
Mason, and belongs to Pomona lodge, chapter and council.
On August 16, 1911, Mr. Porter was married to Violet Young,
a native of Scotland, and the daughter of James Young, now deceased,
who was born in Brechin, in that same country, and died at Pomona
on February 25, 1918. He married Euphemia Russell, a native of
Glamis, Scotland, by whom he had eight children, five of them still
living. James Russell lives at Pomona ; David is at Dundee, Scotland;
William is in Edinburgh; \'ictor is at Pomona, and Violet is Mrs.
Porter. For forty years James Young was employed in the jute mills
at Dundee, Scotland, starting in as an oiler and rising to be foreman
of the plant; but with his wife and children he sailed from Scotland on
April 17, 1907, and on the same date, eight years later, Mrs. Young
died at Pomona. On coming to Pomona on June 22, 1907, he bought
an orange grove of five acres on West Holt Avenue, which he im-
proved, making of it a tine home place. He also came to be a man of
affairs, and was a director in the Orange Grove Tract Water Company.
Mr. and Mrs. Porter have two children, James i\.lexander and
John Russell.
MISS ALICE B. RING
An artist of recognized ability both in Europe and the United
States, Miss Alice B. Ring, whose studio is located at 225 East Pasa-
dena Street, Pomona, Cal., is a native of Hampden County, Mass.
Her education was acquired in the public schools of her native state and
supplemented with a course in that time-honored institution, Oberlin
College, at Oberlin, Ohio, from which she graduated. She then be-
came an art student at the Art Student's League in New York City and
from there went to that artists' Mecca, Paris, where she studied under
such famous masters as Julien Dupre, Benjamin Constant and Jean
Paul Laurens. She also studied miniature painting in Paris with
Madame Marie Laforge. She maintained a studio in Paris and her
pictures in oil were exhibited in the Paris salon several seasons, and
also at smaller exhibitions in France.
Returning to her native country, she located at Cleveland, Ohio,
where she had a studio for a number of years and where she also ex-
hibited her paintings. Her pictures were on exhibition at the Panama-
Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco in 1915. She visited
Pomona in January, 1913, and ever since has passed her winters in this
delightful winter resort, where she maintains a fine studio.
In this age of idealism almost every artist originates a style of
his own and the correctness or incorrectness of it is very much de-
pendent upon whether it pleases or not. Miss Ring is an artist of
HISTORY AND I'.IOGRAPHV 669
unquestioned technical ability, and her lofty conceptions are worthy of
the ideas they embody in their beauty of form and color. As an artist
she has met with deserved success among those who appreciate art for
art's sake. During her sojourn abroad she visited Holland, and her
out-of-door scenes in that picturesque country, especially the sunlight
effects, are exceptionally fine, the perspective and atmospheric effects
being especially well rendered. She is a member of the Woman's Art
Club and College Club of Cleveland, Ohio, and also a member of the
Art Club of Paris, and has served on several art committees. She is a
member of the Ebell and Shakespeare Clubs at Pomona and the Po-
mona Valley College Club, and has made a place for herself in the
affectionate regard of her large circle of friends and acquaintances.
HARRY AND MARIE A. HANSON
An up-to-date, enterprising couple who have accomplished much
in the field of business in which they have embarked, that of high-class
undertaking, are Mr. and Mrs. Harry Hanson, whose establishment
is at 415 North Garey Avenue and may well be regarded as one of
the creditable institutions in the city. Mrs. Hanson's maiden name was
Marie A. Moyer, and she was born in San Francisco,- a member of a
French pioneer family.
At the age of fifteen she started to learn undertaking with J. F,.
Jory of Stockton and Oakland; and in 1900 she married Mr. Hanson.
He was born at Flemington, N. J., on August 17, 1874, and attended
school in New Jersey until he was fifteen, when he left home and
became a rover. In 1893 he arrived on the Pacific Coast, and for
many years he followed the sea, signing up with sailing vessels, going
to Japan and even taking a voyage of nineteen months to the Arctic
Ocean, where he wintered on Hirschel Island, in latitude 74. His
father was an undertaker in New Jersey, and he had learned the busi-
ness from him. He also went to Clark's School of Embalming
in Newark, N. J.
After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Hanson settled for a while
in Prescott, Ariz., where he was with the Fairbanks-Morse Gas Engine
Company. In 1910, however, they came to Pomona and bought out
the Justin E. Patterson Undertaking Parlors on East Second Street,
and when the business grew, they moved to their present location.
There they have remodeled the house, erected a chapel and garage,
and now have one of the most modern establishments in the Valley.
They enjoy a good patronage because, first, of their superior service,
and then of the appreciation of the public they seek to serve and please.
Their equipment includes an ambulance, a hearse, a casket wagon, and
two touring motor vehicles. They also conduct a branch parlor nt
Chino. Mrs. Hanson personally embalms all women and children.
670 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Both Mr. and Mrs. Hanson enjoy that enviable good-will and
esteem of their fellow-citizens that always results from a reputation for
public spiritedness and a willingness to "boost" the home locality.
Mrs. Hanson is a member of the Ebell Club and the Woman's Relief
Corps, as well as the Rebekahs, while Mr. Hanson belongs to Lodge
No. 789 of the Elks, the Woodmen of the World and the Odd Fel-
lows, being affiliated with Lodge No. 246. Mrs. Hanson is an expert
in art embroidery and in millinery, having been an instructor in those
branches in the New York Young Women's Christian Association,
and may always be found favoring any art movement for the com-
munity. Husband and wife thus do what they can to promote civic
life in Pomona, and are active in social life.
FRANK B. PORTER
In view of the fact that California heads the list of states for the
large number of its automobiles, and that there is hardly a family these
days that does not manage to have some make of auto, it is not strange
that the rubber tire business is a profitable and growing industry.
The proprietor of the Pomona Tire Company, Mr. Frank B.
Porter, with headquarters at 421 West Second Street, Pomona, Cal.,
has had twenty-three years of practical experience in the rubber indus-
try, and is thoroughly conversant with the business in all of its various
branches and an expert in his special line. He was born at Waterbury,
Conn., February 16, 1879, and received a good education in the public
schools of his native state, which he attended until he was fourteen
years of age, when he started to fight the battle of life on his own
behalf.
At seventeen he entered the employ of the Goodyear Manufac-
turing Company of Naugatuck, Conn., and engaged in making rubber
boots and shoes. He was next employed at Hartford, Conn., by the
Hartford Rubber Works in building auto and bicycle tires, and after
six years in their employ he went to the Cleveland, Ohio, branch of
the Fisk Rubber Company, where he engag'ed in the same line of work.
From Cleveland he went to the Cincinnati, Ohio, branch of the same
company, and in 1912 came to Pomona, Cal., where he organized the
Pomona Tire Company, of which he is sole owner. Since 1913 he has
been the wholesale and retail distributor of the Diamond tires in
Pomona Valley. All the Diamond tires sold in the Valley pass through
his office, and he does the largest business and is the largest individual
tire dealer in the Valley. He also does vulcanizing and carries a line
of auto accessories.
In his domestic relations he was united in marriage with Emily
Knoff, a native of Germany, who came to America at the age of thir-
teen. Three sons have been born of their union, Russell, Donald and
Earl.
HISTORY AND IIIOGRAI'HV (71
The prominent position Mr. Porter has attained in the commercial
life of Pomona Valley is due to his sound business judgment and the
habit of extensive advertising. He has found by experience that
advertising pays and is a conspicuously successful example of the man
who pursues that course in his business policy. Fraternally he is a
member of the Knights of Pythias and a Yeoman.
FRANK M. SHIRK, M.D.
Happy in the attainment of a well-deserved position of honor and
influence among the medical fraternity of Pomona Valley, Dr. Frank
M. Shirk, the untiring scientist of La Verne, may well claim a share of
the credit due to, and ungrudgingly given, the medical fraternity of
this section for having made one of the most charming portions of
California more than ordinarily attractive as a place of residence and
longevity. He was born in Grundy County, Iowa, on July 5, 1871,
and grew up on a farm, while he attended the county schools. Later,
carrying out his desire for a higher education, he graduated from the
Central Medical College at St. Joseph, Mo., finishing his studies there
In 1896 with the degree of M.D., and later he took post-graduate
courses in the eye, ear, nose and throat at the Chicago Eye, Ear, Nose
and Throat College, and after that additional post-graduate research at
the Eclectic Medical College at Los Angeles.
Beginning his practice, he served the community of Lincolnville,
Kans. While living there, In 1900, he was married to Zuletta Ryan,
a native of Alva, Cass County, Nebr., and they have five children :
Paulina and Lola, both attending La Verne College; Miriam, Chester
and Maurice. After practicing In Lincolnville for four and a half
years he removed to Lost Springs, in the same state, where he prac-
ticed for eleven years. While there, he was appointed by the county
a special physician for the indigent, and so, in addition to his normal
practice, was able to accomplish much good for those of suffering
humanity who could not command the means to be otherwise helped.
In 1911, he came to California and passed the required examinations
set by the state board; and in 1914 he commenced to practice at La
Verne.
Since 1916 Doctor Shirk has been the breeder of registered, high-
grade Toggenburg milk goats. His stock is known as "The Sunkist
Milk Goat Herd," and at the present writing he has ten head of regis-
tered and several unregistered goats. He buys or sells for anyone de-
siring to dispose of or purchase any class of goats or kids. At his
exhibit at the Milk Goat Show In Pomona he took first prizes on Sun-
kist Jessie and Sunkist Munson and second .on Sunklst Shodybar and
Sunkist Lela. He was one of the organizers and is now vice-president
of the board of directors of the Citrus Belt Milk Goat Association of
672 HISTORY AND T'.IOGRAPHY
Southern California, for his study of goats and experience have made
him an authority on the subject. He advocates in particular the use of
goat's milk, on the ground that it is far superior in richness to that of
cows, and that it is more easily digested, requiring only one-third of
the time, and not causing constipation; while it is next to mother's milk
for the raising of infants with weak stomachs. Goats are also much
freer from tuberculosis than are cows, and that is a reason of the
greatest importance for preferring the one milk to the other.
California has more milk goats than any other eight states to-
gether, and Southern California leads the state. The first goats of
this class were imported into New York, and San Diego was the first
to start the industry in California. There are three breeds of milk
goats, the Toggenburg, the Saanen — a pure-white in color, imported
from Switzerland — and the Anglo-Nubian, imported from Nubia to
England, and mixed with the native English goat, giving it the above
name. There are at present several hundred of these in the Pomona
Valley alone, and some produce eight quarts of milk daily. Indeed,
experiments have been made showing that eight goats will give twice
as much milk and cost no more than one cow, so that a gallon of goat's
milk can be produced at approximately eight cents. Compared with
cow's milk, that of goats is richer in fats and sugar by about one per
cent. Goats are very docile and like to be patted, on which account it
is plain that rough handling makes them timid and nervous, and that
their milk is less valuable, and may even be harmful to an infant under
those conditions.
The object of the Citrus Belt Milk Goat Association of Southern
California is the social and mutual benefit of its members, and the in-
telligent advancement of the milk goat industry along practical, hy-
gienic and scientific lines. It aims to disseminate information as to the
economic value of goat products, such as milk, cheese, meat, butter and
hides, and so aid in the great work of conserving for the welfare of the
commonwealth.
JAMES G. FERRELL
The recognition of the growth of Pomona by the world at large
appears very plainly in the advent in that city of such enterprises as
the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York City, with ofiices at
No. 247 Investment Building. The district agent for this important
company is James G. Ferrell, who has been engaged in the insurance
business for the past twelve years.
He is a native of Illinois, born on a farm in Macon County,
November 2, 1880. He was reared on the farm, attended the country
schools and was thrown on his own resources at the tender age of
thirteen. His first business experience was as traveling salesman for
two years. He spent two years in Webster City, Iowa, and engaged
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 673
with the MetropoHtan Life Insurance Company at Los Angeles in
1909. Coming to Pomona in 1916, he organized a force of eight men
to solicit for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, became local
agent for the company and built up a large business, his agency be-
coming among the most popular in the local field. March 6, 1919, he
became district agent for the Mutual Life Insurance Company of \ew
York, and his district includes the Riverside and San Bernardino dis-
tricts of Pomona Valley. He is also agent for the General Accident
Company of Scotland, and the Gerard Fire Insurance Company of
Philadelphia. He represents the oldest and strongest companies in
the world in the field of life, fire, health and accident, and each year
shows substantial gains in the cash income, assets, reserve fund, etc., of
the agencies under his efficient management.
His marriage united him with Miss Blanche A. McBee of In-
diana, and the children resulting from their union are: Raymond,
Harold W. and Marion Rosalind. He has recently purchased a fine
home at 380 Kenoak Drive, one of the attractive residences pictured
in the Pomona Chamber of Commerce literature. He is a live wire and
a valuable addition to the business interests of Pomona. Fraternally
he affiliates with the Loyal Order of Moose at Pomona, and is dictator
of that society; his fraternal relations being further extended to associa-
tion with the Pomona Lodge of Knights of Pythias. He is also a
member of the Chamber of Commerce.
AMZI S. SWANK
The foreman of the orange packing house of the La Verne
Orange Association, at La Verne, Cal., Amzl S. Swank, was born at
North Manchester, Wabash County, Ind., April 14, 1887. He was
reared on the farm and educated in the public schools, and additionally
had the benefit of the North Manchester High School. Up to the
time of his marriage he was engaged in the occupation of farming;
he then entered the employ of the Beyer Brothers Produce Company,
one of the largest wholesale and commission houses in the state, and
traveled for them as buyer.
In the year 1910 Mr. Swank came to Pomona Valley, Cal.,
and began working for the packing house of the La Verne Orange
Association. Later, when the College Heights Orange and Lemon
Association at Claremont established their lemon packing plant, he
accepted a position as foreman of the plant. After two years he
returned to La Verne, and since October, 1918, has been foreman of
the Orange packing house of the La Varne Orange Association.
His marriage united him with Erba F. Fisher, a native of
Packertown, Ind., and they are the parents of a son, Richard, who is
five years old.
674 HISTORY AND lUOGRAPHY
B. LILLIAN SMITH, M.D., D.O.
Only a few persons fully appreciate the patience, the weight of
care and anxiety, and the heavy responsibility which attend the life of
the conscientious physician. Dr. B. Lillian Smith, of this review, an
osteopathic physician of unusual ability, with offices in the Investment
Building at Pomona, is a native daughter, having been born on her
father's ranch at Cucamonga, San Bernardino County.
Her father, Francis G. Smith, now deceased, was a native of the
state of Maine, and when a young man came to San Francisco, Cal.
In 1880, he located at Cucamonga, where he followed ranching until
his death in 1904. Her mother, in maidenhood, was Anna Mussel-
man, a native of Canada and a daughter of Dr. Samuel Musselman,
a California pioneer and the hrst resident dentist to practice in Po-
mona, having located there as early as 1878. He passed away in 1886.
B. Lillian Smith attended Occidental College, is a graduate of Los
Angeles Osteopathic College of Physicians and Surgeons, and of the
Medical Department of the University of Southern California at Los
Angeles. She has successfully passed the state board examinations in
materia medica and surgery, also in osteopathy, and in her practice
skilfully applies both sciences. For three years she practiced osteop-
athy in Los Angeles and in 1917 located in Pomona, where she is build-
ing up a lucrative practice. The science of surgery appeals most
strongly to Doctor Smith and she fulfilled a cherished desire and took
a post-graduate course in surgery under the famous Mayo Brothers,
at Rochester, Minn., in 1919. Her sister. Dr. Alice Smith, of Up-
lands, also took the course at the same time. Doctor Smith is a mem-
ber of the State Association of Osteopaths as well as of the State Asso-
ciation of M.D.'s. Fraternally she is a Rebekah and a member of the
Order of the Eastern Star.
FRANK D. MOSHER
Though not a native son of the Golden State, Frank D. Mosher
is as loyal to California as though he had been born here, and was only
ten years old when he came to Pomona with his parents in 1894. He
was born at Janesville, Wis., August 29, 1884, and is the son of
Charles A. and Angeline (Jacobs) Mosher, both natives of the Badger
State. The father, Charles A., was born December 25, 1852, on a
farm in Green County, and when a young man, in 1874, went to Hutch-
inson County, S. D., where he engaged in farming for the succeeding
ten years. May 29, 1894, he came to Pomona, where he followed the
occupation of fruit growing until he retired. His children are :■ Frank
D., Irvin, Mrs. Lottie Whitaker and Mrs. Marion Fuller. Mr.
Mosher is a member of the First Methodist Church. His sister, Mrs.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 675
Lucy C. Dyer, who died here some years ago, deeded to her brother's
children six and one-half acres of valuable land on Monterey and
Hamilton avenues.
Frank D. was educated in the Pomona schools, attended the high
school from which he was graduated. For a number of years he fol-
lowed diversified farming on rented land in the Chino district. At
present he is farming his father's ranch in Spadra district, and raises
tomatoes, corn and barley. His home place at 1295 West Monterey
Street, in 1917 produced twenty tons of apricots from thirty-year-old
trees — a record yield. He is a member of the Farm Bureau and takes
an active interest in farming and horticulture as well as in everything
pertaining to the interests of Pomona Valley. He is wide-awake and
a live wire in the community, where he is known as a man of ability
and energy and is widely esteemed for his public spirit. In 1911 he
married Miss Ollie McCain, born in Pomona, but living near Chino at
the time of her marriage. They are members of the First Methodist
Church at Pomona.
RALPH E. GRAY
The enterprise and progressiveness of the citizens of Pomona are
such as to demand the best in every line of business. The leading
marble works in the Pomona Valley are situated at Fifth Street and
Garey Avenue, and the proprietor is Ralph E. Gray, a young man of
sound judgment and business acumen, who was born at Albia, Iowa,
February 6, 1892. His memory of the East, however, is slight, as he
was but four years of age when his father, Jacob E., came from Iowa
to Los Angeles, Cal., in 1897. Jacob E., a stonecutter, worked at his
trade in Los Angeles until 1909, then removed to Pomona and pur-
chased the granite and marble works of the Stone Brothers, pioneers in
their line of business in Pomona, who established the plant thirty years
ago. The business grew under Mr. Gray's management and he was
still engaged in it at the time of his death on November 17, 1918.
His son, Ralph E., attended the public schools of Los Angeles,
and learned the stonecutter's trade with his father in Pomona. In
1915 he leased a 100-acre fruit ranch near Auburn, Placer County,
Cal., and after the demise of his father, came to Po?irona and was his
successor in the marble and granite works.
He married Miss Glee Schroder, a native of Iowa, whose father
conducted the Schroder Drug Store at Pomona a number of "years
before his death.
Ralph E. is thoroughly familiar with every detail of the business
and the requirements of the trade, and the fine class of work turned
out by him is notable. Among the artistic monuments we mention nar-
676 HISTORY AND BIDGRAPHY
ticularly the one in memory of the late Peter Hoops, which was placed
in Pomona cemetery, and which stands fifteen feet high and is sur-
mounted by a beautiful Italian marble statue.
Under the skilful and wise administration of Mr. Gray the busi-
ness is prospering and making great growth. He enjoys the highest
reputation for personal integrity, and the general public know that they
can rely on his work when they are in need of anything substantial,
durable and artistic in his line of business.
JOHN H. HUNTER
La \^erne's leading painting contractor and interior and exterior
decorator, John H. Hunter, was born in Wapello County, Iowa, on
July 5, 1875. His father, Jonathan Hunter, was a native of the Old
Dominion state, removing to Iowa when a boy, where he grew to
manhood. There he married Sarah E. Schofield, a native of Ken-
tucky. They were pioneer farmers, residing fifteen miles south of
Ottumwa, where the father died in 1919, aged seventy-six years, his
widow surviving him. Of the four children born to this worthy couple
John is the second oldest. He was educated in the local public schools
and the Southern Iowa Normal, at Bloomfield, and after receiving a
teacher's certificate followed the vocation of a peciagogue in Iowa
and Oklahoma. In the latter state he also owned and operated a
farm.
In 1901 Mr. Hunter came to California and engaged in the
livery business at La Verne, continuing the occupation for three years.
He then located at Long Beach, where he was engaged in the real
estate business for a year. He then became interested in the painting
and decorating business and for a number of years has been biisily
engaged in his field at La Verne and the surrounding cities with marked
success. In his work Mr. Hunter uses the best material that can be
obtained and maintains a shop in La Verne, where he carries a full
line of paints, wall paper, etc. The large number of his patrons in
La Verne and the San Dimas district attest his skill as a workman of
exceptional merit, with the ability to execute all kinds of high-class
work satisfactorily. One of the fine pieces of work he has recently
completed is the artistic decoration of the beautiful new residence of
Mrs. Catherine Trimmer on East Fourth Street, La Verne. He is the
owner of real estate in La Verne, which includes the apartment house
at 115 liast Third Street.
In La Verne, September 8, 1913, Mr. Hunter was united in mar-
riage with Ivy L. Martin, who was born In Sedgwick County, Kans.
She came to La Verne when a child with her parents, John and Lizzie
(Neher) Martin, natives of Muncie, Ind., who removed to Sedgwick
County, Kans., where they were farmers until 1895. They then
%>-i^ % %U.^^c^Z^
HISTORY AND lUOGRAl'MV 679
located at La \'erne, Cal., where they were owners and proprietors
of the College View Hotel, being actively engaged in business until
1919, when they retired to enjoy the fruits of their labors. Mrs.
Hunter receiv'ed her education at La Verne College. Mr. and Mrs.
Hunter are the parents of one son, Stanley J.
ADELBERT J. PIRDY
The up-to-date city of Pomona is fully abreast of the times when
it comes to educational matters. Its high school is well advanced in all
lines of educational endeavor, but especial mention is made of the
manual training department, under the supervision of A. J. Pirdy,
whose painstaking and persistent work, has fostered and developed this
department to a standard of exceptional efficiency.
It was in 1904 that Mr. Pirdy inaugurated the teaching of manual
training in the grade schools of Pomona, both his facilities and equip-
ment at that time being very limited. The work was started in a small
shop conducted in the basement of one of the school buildings and was
equipped with a few hand tools. Under his able management the work
has had a wonderful growth and today four shops are maintained as a
part of the high school unit, in which are installed the latest machinery
for cabinet making, woodworking, a fully equipped machine shop and
auto repairing department and forge; also a mechanical drafting de-
partment. The efficiency of Mr. Pirdy, as director and teacher of
this very important branch of educational work, is attested to by the
fact that he has continued as the head of this department for fifteen
consecutive years.
Adelbert J. Pirdy is a native of the Empire State, having been
born in Erie County, N. Y., February 16, 1874. He is a graduate of
the Hamburg high school, Buffalo, N. Y.; and Buffalo State Normal
school. He was principal of the city schools of North Tonawanda,
N. Y., and for one year was associated with the Hancock Educational
Center, Boston, Mass.
Believing that the Great West offered better opportunities to
ambitious young men who had specially prepared themselves for their
chosen work, Mr. Pirdy migrated in 1904 to California and located in
Pomona. His self-reliance, persistency of purpose, coupled with a
definite aim in life, helped him to accomplish his splendid success at
Pomona. For a number of years, during his vacation time, Mr. Pirdy
has been associated with Ward & Company in electrical construction
throughout Pomona Valley. Later he became the secretary and treas-
urer of the Pomona Fixture and Wiring Company, of which concern
he owns the majority of stock. Mr. Pirdy designed and installed the
beautiful electric fixtures of the Pomona Masonic Temple and has in-
stalled fixtures in many of the fine residences of Pomona and Clare-
6S0 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
mont. He is the owner of a five-acre orange grove on East Holt
Avenue, which he has greatly improved since purchasing.
On August 9, 1910, A. J. Pirdy was united in marriage with Helen
Clapham, a native of the state of New York, and they are the parents
of two children, John A. and Marjory Ruth. Fraternally Mr. Pirdy is
very prominent in Masonic circles and is past high priest of Pomona
Chapter, No. 76, R. A. M., and commander of Southern California
Commandery No. 37, K. T. Religiously he is a member of the Pilgrim
Congregational Church.
WILLIAM CLYDE DOUGHTY
What sort of successful business men, absorbed with their own
affairs and yet finding time to serve their fellow-citizens in offices of
public trust, may spring forth in Pomona Valley, is well illustrated
in the life and interesting career of William Clyde Doughty, himself
the son of a former office holder who was widely-esteemed in his day.
He was born at Keokuk, Iowa, on October 17, 1871, and his father
was William G. Doughty, who was born in Kentucky but reared in
Illinois. He was a teacher in Iowa, later removing to Kansas, where
he both farmed and conducted a flour mill. In 1890 he came to La
Verne, Cal., and set himself up as a merchant, and for six years he
was postmaster under President Cleveland. He purchased raw land,
developed water and set out an orange grove. May 9, 1906, he died,
mourned by many. He had married, in Keokuk, Iowa, Martha J.
Yenawine, a native of Illinois, and she is now living in Los Angeles,
the mother of seven children. Charles H. lives in Los Angeles; W.
Clyde is the subject of our interesting review; Helen M. has become
Mrs. F. G. Kimball; Grace is the wife of C. W. Tucker; and there
are Paul E., and Maude and Harry, twins. In his first year his parents
moved from Keokuk to what became Galva, McPherson County, Kans.,
where he was reared and educated in the public and high schools.
In 1890 Mr. Doughty came to La Verne, Cal., and since that
time he has followed the orange industry and the real-estate business.
He helped to pick the first carload of fruit taken from the Richards
ranch in North Pomona, and for two years he was foreman of the old
Ruddich & Trench Packing House, at La Verne. He himself owns
a fine orange grove of fifteen acres in full bearing, all free from debt,
one-half of the trees being Valencias, the other half Navels, that
he improved, and if anyone wishes to see a small "show place" re-
flecting creditably on the Valley, he need not go further than this
citrus property.
Mr. Doughty has also been one of the leading real-estate dealers
in the Valley for years, and has been most successful in the large sales
of orange groves and alfalfa ranches, for which he maintains an office
at La Verne and operates throughout the Valley. To know Mr.
HISTORY AND r.lOGRAt'HV fi?,l
Doughty is to wish to do business with him; and it has been this confi-
dence in his honesty and judgment that has laid the foundation for his
business success. Besides having been president of the Board of Trade
of La Verne for two years, he served as a grammar school trustee for
nine years, and as a trustee of the high school for six; was clerk of
the school board for years, and is now, as he has been for the past four
years, city clerk of the town of La Verne, and is a member of the
La Verne Orange Growers Association.
When, on July 7, 1897, Mr. Doughty was married at La Verne
to Miss Grace Myers, a daughter of D. L. and Mary Myers of
Kansas, who were also early settlers of La V^erne, commenced that
domestic, happy life made still brighter by the advent of two children,
Glenn and Ruby. Since then he has built a fine home costing $6,000;
and as an enterprising, prosperous man of affairs, he has constructed
and still owns other desirable houses in La Verne.
J. RALPH SHOEMAKER
A Pomona Valley rancher whose ownership of a fine California
orange grove, with memories of sports there in boyhood days when he
had no thought of coming to possess the land, recalls many romances
of California life, is J. Ralph Shoemaker, who was born at Los An-
geles on March 9, 1886, the son of Dr. Elisha T. Shoemaker, a native
of Pennsylvania and a physician of repute, now deceased. Doctor
Shoemaker, who was a graduate of the medical department of the
University of Michigan, and who married Miss Mary E. Rivers, a
native of Ontario, came to Los Angeles in the early eighties, and was
one of the pioneer doctors and one of the first to practice on the east
side of the city. His wife also was a graduate in medicine, her alma
mater being the medical department of the University of Southern
California, and she materially aided her husband in his practice.
Ralph was educated in the public schools of Los Angeles, after
which he took a classical course at the Lewis Institute of Chicago, and
then spent three years at Pomona College. He next graduated from
the San Luis Obispo Polytechnic School, and then spent a year in Stan-
ford University, and for a year was foreman of the Cudahy ranch at
Huntington Park.
He has since followed irrigation engineering and orange growing,
and been engaged in the construction of irrigating systems in the Po-
mona Valley. He owns- a fine orange grove of ten acres, where the
trees. Navels and Valencias, are seven years old; it is situated on
Mountain Avenue, and was planted and developed by himself. It
Includes land on which, as a boy in 1903, he hunted rabbits. In part-
nership, also, with W. A. McCormick of Pomona, Mr. Shoemaker
is farming to grain 120 acres leased of the Louis Phillips ranch. He
is a member of the Claremont Citrus Association.
682 IIISTURV AND ISIOGRAPHV
In the Mission Chapel at Riverside in 1911, Mr. Shoemaker
married Miss Eva Heartt, a native of Iowa, the daughter of Sidney
and Jennie Heartt. She is a graduate of the Girls' Collegiate School
in Los Angeles. Mr. Shoemaker is a member of the Congregational
Church of Claremont. He was made a Mason in Pomona Lodge,
F. & A. M., and demitting he was a charter member of Claremont
Lodge No. 426, F. & A. M.
MISS L. WILTBERGER
Southern California has attained world-wide fame as an artist's
paradise, where all requirements necessary to the pursuit of the artistic
vocation are to be had. Pomona is especially fortunate in possessing
an artist of such rare ability as is found in Miss L. Wiltberger, who
has a studio at 543 North Gordon Street, known as "The Little White
House Studio."
This artist is one of Kentucky's daughters, but was reared and
educated in Chicago, 111., where she attended a school for girls. Later
she became a student at the Chicago Art Institute, where she studied
art for three years, afterwards taking a course in photography with
the famous photographer, Francis Place of Chicago.
Miss Wiltberger, with her mother, came to California and locat-
ed in Pomona in 1904. After purchasing the home at 543 North
Gordon Street, Miss Wiltberger built her studio, where she has been
actively engaged in the pursuit of her profession ever since. The fact
that she never has a dull time in her business during the entire year
bespeaks her capabilities as a finished artist of unusual merit who
understands all departments of her work. Her slogan, "The Real
You," indicates what she so successfully strives to achieve in. the atten-
tion given to character and expression in reproducing her subjects.
That the high-grade work achieved at her studio is appreciated by her
customers is attested by the fact that during war time, when other busi-
ness enterprises were retrenching because of lack of custom. Miss Wilt-
berger's business was better than in previous years.
She makes a specialty of baby pictures and mothers from miles
around bring their little ones to her studio to be photographed. Many
eastern tourists who winter in Pomona have had their babies' pictures
taken, and incidentally their own, and two or three years later have
returned to again have them photographed. She numbers among her
customers many people from Los Angeles and other nearby cities.
She has achieved wonders in her art in reproducing the graceful atti-
tudes and natural expression of childhood.
She is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Pomona and
is stanchly loyal to the city in which she has achieved such artistic and
financial success.
IIISTOKV AXl) r.loGRAI'KV 685
HENRY J. AND JOHN B. BRUBAKER
Foremost among those who ha\e brought the manufacture of
concrete pipe forward as a California industry, while advancing its
state scientifically and technically, must be mentioned Henry J. and
John B. Brubaker, under the firm name of Brubaker Bros., whose
office is at 25 Acacia Street, San Dimas. Henry J. was born on a farm
in Franklin County, Kans., on March 6, 1886, while his brother, John
B. Brubaker, was born on January 16, 1884. Their parents were
Joseph L. and Mary S. (Garber) Brubaker, natives of Tennessee and
Illinois, respectively, who were farmers in Iowa, and later in Kansas.
The family early moved to Wyoming, and after four years pro-
ceeded, in the fall of 1890, overland to California, being three and a
half months on the way. They spent a year at Fresno, and then they
were at Norwalk until 1893. For another three years they remained
at Little Rock, Antelope Valley, on the Mojave desert, and in 1896
came to San Dimas, where the father died; his widow survives him.
Henry obtained his education in the public schools of California,
but at fourteen he went to work, and the balance of his studying was in
the great school of life and human experience. For five years he
clerked in a general merchandise store with his brother, and all the
time was preparing for the later and more important work of his life.
In 1907 Brubaker Bros, established their business here, and
it has been conducted in this vicinity ever since, the operations extending
in particular over Riverside and Los Angeles counties. They employ
an average of thirty men, and their pay roll runs over $2,000 a month.
In 1912 Brubaker Bros, perfected a new concrete pipe making machine,
which they patented and now use in their business. This machine
facilitates the manufacture as well as makes a stronger and superior
pipe. It is equipped to run by power. The manufactured pipe is
shipped into different parts of Southern California and as far north as
Kern County and is in much demand for its superior quality. The
machine has been adopted by the state of California in the manufacture
of concrete pipe for the state land settlements. Being much interested
in the development and growth of Pomona Valley, they have the satis-
faction of knowing that they ha\e contributed something definite to
bring about definite results.
On June 5, 1909, Henry J. Brubaker was married to Miss Dora
Ehersman, a native of Indiana, and they have two children, Mary
Elizabeth and Stuart Brubaker. John B. Brubaker married Miss
Hattie Teague, the daughter of D. C. Teague, a pioneer of San Dimas.
John B. Brubaker was bereaved of his wife three years ago, leaving
him a daughter, Hattie May. The Brubakers are Republicans, also
members of the Pomona Lodge No. 789, B. P. O. Elks, and are active
in the Chamber of Commerce.
33
686 HISTORY AND IIUGRAPHY
MARION MAPEL
That adverse conditions cannot daunt the spirit of American
manhood, and but act as a stimulant to greater effort, has found con-
vincing expression in the Hfe story of Marion Mapel. Beginning his
struggle for a livelihood at an early age, he has surmounted many
obstacles and reached an assured position in life solely through his
own efforts and persevering industry, combined with business-like
methods in his agricultural work. A native of Pennsylvania, Mr.
Mapel was born in Greene County, March 6, 1869. When he was
nine years old the family moved to Ritchie County, W. Va., and
settled there on a farm. The young lad started in to make his own
way in the world at fourteen years of age, and for four years worked
for his board and clothes, and received at the end of that time a horse,
saddle and bridle. Selling these for ninety dollars, he settled up his
affairs in Virginia, and bought tickets for himself and sister and went
to Montgomery County, Iowa, arriving with just fifty cents left of his
ninety dollars.
In his new environment, Mr. Mapel worked on a farm for two
years, receiving his board and ten dollars per month for his services.
He then decided to have a home of his own, and took for his wife
Annie M. Fox, also a native of Pennsylvania, born near his old home.
He started to farm on his own account, renting land In Montgomery
County. A few years later they moved to Red Oak, the same state,
and here Mr. Mapel engaged in the dairy business, milking from fifty
to seventy-five cows. He had a modern plant and was the first man
in the county to use milking machines, finding the appliances most
successful.
After eighteen years in Iowa, Mr. Mapel came to California,
and after looking over different parts of the state, decided that Pomona
Valley suited him best as the place for his future home. He purchased
a five-acre ranch on South Palomares Street, a part of which had just
been set out to peaches, and he has developed the property into a
splendid ranch, erected a modern bungalow and barns, and on ap-
proaching his place one is struck with its fine appearance, everything
modern and well-kept, in fact one of the show places of the district.
He has never had a crop failure, and from his acreage he took six
tons of peaches in 1918. From ninety apricot trees he has taken as
high as twelve tons of fruit. Besides this property, Mr. Mapel owns
a twenty-acre ranch on South Towne Avenue, in grain and alfalfa; at
one time he engaged in orange growing, but soon gave that up.
Five children have blessed the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Mapel:
Myrtle Florence, now Mrs. Charles F. Kinney of Pomona and the
mother of two boys, Ivan and Owen; Nettie May, Mrs. F. C. Hill
of Los Angeles; David McKinley and Lindsay Raymond, who both
served in the United States Navy in the World War, Lindsay still
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 687
being in the service, on the United States destroyer Ingraham; and
Iva Grace. The family are members of the First Christian Church, of
which Mr. Mapel is a deacon. A self-made man in every respect, he
is an example of w.hat industry and right living can accomplish, and
\^'ith h'is family, enjoys the esteem of the community.
HERMAN L. MANNING
No valley in Southern California possesses more importance than
Pomona Valley, and none have the promise of equal growth and devel-
opment in the immediate future. Its past expansion in population and
present importance is due largely to the successful development of
water for irrigation purposes, and those engaged in this important
work may justly be proud of the result attained in the visible evidence
of success given in the rich fruitage of garden, orchard and field.
Herman L. Manning, the well-known well-drilling contractor,
with headquarters at 820 Williams Street, Pomona, Cal., has been
engaged in this important business, on his own responsibility, in
Pomona Valley since 1904. He is a native of Carroll County, 111.,
where he was born, near Lanark, May 29, 1874, and his early recollec-
tions are in connection with farm life in Illinois, where he was reared
and educated in the district schools. In 1892, at the age of eighteen,
he came to Azusa, Cal. The first year in his new home he worked in
a nursery, afterwards taking up the occupation of well-drilling, in
which he has been successfully engaged ever since. He entered the
employ of N. S. Rice, with whom he learned the business, working
with Mr. Rice in boring wells for the Chino Water Company in the
Chino district, Pomona Valley. For four years he was employed bv
the Standard Oil Company, drilling for the pipe line which they were
building from Bakersfield to San Francisco. In 1904 Mr. Manning
began contracting well-boring for himself in Pomona Valley. Besides
boring wells in orange groves and on alfalfa ranches for private parties
he has bored for the Pomona Irrigation Company and the Monte Vista
Water Company, the San Dimas Land and Water Company, and
others, and has been an active factor in developing water in the Valley.
The deepest bore he ever made in Pomona Valley for water was 900
feet. On the Currier Ranch in the Walnut district he was rewarded
by a 100-inch flow of water at the depth of ninety-five feet. He under-
takes all the big contracts in the Valley, and keeps four modern motor-
power well-boring rigs busy, and is obliged to refuse many contracts
because of more business than he can handle.
In 1903, in Pomona, Mr. Manning married Miss Lillie Rice, a
daughter of I\. S. Rice and a native of California, and they are the
parents of a son, Carroll Rice Manning. Pomona has been Mr. Man-
ning's home since 1906, and fraternally he is affiliated with and a
charter member of Pomona Lodge No. 789, B. P. O. Elks.
688 HISTORY AXD BIOGRAPHY
DR. MABEL E. WHITE
A member of one of the pioneer families of Pomona, Doctor White
has spent most of her life here, and is now practicing her profession in
the community where she was reared and received her education. Born
in Hampton, F>anklin County, Iowa, she is a daughter of Ira F. and
Mary L. ( Downing) White; the family came to Pomona in 1886, and
soon after their arrival the father engaged in the hardware business,
continuing in that business for a period of forty years, when he sold
out and is now living retired in Pomona.
Attending the public and high school of the city. Doctor White
graduated from the latter in 1890. She then took a course in Williams
Business College, and from that institution went to Healdsburg Col-
lege, now known as Pacific Union College, and later finished with a
course in the Osteopathic College of Physicians and Surgeons, Los
Angeles, in 1911. On receiving her final degree, she began the prac-
tice of her profession in Ontario, and remained there five years. Doctor
White is the only osteopathic physician in the Valley using the Battle
Creek method of hydrotherapy in connection with osteopathy, this
combination of treatments having met with marvelous success in the
larger cities and Pomona is indeed fortunate to have access to them at
home. Thoroughly proficient in her life work, Doctor White has built
up a large practice and is looked upon as one with a future of even
greater success and help to mankind.
A woman of broad views and depth of character, Doctor White
has won the respect and esteem of her home community, and does her
part in all affairs which mean the upbuilding of Pomona and vicinity.
She is a member of the State Osteopathic Association.
WILLIAM M. MARTIN
Prominent among the orange and lemon growers of San Dimas
may be mentioned William M. Martin, who, though a native of Prince
Edward Island, Canada, has been a resident of the United States
since 1873, when as a young man he migrated to this country to estab-
lish a permanent home. He is descended from a sturdy line of Scotch
ancestry, his forbears coming to Canada in 1803 from their native
Scotch heath. Mr. Martin went first to Virginia City, Nev., where he
remained for seven years, for the most of this time working for the
Virginia and Truckee Railroad. Later he went to Park City, LItah,
where for several years he was engaged as a millwright.
It was in 1888 that Mr. Martin came to California, and for a
time was employed as a rancher at Lordsburg. In 1891 he purchased
has present place at San Dimas, consisting of twenty acres that had
previously been a barley field. At first he planted deciduous fruits,
peaches and apricots taking precedence, and later these were replaced
HISTORY AND I'.lOGRAl'IIV 689
by oranges, Washington Navels and Valencias being chosen, and still
later lemons were added to the groves. There are three acres of
lemons at the present time, they being especially fine trees and good
producers. Mr. Martin also owned another property of twenty acres
which he de\-eloped into a producing orange ranch and sold at a hand-
some profit.
The marriage of Mr. Martin occurred in 1883, at Prince Edward
Island, uniting him with Miss Mary Ann McLean, like himself a
native of that island. They have one daughter, Marion Ruth, now the
wife of J. C. Bowen of Pomona, and the mother of two children. Mr.
Martin takes an acti\-e part in local affairs. He is a member of the
San Dimas Orange Association aiid of the San Dimas Lemon Associa-
tion. He is also member of the United Workmen, and attends the
L^nion Church in San Dimas.
JOSEPH MULLEN
One of the oldest city officers in this neighborhood, and a pioneer
who is intejested in both the past history and the future development
of Pomona Valley, is Joseph Mullen, the city assessor and ex-officio
treasurer and tax collector. He was born in Grant County, Wis., on
February 17, 1845, the son of John Mullen, a farmer, who married
Margaret O'Connor, a lady of Irish descent. The family came to
California in 1852, crossing the great plains by ox train and taking
six months for the journey; and they first settled in Shasta County,
where the parents died. The old place is still in the family, and the
tradition of the early work of the Mullens as pioneers is still cherished
by the residents of that section familiar with its annals.
One of a family of six boys and two girls, Joseph began his
education at the Shasta County public schools, after which he remained
with his father until he was thirty years of age. Then he removed
to Redding, and for six years engaged in the grain, feed and livery
business. When he sold out he moved to Anderson, where he resided
for a couple of years.
On coming to Southern California in 1883, he located for a year
at Los Angeles, and the following year came to Pomona, thus being
fortunate early to associate himself with the growth and development
of this part of the Golden State. He resumed his line of activity
there, but after tweh-e months took up the transfer business, which he
continued to run for three years. Then he sold out, and engaged in the
livery business, and erected several business structures and dwellings.
In 1897 Mr. Mullen was elected city assessor, and that alone he
remained until the new charter was adopted and the offices were com-
bined; and he has been reelected to these offices ever since. Thus he
690 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
was the first city assessor after the organization of the city of Pomona
in 1888. He belongs to the Republican party and also to the Chamber
of Commerce.
At Redding, Shasta County, on New Year's Day, 1878, Mr.
Mullen was married to Miss Lillian G. Garnham, by whom he has had
three children, each of whom has accomplished something worth while.
Frank is in San Francisco; William is associated with his father in the
cultivation of oranges; and Lota is at home and an assistant in her
father's office. While not a member of the denomination, Mr. Mullen
is an active coworker in the Christian Science Church. Fraternally he
is a member of the Masons and the Elks. Like all cultured, progres-
sive pioneers, he is deeply interested in the traditions and the possi-
bilities of Pomona Valley.
CYRUS MASON PARSONS
Among the worthiest representatives of good old Revolutionary
stock who settled in time in thoroughly American Claremont must be
mentioned the late Cyrus Mason Parsons, whose taking off, on No-
vember .10, 1908, was widely regarded as a public loss, and his
esteemed widow, still a resident of Claremont. He was born near
Davenport, Iowa, on January 14, 1856, and his father was Cyrus
Mason Parsons, who maintained his physical and mental faculties
wonderfully unimpaired until his ninetieth year, and died in August,
1917. His mother was Miss Eliza Hazen before her marriage, and
passed away in 1912, about two months after she and her husband had
celebrated their sixtieth wedding anniversary. They were both born
in Massachusetts, and their forbears belonged to those sturdy Ameri-
cans who helped to found and to defend the young republic.
Commencing his studies in the public schools of his time near
Davenport, Mr. Parsons was able, at the early age of twenty, to begin
his self-supporting career by teaching school in Scott County, in that
state; and in that field he continued for three years, thus mak-
ing his contribution toward popular education In Iowa. Leaving
his schoolmaster's rostrum, he engaged in farming In Iowa, from 1880
to 1893, and in the latter year removed to Fordyce, Ark., where he
became interested In the lumber business. Though still retaining his
interest in the company at Fordyce, as well as in the lumber mills at
Lockhart, Ala., and at Crossett, Ark., he came west to California in
1903 and settled at Claremont.
Mr. Parsons' reason for taking this important and somewhat
expensive step was because of the established reputation of the town
as an educational center, and his desire to enable his children to attend
Pomona College; for, on March 9, 1880, at Big Rock, Scott County,
Iowa, he had married Miss Mary A. Gates, a native of that locality,
HISTORY AND BIOGRArtlV 691
and a daughter of Don C. and Cornelia (Hawkins) Gates, also
descendants from the pioneers of the Revolutionary period, of old
Vermont stock of English descent, and there are now six children in
the Parsons family. His youngest son, Howard Brewster, enlisted for
the great European war in August, 1917, and for nineteen months
served at Camp Sheridan, Ala., in the quartermaster's corps and the
motor transport service. The other children are: Jessie, Walter,
Mrs. Nellie Belcher, Hazen and Mrs. Cornelia Spurgeon.
As a man of affairs, always looked up to in the community in
which he had lived and operated, Mr. Parsons was president of the
Claremont State Bank and secretary and treasurer of the Claremont
Inn; and he often held various minor offices, such as secretary of the
school board — all important in their way, and reflecting the esteem
in which he was held by a class of fellow-citizens he was glad to live
among and work for. He, as well as his family, were members of the
Congregational Church in Claremont, and as trustee he was an active
and loyal supporter of all that pertained thereto. Desiring no selfish
benefit through political support, he gave his endorsement to prohibi-
tion, and worked consistently for the day-dawn in the abolition of the
saloon, a realization now at hand, in our country at least, but which
he was never privileged, save by faith, to see.
No better summing up of the life, work and influence of Mr.
Parsons could be made, perhaps, than in the words of his pastor.
Doctor Kingman, at his demise : "A thoroughly successful man, and
one who occupied conspicuous place in affairs, was C. M. Parsons, who
by his business ability and genuine worth as a man became a prominent
and influential factor in the well-being of Claremont."
REV. WALTER C. BUCKNER
Rev. Walter C. Buckner, who is at present in charge of the First
Methodist Church of Pomona, is considered one of the most promising
young ministers to come to the Coast in late years; gifted by Nature
with unusual powers of personal magnetism and by grace with a heart
free from all uncharitableness and narrow criticizing, he has shown
how closely affiliated may be the pulpit and the pew; how a Christian
may be in the world and not of it. In a comparatively short time he
has made remarkable progress' in the field of Christianity and his work
bids fair to carry him to a prominent place among the humanitarian
ministers of today.
Born in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, January 9, 1883, Reverend
Buckner received his first Christian teachings in his own home, for his
father was a Methodist minister who had charges all over the state of
Iowa. After finishing the public schools, the young recruit attended
Baker University at Baldwin, Kans., graduating in 1903 with the de-
692 HISTORY AND lilOGRAPlIY
gree of A.B. For three years following his graduation he followed the
mercantile business, and then received his first call. He was ordained
a minister in 1906, and in 1907 came to Dinuba, Cal., his first charge.
There he organized and built a church, and did this same arduous and
important work at Sultana, Cochran and Waukena, Cal.
In 1911, Reverend Buckner was called to Tulare, and for six
years bent his efforts toward the upbuilding of a strong church body in
that city. He was instrumental in bringing the Chautauqua and Lyceum
course there for the first time, and other public welfare work. An elo-
quent speaker, he gave lectures on community cooperation in church
work, one of his hobbies and one of the greatest factors for progress
in church work. For three years he was district president of the Fresno
district of the Epworth League; and was also chairman on evangelical
work in Fresno district. He was president of the Ministerial Associa-
tion in Tulare County. His unselfish work made him very popular
in Tulare and a petition was circulated there and signed by all business
men, requesting his services there for another year on account of the
fine work he had done in building up the church and in public welfare
work. During his work in Tulare a fine modern church edifice was
erected.
In the fall of 1917, Reverend Buckner was called to Pomona, and
in this broader field he has demonstrated his ability as an organizer and
leader of men, due to his unselfish devotion to the cause of true Chris-
tianity and his sincerely devout con\iction that every man is worthy of
redemption. Since taking charge here he has increased the member-
ship of the church materially and has brought it to a splendid financial
standing. Five thousand dollars was raised for benevolent purposes
by the church during 1918.
While in college, Re\'erend Buckner was active in athletics, and he
is a firm believer in this form of healthy recreation for all classes. In-
cluded in his community service program, he will establish a play-
ground where baseball, track athletics, clean boxing and other popular
sports may be indulged; thus while trying to tell his people what they
"shall not" do, he at the same time will tell them what they can do to
be healthy and happy citizens. On his church Reverend Buckner will
have a revolving electric cross installed, as a beacon of light. His en-
thusiasm and genial nature make him popular with all audiences and for
two seasons he was on the road with the Ellison-White Chautauqua
and Lyceum Course.
The marriage of Reverend Buckner, in Berkeley, July 30, 1908,
united him with Eva Wright, a native of Pittsburg, Kans., and three
children have blessed their union : Theodore J., Gladys and Louise.
Reverend Buckner reestablished the Chautauqua and reorganized
the Lyceum Course on its present effective basis in Pomona; he is presi-
dent of Pomona Valley Methodist Preachers' Meeting ; president of the
I
HISTORY A\D r.K )C.RA1'IIV (<'>?,
Ministers Union of Pomona; he is on the staff of lecturers of the
Parent-Teachers Association; he is vice-president of the Red Cross
and director of the local Welfare League; for three years he has been
on the staff of instructors of the Epworth League summer work; and is
also director of the Spanish-American Institute of Gardena and chair-
man on committee of admission. While in Tulare, Reverend Buckner
became a member of the Masonic order; locally he is a member of the
Y. M. C. A. and thus keeps in splendid physical condition for his
labors.
PAUL W. NEWCOMER, M. D.
Among the professional men who have always served the appre-
ciative community of Pomona with disinterested conscientiousness, and
who was among those to volunteer his services to the American Army
in the late war, is Paul W. Newcomer, the well-known physician. He
was born at Petersburg, 111., on August 22, 1874, the son of Dr. J. W.
Newcomer, who was a surgeon and served in the LInited States Navy
during the long Civil War. He married Miss Jennie White, and they
had seven children — five boys and one girl, four of whom became
physicians. The oldest brother, A. I., is a doctor in Oklahoma; Miss
Jean teaches Latin in the Hollywood High School; J. H. is in the
real-estate business in Oklahoma; Doctor Irving is in Petersburg, 111.;
and Nathan Bennett is in Sheridan, Wyo. Both of the parents are
now dead.
Paul attended the Petersburg schools, graduating from the high
school in the early nineties. From 1893 to 1895 he was at the
University of Illinois, and in 1896 at Jefferson Medical School of
Philadelphia. From 1904 to 1906 he studied at the LIniversity of
Colorado, and in the latter year he was graduated from the Medical
Department. Doctor Newcomer first practiced at Gillette, Wyo., in
which state, in 1913, he also became a registered pharmacist. He was
successful, but he came to Pomona in 1916, and each year he has been
more and more favored with success and prosperity.
While at Petersburg, on July 29, 1902, Doctor Newcomer
married Catherine Mary Fischer, and two daughters, Catherine Berta
and Jane Elizabeth, have been born to them.
Doctor Newcomer is a Mason and belongs to the lodge, chapter,
council and commandery; and is a member of the Elks and Knights
of Pythias. He gives active support to the Pomona Chamber of Com-
merce, and yet finds time for some of the allurements of the outside
world. He is a Republican in national political affairs, but nonpartisan
in local issues. The recollection, however, of his patriotism and public-
spiritedness will not soon fade from his fellow Pomonans, who cannot
fail to be proud of the man or woman who is willing to try to do his
or her share.
694 HISTORY AND DIUGRAPHY
ALLEN G. iMITCHELL
A rising lawyer of Pomona, with offices in the Investment Build-
ing, in association with J. A. AUard, where he is becoming a potent
factor in the various cases from this section of Los Angeles County,
Allen G. Mitchell is well known to the citizens of Pomona and
environs. A son of the late James ^L Mitchell, who is mentioned on
another page of this history, he was born at Montesano, Chehalis
County, Wash., May 25, 1894. His mother, a native of Iowa, was
in maidenhood Anna Loughrey, and is still living here.
Allen G. attended the public schools of Pomona and finished in
the high school, soon after which he began to read law, and in time
was admitted to the bar; then he entered the law school of the Univer-
sity of Southern California and was graduated with the class of '18.
Prior to his graduation he was for eighteen months connected with the
Los Angeles Board of Trade. On April 16, 1918, he enlisted in the
Naval Reserves and was released from active service on December 13,
that year. In August, 1919, he took up his present law association
with Joseph A. Allard, Jr., and since then has had his share of the law
business of Pomona and vicinity.
Mr. Mitchell was united in marriage on October 4, 1916, with
Miss Elva Farrar, a native daughter, born in Ventura County, and
they have a daughter, Margaret Mitchell. Mr. Mitchell is interested
in all projects that have for their aim the betterment of conditions for
the people of this Valley, as well as the building up of the interests
of the Vallev itself.
EDWARD H. GAMMON
While many have found fortunes in California's gold fields,
others have been equally fortunate in discovering the possibilities of
the golden fruit of California orange groves as a means of reimburs-
ing the owner and lining his pocket book with the precious metal.
Among the successful growers of citrus fruit in Pomona Valley,
Edward H. Gammon deserves special mention. He is still a young
man and his success in the culture of the orange since coming to Cali-
fornia is notable. He is a native of Illinois and was born in Living-
ston County, November 15, 1874. In 1884, when he was a lad of ten,
he accompanied his parents to Wyoming. There were many Indian
tribes in the country in those days, and the family experienced the
usual hardships that attend pioneering. They traveled more than 300
miles overland and located on a large horse and cattle ranch situated
150 miles from a railroad, 100 miles from a town and forty-five miles
from a postoffice. Young Edward grew up on the Wyoming ranch
and started to ride the range as a cowboy when but eight vears of age.
He was associated with his father in the cattle business until, on ac-
HISTORY AND lUOGRAI'HV 695
count of poor health, he came to California in July, 1906, and located
in the Pomona Valley, where he purchased a ten-acre orange ranch on
East Holt Avenue, known as the Alberta Place, which he later dis-
posed of. At present he is the owner of two fine orange groves, one of
which, comprising ten acres of twenty-five-year-old trees, located in
the Narod district and known as the Pitzer ranch, is among the best
producing orange groves in the Valley. The other twenty-acre grove
on Monte Vista Tract was fully developed by him, the land leveled,
plowed and set to Navel and Valencia orange trees. The grove is
seven years old, in bearing and is a fine piece of property.
Mr. Gammon's marriage united him with Miss Nellie Emigh,
and they are the parents of a daughter, Daisy by name. In his frater-
nal associations, Mr. Gammon is a member of the Modern Woodmen
of America.
EDWARD D. BRADLEY
The fame of Pomona as a city not only of desirable homes, but
of principled and experienced dealers in realty, desirous at all times
of cooperating to provide such home places as must yield the largest
percentage of human welfare and happiness, has long and widely been
known, and has undoubtedly had much to do with attracting a very
high grade of residents from even remote points. Among such dealers
must be included Edward D. Bradley of the firm of Bradley & Eells,
doing business at 290 South Garey Avenue, in the Hotel Avis Build-
ing, who has steadily striven, with his partner, Frank C. Eells, to give
stability to land and property values, present everything offered for
sale or exchange in its true light, and to insist on the worth of each
acre, lot or edifice, especially when that worth has been increased by
exceptional natural advantages — thus contributing in the right fashion
to a hastening of the day when Pomona must come to its own.
Mr. Bradley was born in Greene County, 111., on January 19,
1865, the son of John C. Bradley, a native of Manchester, 111., who
is still living. Mrs. Bradley was Miss Temple E. Davis before her
marriage, and, like her husband, she was a native of Illinois. She is
now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Bradley had five children: Edward D.,
the subject of our interesting review, and L. R. Bradley, the manager
of the Lemon Grove Association Packing House at Uplands, and the
daughters, Mrs. Grace Kimball and Mrs. Helen Rodgers, both of
Los Angeles, and Mary L., who died in Los Angeles. John C. Brad-
ley came to California from Vernon County, Mo., about April 27,
1884, and located at San Jacinto, in Riverside County. Later, he
went to Ontario and Imperial County, where he followed farming;
but he now resides, retired, in Claremont.
Edward Bradley was five years of age when the family moved
from Greene County, 111., to Vernon County, Mo., where he was
696 HIS'J'dRV AXD I'.IOGRAPHV
reared on a farm, while he attended the public schools. In 1884, he
arrived in San Jacinto, and for a while worked at farming. Then
he tried the hardware business, and in 1898 moved to Pomona, where
he bought the stock of Louis S. Androus, and for ten years continued
to sell hardware. He then entered the real-estate business, and has
followed it ever since.
For a long time he operated alone, and later had Harold Dewey
as a partner. After about six months he formed a partnership with
Mr. Eells, under the firm name of Bradley & Eells, and this has now
become one of the leading real-estate concerns in the city, and Indeed
throughout the Pomona Valley. They make a specialty of improved
orange and alfalfa ranches, have put through some large deals, and
carry on an extensive business, some individual transactions running
as high as $65,000. They also deal in city property and business
blocks. Mr. Bradley has himself built and sold eight houses in the
Valley. The firm subdivided and put on the market a ranch of twenty
acres at Chino; and Mr. Bradley owns a ten-acre orange ranch half
a mile west of Claremont, where he makes his home. It is a part of
the old Loop homestead, the Loop family having been one of the first
to settle in the Valley. His residence, therefore, now remodeled, was
originally the Loop homestead, one of the oldest houses in the district.
Many of the orange trees on the ranch are forty-five years old, and
were originally seedling trees, which were later budded to Valencias
and Navels. About $10,000 worth of fruit was taken from this ranch
in 1919. Mr. Bradley is president of the Pomona Cemetery Associa-
tion, in which he has been a director for about fifteen years.
In Vernon County, Mo., on October 2, 1881, Mr. Bradley was
married to Miss Helen Roodhouse, a native of Illinois and the
daughter of James D. and Lucy L. (Robinson) Roodhouse. Mr. and
Mrs. Bradley attend the First Methodist Church of Pomona.
FREDERICK W. RITTER
A dealer in real estate, loans and insurance who has done much
to make and maintain his field of activity as one of the most self-
respecting and honorable in the domain of commerce, is Frederick W.
Ritter of the well-known firm of F. W. Ritter & Company, having
offices at 238 Investment Building, Pomona. He was born in Keokuk
County, Iowa, and grew up in a farming district, where he attended
the country schools. At the age of nineteen he left the farm and
moved to Ottumwa, Iowa, where he learned the trade of a tinner, but
after two years he returned to his native town of Hedrick, where he
bought a half-interest in a hardware business, associated himself as
partner with M. W. Owen; later, he bought out his partner and carried
on the business alone, and still later he took in L. Dudgeon with him.
Mr. Ritter was twenty years in business in Hedrick, during which
HISTORY AXD lUuCRAl'llV 697
time a large brick store and other buildings were erected to house the
growing establishment. He carried a general line of hardware, as
well as buggies, farming implements, etc., and while there he took an
active part in the affairs of the growing town. For seven years he
was a member of the city council, and he was also on the Hedrick
board of education. He was treasurer of the First Baptist Church,
and was a director in the Iowa State Hardware Dealers Association.
Selling out, he traveled for a year, part of the time in the North and
East, part of the time in Texas.
In October, 1907, Mr. Ritter came west to California and located
at Pomona, where for eight months he was in the employ of the
Russell Hardware Company. Then he became interested in real estate,
in which field he has been active for the past eleven years. He started
in for himself in 1908, and for the year, 1911-12, was in partnership
with W. S. Palmer & Son. He was the agent for the lots in Ganesha
Park Tract, and built the first house on that tract, and also erected
and sold a number of residences in Pomona.
He also organized the California Farm and Fruit Lands Com-
pany, which was formed for the purpose of buying, selling and dealing
in lands, and he has been president of the company since the first year
of its organization. This company owns thirty-nine acres of fine fruit
land, located northeast of Claremont in the College Heights Tract,
and it has seventeen acres in bearing lemons. Mr. Ritter was also an
important factor in the development and marketing of the College
Heights Tract of 1,120 acres, located northeast of Claremont between
Eighth and Sixteenth streets, and extending east into the Uplands
district. He made many sales in this property, and the part already
improved is one of the best improved citrus-fruit districts of Pomona
Valley.
Mr. Ritter does a general real-estate business, working with his
son, George A. Ritter, as partner. He is thoroughly posted on land
valuations in the Valley, and his standard of business ethics leads him
to offer only the actual values, and, through representation and not
misrepresentation, to maintain and secure the value that ought to be
recognized. He was secretary of the building committee which erected
the Baptist Church on North Garey Avenue, and for three years he
served as custodian of the church. He has been a Mason since he was
twenty-one. Mr. Ritter was one of the organizers of the Pomona
Chamber of Commerce, at which time he was chosen a director, an
oflice he has since filled with satisfaction to all concerned.
In Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr. Ritter was married to Mrs. Emma C.
Bayer, a native of that city, by whom he has one son living, George
A. Ritter. During the war, George A. entered the air service, and
trained In Texas and Mississippi, but, despite his patriotic desires, the
armistice was signed before he could see active service abroad.
698 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
CYRUS H. COLE
The well-known painting contractor, paper-hanger and tinter,
Cyrus H. Cole, who resides at 459 West Fifth Street, Pomona, Cal.,
was born at Mineral Point, Iowa County, Wis., December 14, 1860,
a section of country renowned for its lead mines. It is also a rich
farming district and Mr. Cole was brought up on his father's farm and
educated in the country schools of his native state. He worked on his
father's farm until twenty years of age, and later on other farms in
the district, on threshing machines, etc. When twenty-five years old he
went to Sheffield, Franklin County, Iowa, and engaged with the D. E.
Loomis Company, dealers in agricultural implements, as salesman. He
sold and installed many windmills and also agricultural implements on
the road, and was the owner of a one-half interest in a steam threshing
machine outfit. For two years he ran a inusic store in Sheffield.
When a young man sixteen years of age he took up carriage
painting at home and also worked at home in a carriage shop. In 1893
he came to California and soon located at Santa Monica, where he
took up painting and papering contracting. He became expert in this
line of work in which he was engaged for twenty-six years in Los
Angeles County. January 6, 1911, he located at Pomona, where he
has since continued the vocation of contracting papering and painting.
He is a thoroughly reliable workman and his first-class work is evi-
denced in many apartment houses, store fronts, bungalows and fine
residences. People who send for him to make estimates on decorat-
ing and papering houses depend on his judgment, and his services and
advice concerning the quality and class of work are eagerly sought.
Mr. Cole married Miss Amanda Hull and they are the parents
of two daughters, Irene and Blanche.
LESLIE L. ELLIOT
An enterprising man of trade, thoroughly familiar with his
important field, who reminds one, in his advancement from being
proprietor of a small shop to becoming the owner of an extensive
works, of the famous proverb as to the growth of oaks from acorns, Is
Leslie L. Elliot, a native of Toledo, Ohio, where he was born on
September 28, 1887. He went to school In Toledo until he was ten
years of age, and then came to California and Pomona. Here he
attended the KIngsley School, and then went to the Throop Polytechnic
at Pasadena; and having finished his studies there, he was engaged as
timekeeper at the Wentworth, now the Huntington Hotel, at Pasadena,
while it was being constructed.
Returning to Pomona in 1909, he entered the employ of the
Pratt Music Company for a time, and then he opened a bicycle shop
HISTORY AND lUOGRAI'MV 690
on South Thomas Street, where he had the first vulcanizing plant in
the Valley. After that, having sold out his place at Pomona, he started
a shop at Redlands.
When he had conducted a business in Redlands for a while, he
sold out to advantage and returned to Pomona and bought a five-acre
orange grove on East Holt Avenue, which he developed to the best
of his ability and sold after four years. He next entered the employ
of S. B. Barnes at Pomona, dealer in auto supplies and proprietor of
the vulcanizing works then conducted in the shop he now owns at the
corner of Thomas and West Third streets; and having in time bought
Mr. Barnes out, he came to conduct the business under his own name.
Here, in this well-appointed establishment, Mr. Elliot has built
up a large and ever increasing trade, being distributor to the Valley
of the famous Kelly-Springfield tires and the Goodyear tires, and
there is little of value needed by the motorist that he does not carry
or cannot at least obtain if it is ordered.
Mr. Elliot was married, on May 11, 1911, at Los Angeles, to
Miss Antha Greenleaf, of Detroit, the daughter of Fred Greenleaf,
of Detroit; and three sons have come to bless their happy home. They
are Leslie G., Vincent and Marcus Elliot.
Mr. Elliot is, of course, a live wire in the Pomona Chamber of
Commerce ; and he is equally live as a member of Pomona Lodge
No. 107, Knights of Pythias, and of Pomona Lodge No. 789, B. P. O.
Elks.
RALPH SMITH, M. D.
An exponent of the last word in medical science who has accom-
plished much good work for humanity since first he settled in Pomona,
and has therefore contributed to the attractiveness of the town as a
home place, is Dr. Ralph Smith, the specialist. He was born at
Villisca, Iowa, in 1872, the son of Elias Smith, now deceased, who
married Miss Bertha Van Sittert, now living at Long Beach.
Educated at the common and high schools of his home district,
Ralph Smith put behind him some preparatory work and eventually
graduated from Rush Medical College in 1900. For four years, be-
ginning with the new century, he practiced medicine in Iowa, and for
the next eleven years in Illinois. These fifteen years of varied applica-
tion of knowledge to experiment, and the derivation of knowledge
from practical experience, gave a splendid equipment to the physician
before, in August, 1915, he came to Pomona to make his home and
continue his professional work.
Doctor Smith also took post-graduate work in his special field
in New York, Chicago and Vienna, so that for the past decade and
a half he has been specializing, more and more. Today he has a flat-
700 HISTORY AND TJOGRAPHV
tering practice and is recognized as one of the leading physicians and
surgeons of Pomona. He is influential for a higher standard of civic
life in the councils of the Republicans, and a leader, when opportunity
offers, in work by the Chamber of Commerce for bringing the city into
still closer touch with the outside world.
Doctor Smith's marriage to Miss Cora Diemer took place at
Denmark, Iowa, on May 16, 1905; and from this fortunate union has
sprung one son, Harold, who is attending school. Doctor Smith is
a Knight Templar Mason.
ERNEST D. FERREE
Standing at the head of the contracting business in plastering,
Ernest D. Perree has occupied a prominent position in the business
world of Pomona, Cal., since 1914. He makes a specialty of exterior
work and furnishes estimates at any time and place.
He is a native of Garland, Kans., where he was born July 2, 1888.
Reared and educated in his native state, he learned his trade under the
tutelage of his father, a plastering contractor at Pittsburg, Kans.,
where the son worked at the plastering business for his parent and
farmed for himself for three years in that section. In 1911 he came
to Pomona, Cal., and was employed at his trade with G. W. Clark,
later, in 1914, becoming a contractor for himself. He formed a part-
nership with A. E. McMullin under the firm name of Ferree and
McMullin. When Mr. Ferree entered the war the firm was dissolved,
July, 1918. He was attached to the Thirteenth Division, U. S. A., of
the Machine Gun Battalion, stationed six months at American Lake,
Washington, and discharged before seeing active service in France.
He returned to Pomona and resumed his old trade of plastering con-
tractor. He has done all the large contracts in the Valley in recent
years, and had the contract for the Pomona Greek Theatre at Ganesha
Park, the Home Telephone Company's building at Pomona, the new
girls' dormitory at La Verne College, the Arcadia City Hall, the First
National Bank building at Puente, the precooling plant of the San
Dimas Orange Growers Association, the precooling plant of the In-
dian Hill Citrus Association, North Pomona, and the school house at
Whittier. The interior of Holmes Hall, Pomona College, at Clare-
mont, is his work, and also the Opera garage, the Clark Brothers' ga-
rage, the White garage, and the Heubsch garage, at Pomona. He has
also done the work on many of the fine homes in Pomona and vicinity.
On March 7, 1907, at Garland, Kans., he married Miss Marie
Claypool, a native of Kansas, born July 24, 1888, and they are the
parents of a son named Walter Jennings. Fraternally, Mr. F'erree is
associated with the Yeomen, and is a member of the Pomona Lodge
of Loyal Order of Moose and the Knights of Pythias.
HISTORY AND F.IOGRArHY
EMMO C. BICHOWSKY
To have lived in Southern California for the last thirty-Hve years
and watched the really phenomenal changes wrought here in that com-
paratively short length of time, and in addition to have helped in this
progress and building up of a struggling section, has been the privilege
of Emmo C. Bichowsky, one of the leading factors in Pomona's de-
velopment, and a man of broad insight and keen business acumen. He
has made his impress felt in the growing community, and a record of its
achievements without mention of his part in them would be incomplete.
Emmo C. Bichowsky was born in Terre Haute, Ind., February 29,
1856, and educated in the public schools of his early environment. His
first business position was as cashier for Hulman & Cox, of Terre
Haute; next he was teller in the bank of McKeen & Company, of
Terre Haute, and in 1884 he located in San Gabriel as deputy county
tax collector for Los Angeles County. In 1886 he became general
manager for L. J. Rose & Company, Limited, San Gabriel, owners of
a large winery, the "Sunny Slope Vineyard" being their property. In
1897 Mr. Bichowsky became manager for the California Green and
Dried Fruit Company of Los Angeles.
Mr. Bichowsky had previously bought an interest in the implement
business of Philip Stein & Company of Pomona, and in August, 1899,
he came here to live, acquired a majority of the stock in that concern,
and changed the name to the Pomona Implement Company, of which
he is president, and which at that time was the largest concern of its
kind in the Valley. Besides his business interests Mr. Bichowsky en-
gaged in the citrus industry and is the owner of a twenty-five-acre
orange grove in San Marino, his trees averaging sixty years old, and
are heavy producers of the seedling variety.
The marriage of Mr. Bichowsky, in Boston, Mass., April 10, 1883,
united him with Ella M. Mason of that city, and four sons have blessed
their union: Karl died at eight years of age; Foord, a graduate of
Pomona College and the University of California, and a mechanical
engineer by profession; Francis, also a graduate of these two institu-
tions, and professor of Geographical Laboratory of the Carnegie In-
stitution at Washington, D. C, and James, of Los Angeles. Francis
Bichowsky was recently honored by being one of thirteen men to receive
appointment to National Research Fellowships in physics and chemis-
try by the National Research Council. This Council was formed dur-
ing the war under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences, to
place at the disposal of the Government the scientific knowledge and
resources of America, and has since been reorganized on a peace-time
basis. Each fellowship carries a stipend of $1,500 or more.
As a public-spirited and influential citizen, Mr. Bichowsky has
taken an active part in many important movements in the advancement
of Pomona's best interests ; he was one of the organizers of the Pomona
702 HISTORY AND BIOGRAFHY
Board of Trade and president of that body for seven years; he was
the organizer of the Pomona Valley Hospital and its president for the
first five years; he was secretary of the Pomona Securities Company,
which developed ninety acres south of Ganesha Park, subdivided and
sold the property, which is a part of the fine residence district of the
city; with others, he was Instrumental in the building of the Pacific
Electric lines into Pomona, and a member of the committee on that
project; he is vice-president and director of the San Gabriel Cemetery
Association. In politics he is a stand-pat Republican and has twice
been foreman of the grand jury in Los Angeles County.
Mr. Bichowsky erected the brick block on the corner of Third
Street and Garey Avenue, which building he now owns and occupies a
part of it for his business establishment. Prominent in church affairs
for the past ten years he has been on the board of trustees of the Uni-
tarian Church here. Fraternally he is a charter member of Pomona
Lodge No. 789, B. P. O. Elks.
It is to5uch men as this that Pomona owes her place as one of the
leading cities of Southern California, and all honor is due the unselfish
work thev have done to advance their home community to its present
substantial position in the state.
SAMUEL W. McINTIRE
A man of sturdy character and habits of industry, which have
brought him a competency in a comparatively short time, Samuel W.
Mclntire has made Pomona his home for the past nineteen years, and
has, besides developing his own ranch, taken an active part in the
planting and developing of other ranches and ordiards In the Valley.
Born in Buchanan, Mich., March 30, 1847, he was raised In that
state. Left an orphan at an early age, he tried to enlist in the Civil
War, but was too young, so he worked on farms near South Bend,
Ind., and later taught school for a number of years in Indiana, Michi-
gan, Kansas and Iowa.
Air. Mclntire came to Pomona in 1900, and for a time worked
on ranches in the Valley. With but thirty dollars for the first pay-
ment, he bought his ranch, on the corner of Glendale and Washington
avenues, and developed it in a short time to great productiveness,
making it pay for itself as a result of his energy and perseverance, and
in the meantime assisting In the planting and development of other
ranches In the district. For seven years of this time he was "Zanjero"
(In charge of the ditch) on the Kingsley Tract.
The marriage of Mr. Mclntire united him with Mary M. Miller,
a native of Indiana, and seven sons and two daughters were born to
them: Wiley B., a stockman of Iowa; Martin, school teacher in Au-
HISTORY AND lilOGRAPHV 703
dubon County, Iowa; Charles E. of Pomona; James, in the insurance
business in San Francisco; Frank served his country in the United
States Army during the World War; Earl of Pomona; Roy S., super-
intendent of a sugar factory at Ogden, Utah; Florence; and Alice,
who is deceased; a family to take pride in and who have taken advan-
tage of the good educations given them by their parents. The mother
passed to her reward in 1915.
WILLIAM O. FRITZ
Among the many who have been drawn to the city of Pomona
because of its attractions and bright future prospects is William O.
Fritz, who was born in Medma County, Ohio, October 11, 1852.
In 1868, when a lad of sixteen, William went to Gratiot County,
Mich., where his father was a pioneer and the owner of one hundred
sixty acres of timber land, which he cleared and farmed. In 1873
William attended the Michigan Agricultural College at Lansing, Mich.
With characteristic energy and determined purpose, the young man
worked his way through college, teaching in the winter and attend-
ing school in summer. He graduated from the institution in 1877. He
was township superintendent of schools in Gratiot County, Mich., two
years. For four years he was district agent for the Union Central
Life Insurance Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, with headquarters at
La Fayette, Ind. In 1882 he became foreman of Purdue University
State Experimental Station at La Fayette, Ind., and later, when the
national and state farms were merged, became superintendent of the
farming and experimental department of the station. In 1902 he pur-
chased a grain and stock ranch in Marshall County, Ind., and after
farming the property for four years, came to Pomona, Cal., in Novem-
ber, 1906. After looking around for a time, he purchased his present
seven and one-half acre orange grove, where he has since lived and
successfully raised oranges. Since coming to Pomona he has bought
and sold three other orange groves. His home place is nicely improved
and has produced bountifully.
Mr. Fritz married Miss Elizabeth Shoemaker, who was born and
reared at La Fayette, Ind., and they are the parents of a daughter,
Mary A., a student in Pomona College. Mrs. Fritz graduated from
Purdue College in 1884, and in 1886 was the first student to receive
the degree of master of science from that institution. She taught
school one year in the La Fayette, Ind., public schools, and also taught
the botany class one year at Purdue College.
When the Trinity Methodist Church of Pomona was formed,
Mr. and Mrs. Fritz were charter members and helped to build the
church. Mrs. Fritz was prominent and very active in the church, was
enrollment secretary of the Sunday School, was one of the Sunday
704 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
School teachers, and did grand work In helping increase its member-
ship. The church is still following the plan she formulated. She was
also secretary of the ladies' circle and of the home missionary society,
and treasurer of the foreign missionary society for five years, for
which she raised a large sum of money. She served one year as presi-
dent of the board of directors of the David and Margaret Home at
La Verne.
Mr. Fritz served as director of the Claremont Citrus Association
at one time and later resigned from the association. In 1916 he again
became a member of the organization and was elected president, the
office he now holds. At one time Mr. Fritz represented the Claremont
Citrus Association on the San Antonio Fruit Exchange of Pomona,
Cal. Mr. Fritz is also president and manager of the Kingsley Tract
Water Company, and both he and his wife are members of the Pomo-
logical Club of Claremont, of which his wife is treasurer. Both are
members of the F^irst Congregational Church at Claremont. He is a
director of the Growers Fumigation and Supply Company of Pomona.
IRA D. BAILEY
A man who thoroughly understands the technical problems of the
field he set out to master is Ira D. Bailey, who has contributed to
the developing of California, and who is prominent in Odd Fellow
circles. He was born at Augusta, in Kennebec County, Maine, on
January 25, 1877, and was educated at the local public and the Cony
High School.
Leaving school, he worked in the Bodwell Granite Works at
Hallowell, Maine, and at the same time played the violin in orchestral
work and made himself somewhat locally famous for balls and other
festal occasions. He thus prepared himself to meet with any kind of
healthy, honest human nature, and in time took the move which
brought him in direct contact with the varied types of western life.
In 1899 Mr. Bailey came to Pomona, and here he was soon busy
installing and operating irrigating plants throughout the Valley. He
entered the engineering department of the Pomona Valley Ice Com-
pany in 1908, and so well has he served them that he has been their
cilief engineer for about eight years.
When a young man in Augusta, Mr. Bailey joined the Odd Fel-
lows; and, on coming to Pomona, he was transferred to the Pomona
Lodge and all its branches. Now he is among the most active and
influential in that widely-established and excellent fraternity. He is a
past noble grand, a past chief patriot and a past commandant of the
canton. He also belongs to the Woodmen of the World.
The wedding of Mr. Bailey and Miss Martina V. Hatton, a
native of Missouri and the daughter of Jennie V. Huddleston of Co-
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 703
vina, occurred at Covina, August 2, 1905, and they have one daughter,
Virginia May, born September, 1908. The family attend the First
Christian Church. Pomona has a future, and one that cannot fail to
arouse the imagination; and much of it will depend on just such
young men as Mr. Bailey, one of the most confident and enthusiastic
of her citizens.
CHARLES J. BOOTH
The representative in America of an old English family, Charles
J. Booth of Pomona was born in Lancashire, Eng., May 16, 1858.
His father, who was a schoolmate and personal friend of the famous
English advocate of free trade, John Bright, was the owner of a
cotton-spinning factory in England, and young Charles was bookkeeper
and accountant in his father's factory in his younger days.
Thirty-eight years have elapsed since he sailed from his English
home for the shores of America, where, a young man of twenty-three,
he arrived at Boston, Mass., September 19, 1881. He found employ-
ment at Lowell, Mass., as bookkeeper for J. C. Ayer & Company, the
famous patent medicine manufacturers. After spending six years in
their employ he came to California, arriving at Los Angeles in 1887,
where he became correspondent clerk for the wholesale grocers, M. A.
Newmark & Company. In 1889 he went to Pasadena and engaged
in the grocery business, conducting a store on Lake Avenue. Attracted
to Pomona by its bright future prospects and beautiful and congenial
surroundings, he came to this city to make a home in August, 1898, and
for sixteen years he and his wife conducted the European Rooming
House on Parcells and West Second streets. During this time and
later, for nearly eighteen years, he was in the employ of Loud and
Gerling, fruit packers, in the capacity of bookkeeper. In 1908 Mr.
Booth erected two houses on land that he had acquired in Pomona, and
afterwards exchanged this property for his present ten-acre ranch at
1341 East Phillips Boulevard. This land, originally a barley field, he
set to Tuscan cling peaches in 1910, and now has one of the best
developed peach orchards in the Valley. His success in peach culture
testifies to the care bestowed upon his orchard in giving the rignt
amount of water, fertilizer and cultivation, the wise administration of
which is of vital Importance in producing the best results. In 1918 the
orchard yielded forty-four tons of fruit, and the crop for 1919 exceeds
this. Mr. Booth started hatching the White Leghorn strain of poultry
with a modern incubator, with the intention of Increasing his flock to
LOOO or more laying hens.
In selecting a life partner his choice fell upon Harriett G. Eccles,
a native of England, to whom he was united in marriage. Their union
706 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
was blessed by the birth of a daughter, now Mrs. Helen M. Cleveland
of Pomona. In religious associations Mrs. Booth is a member of the
Pilgrim Congregational Church.
REV. CHARLES R. HUDSON
A man who would have made his mark in any walk of life, and
who in his chosen vocation has proven of Inestimable worth in the
great work to which he has been called, as pastor of the First Christian
Church of Pomona, Rev. Charles R. Hudson is but emphasizing those
traits of character which have made him a prominent figure in the
field of Christianity throughout the country. Born in Jennings County,
Ind., he was reared there in a Christian home and a Christian com-
munity. Receiving his preliminary education in the public schools, in
1890 he entered college at Lexington, Ky., and later took a classical
course at Butler College, Indianapolis. In 1897 he graduated from
the department of psychology and philosophy at the Indiana State
University, and then took a post-graduate course at Yale University, in
1898 and 1899.
Reverend Hudson's first charge was at Franklin, Ind., from 1897
to 1904, during which time he built a new church there and strength-
ened the congregation, increasing the membership to 1,050. Called
to Frankfort, Ky., for the next seven years he was a most efficient
pastor there, and at the same time active in the affairs of the city; was
president of the Building and Loan Association, and of the Associated
Charities, and also acted as curator of Transylvania University at
Lexington, Ky.
In October, 1911, Reverend Hudson was called to his present
charge in Pomona, and he has answered the call with all the force
of his character and personality. He has promoted a religious and
educational program in the church and Sunday School, which latter
reached 1,200 members. In attendance and size, his church is one
of the largest and strongest of its denomination on the Coast, no small
honor when considering the many beautiful Christian Churches that
are active in Los Angeles and other parts of the state.
Reverend Hudson has succeeded in working out a modern educa-
tional program that provides, not only for a thorough knowledge of
the word of God, but for training in Christian character and for
service in various departments of Christian and philanthropic work.
His church has recently called a university young man, T. Charles
Miller, as educational director, and he has been made dean of the
entire educational program of his church. Under the supervision of
Mrs. Royal J. Dye, a school of missions is conducted in this church
each year, and at present eleven young people are in course of training
for missionary work, either at home or abroad. This church main-
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 707
tains three missionaries in foreign fields: Dr. C. L. Pickett, at Laoag,
Philippine Islands; Mrs. Bessie Farrar Madsen, at Pendra Road,
India; and Miss Nina Du Pee, at Nantungchow, Kiang Su, China;
and one in Arizona and two in California.
In addition to his direct church work, Reverend Hudson was
president of the Red Cross of Pomona during the war period, and has
been president of the Associated Charities Welfare League of Pomona
Valley since 1915, and is closely identified with other work for the
public good. He was a delegate to the San Francisco meetings of the
League of Nations, and was chosen by the general office in New York
as one of the speakers on the Pacific Coast for the Inter-Church World
Movement of America, the object of which is the cooperation of all
religious denominations for the Christianization of the world. With
such men as he at the helm, this wonderful movement should prove
epoch-making in the history of religion and bring far-reaching results
from every corner of the earth.
The marriage of Reverend Hudson, which occurred on July 28,
1906, in Mitchell, Ind., united him with Miss Harriett Hyatt, a native
of Washington, Ind., and one daughter has blessed their union, Mary
Hyatt. As a recreation and diversion from his arduous work for
humanity, the pastor has interested himself in horticulture, and owns
a lemon and orange grove in the San Dimas district. Fraternally, he is
a Knight Templar Mason, and in all things he is broad and liberal in
spirit, working with a largeness of purpose and a genuine devotion to
the best interests of his congregation and of the growing municipality.
LYNN A. BLICKENSTAFF
A financier who has made a thorough study of that very impor-
tant and comprehensive field of business endeavor and to whom much
of the present success of the First National Bank of La Verne is due,
is Lynn A. Blickenstaff, its present efficient cashier. Mr. Blickenstaff
is a native of Cerro Gordo, Piatt County, 111., the son of David and
Hannah Blickenstaff, who were Ohioans and early settlers of Piatt
County, 111., and was educated in the public schools of that county,
after which he attended Mount Morris College, at Mount Morris, 111.
His advent into the banking business was made in the spring of
1908, when he entered the State Bank of Cerro Gordo, 111., as a clerk.
His ability and efficiency were soon recognized, and in August, 1910,
Mr. Blickenstaff became assistant cashier of the First National Bank
of La Verne, Cal. In his new field of operations he soon became
known as a Ayise counselor in financial circles and his conservative
policy has greatly increased the confidence of the people of La Verne
and vicinity in the stability and substantiality of the First National
Bank of La Verne, of which Mr. Blickenstaff became cashier In May,
708 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
1911. The officers of the bank are: E. R. Yundt, president; H. J.
Vaniman, vice-president; L. A. Blickenstaff, cashier. The board of
directors is composed of A. C. Abbott, W. M. Miller, William M.
Steel, W. S. Romick and O. S. Jewett.
On May 20, 1912, Mr. Blickenstaff was united in marriage with
Mary D. Brubaker, a native of Indiana, and this union has been
blessed with two children, Leonard E. and David E.
Mr. Blickenstaff takes an active part in civic affairs of La Vevne
and is always ready to assist every worthy movement that has as its
aim the advancement of the educational, social and commercial inter-
ests of the community.
J. E. CAMPBELL
Another interesting instance of a Californian by adoption who
touched the Coast more or less accidentally as a world voyager, and
who then, liking the looks of things, decided to stay, is that of J. E.
Campbell, the expert machinist, who specializes in repairs of all kinds
of pumps used in irrigating and waterworks plants, and caters to the
wide territory extending from El Monte east to Corona, and out as
far as Victorville, in San Bernardino County, on the desert. He was
born at Boston, on Washington's Birthday, 1865, and attended that
city's excellent public schools.
His father was a shipbuilder, Evan by name, who married Isa-
bella Scott, and the lad started from Boston, when only fourteen
years of age, as a passenger on one of his father's ships for a voyage
around the world. He sailed around the Horn to the Pacific, then on
to Honolulu, from which port he arrived in San Francisco in 1880.
Deciding to remain in the Bay City, he became an apprentice to the
machinist's trade, taking a place with the Byron Jackson Machine
Works, where he was employed for twelve years. He then worked
for the Pelton Water Wheel Company, the Risdon Iron Works, and
the Union Iron Works, all of San FVancisco, and the Best Manufac-
turing Company of San Leandro, Alameda County, each of which
was a first-class concern. In 1906, Mr. Campbell removed to River-
side, where he entered the employ of the Riverside Foundrv and
Machine Works.
Two years later, Mr. Campbell located in Pomona, and became
foreman of the machine shop of Lee W. Matthews, for whom he
conducted the establishment until Mr. Matthews sold out to the
Ranchers Manufacturing Company. Then Mr. Campbell became a
stockholder in the new concern, and foreman of its machine shop.
Later, selling out his interest in the Ranchers Company, he entered
into business for himself.
He opened up a general machine and repair shop at 365 South
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 709
Main Street, where he is now located, and where he keeps a crew of
eight men busy the year around. He has been closely identified with
the water development in the Pomona Valley, and has thus worked
for most of the water companies in the Pomona district. No more
expert machinist, it is safe to say, could anywhere be found, nor
could any community appreciate more fully than Pomona has done
Mr. Campbell's exceptional skill.
In 1894, at San Francisco, Mr. Campbell was married to Miss
Ella Whelen, a native of Oakland and the daughter of John Whelen,
who crossed the great plains to California in the good old pioneer
days. Four children blessed the union: Frank enlisted in the United
States Army early in the World War, in the motor truck division, and
was located for awhile at Camp Fremont, and at camps in the East,
but did not get to F>ance; Earl saw active service in France with the
Three Hundred Sixty-fourth Infantry, Ninety-first Division, and was
wounded in the leg in one of the first engagements, and discharged
from the service; and Madeline and Raymond are both at school.
The family attend the Episcopal Church. Mr. Campbell has reached
all the chairs in the encampment and the Canton of the Odd Fellows,
and also belongs to the Maccabees.
LLOYD R. CLARK
Pomona has been fortunate in ways too numerous to mention,
and not least among them is in the men it has chosen to carry on
the public welfare interests; it is by their unfailing teamwork and
unselfish devotion to the city's progress that much of the latter is due,
and this fact makes it a city unique in many ways. Among these
public-spirited citizens may be mentioned Lloyd R. Clark, the popular
police commissioner, who has been a resident of the community since
early childhood and has made its interests his own during the years
when both he and his home section were growing and developing.
Born in Plymouth, Huron County, Ohio, August 16, 1885, Mr. Clark
is a son of Frederick Thomas Clark, a business man who married
Miss Jennie Daniels, a native of Ohio, his birthplace being New
Jersey. He first brought his family to Pomona on the death of his
wife, in Ohio, in 1898. Six years later, he passed away here.
Lloyd R. was educated in the common schools of his neighbor-
hood, but only until his fourteenth year, for at that early age he
turned from his books to make his own way in the world, and to help
shoulder the responsibility of supporting the family, five children in
all, left bereaved by the early death of the parents. With his elder
brother, George Earl Clark, as a partner, they engaged in the livery
business, and when the automobile came into common use they \en-
710 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
tured into that field and were among the first in Pomona to enlarge
its iisefuhiess in a commercial way. They maintain an up-to-date
garage, owning the property on which the brick structure stands, and
they probably utilize the largest floor space In the city for their
increasing business. They are agents, under the name of Clark
Brothers, for the Oldsmobile and the Maxwell cars for Pomona
Valley. They also own a two-thirds interest in the iVIilner Bottling
Works, which is also housed in their own building on Gordon and
First streets. In their different enterprises they employ many men,
and have a good pay roll, such as spells prosperity for any city. The
Clark brothers have worked together in harmony, putting their shoul-
ders to the wheel to bring them their well-merited success and to attain
the position in the business and social world that they both occupy.
The marriage of Lloyd R. Clark, which occurred at Riverside,
March 4, 1907, united him with Miss Leria Slanker, and two children
have been born to them: Mildred J., who died aged 4 months, and
Lloyd R., Jr. The family attend the Methodist Church.
A supporter of the Republican party, Mr. Clark was appointed
police commissioner by the unanimous vote of the commissioners, to
fill out the unexpired term of Paul HIggs, who resigned, and his re-
election to that office shows that his performance of the duties of his
public office was in every way satisfactory. He is an active worker
In the local Chamber of Commerce, and stands ready at all times to
do his share in the further development of Pomona as a city, and the
agricultural interests surrounding It. He Is the owner of both city
and ranch property, and a firm believer in the future of his section of
the state. Fraternally, he Is a member of the Masons and Elks.
JACOB P. HANSEN
An experienced American rancher of Danish extraction, who came
to California and was fortunate In discovering the superior advantages
of Pomona, Is Jacob P. Hansen, who was born at Yllen, Denmark, on
July 21, 1871, where he was reared and educated up to his sixteenth
year. Then he came to America alone; and having a half-brother in
Benson County, N. D., he went there and for a while worked for
wages on a farm. Later he took up a homestead of 160 acres and he
kept buying land until he owned 800 acres, which he Improved with a
house, barn and the necessary outbuildings. He farmed to grain, and
raised fine horses of .the Percheron breed, and also shorthorn cattle;
some he exhibited at local fairs.
The superior attractions of California, however, brought him
here on a visit of inspection and he Invested in forty-four acres at Tur-
lock, in Stanislaus County; and when he returned East, it was to dis-
HISTORY AND lilOGRAPIlV 711
pose of his property there. In 1909 he came to Pomona, convinced
that this would be a fine place in which to locate, and since locating here
he has sold his Turlock property. He bought ten acres at 1304 West
Fifth Street, part of which was already planted to walnuts; and he set
out more walnut trees and greatly improved the place. He was so suc-
cessful in the new venture that from five acres of big walnut trees in
1919 he took over four tons of nuts; while his peach crop that year
yielded him eleven tons. He also owns ten acres of orange groves at
Arlington, in Riverside County; so that, looking back to the days when
he came to America a poor boy, and through all the struggles Inci-
dental to his becoming a "self-made" man, he feels a particular pride
in his American citizenship, conferred upon him at Devil's Lake, X. D.
Mr. Hansen's marriage took place at Devil's Lake, June, 1898,
when he was united with Anna C. Benson, a native of Sweden; and
eight children have blessed their fortunate union. Emile has been in
the United States Navy since September, 1916, and was gunner's mate
in the war with Germany ; Catherine and Violet are the next in the order
of birth; Clarence is in the United States Navy; and Arthur, Edward,
Victor and Ruth — the latter the only one born in California — are the
remainder of the promising offspring. Mr. Hansen has taken two
trips back to his old home in Denmark, and has enjoyed again the old-
time associations, while still appreciating the land of his adoption and
the new social ties in such circles as the Modern Woodmen.
IRA J. CREE
It would be hard to find a community more filled with people of
culture and educational attainments than Pomona Valley. The
wealth, population and influence of the Valley has increased wonder-
fully with the passing of the years, and this progress is due to the
public-spirited and loyal citizens who have elected to make their homes
in such ideal surroundings.
Ira J. Cree, the efficient postmaster of Claremont, is a native of
Pennsylvania, born January 7, 1866, in Clearfield County, a son of
William and Lavina (Johnstone) Cree, of Scotch extraction. The
father was a farmer and lumberman of that state, and they were the
parents of five children. Both parents are now deceased.
Ira J. was educated in the schools of Bloomfield, Iowa, the family
having moved there when he was a small child. He graduated from
the high school of that city, and then entered the Southern Iowa
Normal School of Bloomfield for a term of two years. After com-
pleting his education, he taught school in Dakota, now South Dakota,
for eight years, farming in the summer months and teaching during
the winter. He was elected county auditor of Hand County and
712 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
served two terms, making his residence in Miller, the county seat,
afterwards engaging in banking and real-estate business, having organ-
ized the Hand County State Bank in Miller, S. D., of which he was
president.
In 1908 Mr. Cree came to California, and settled at Long Beach
for a short time. Liking the climate and other conditions he decided
to make California his residence, so returned and settled his affairs
and in 1910 he located in Claremont and engaged in the development
of an orange and lemon grove of fifty acres. He was appointed
postmaster in April, 1915, and was reappointed in 1919, and has since
served in that office. Mr. Cree is a director and one of the large
stockholders in the First National Bank of Claremont; is a believer
in cooperation for fruit growers and a member of the El Camino Fruit
exchange. Mr. Cree has a large circle of friends in the community
and he and his family enter heartily into the social and civic life of
Claremont.
Mr. Cree's marriage, in October, 1893, united him with Ella
Miltonberger, and two sons have been born to them: William Harold,
who served as ensign in the navy during the World War, and George
Earl, who served in the motor-truck service of the United States
Army with the rank of corporal. The family attend the Congrega-
tional Church. Fraternally, Mr. Cree is a member of the Masons;
in politics he is a Democrat. Public-spirited to a large degree, he
takes part in all movements for the advancement of this section, both
along educational, civic and commercial lines, and is wejl informed on
all such projects.
STACY W. CLAPP, D.D.S.
Almost a native son — for he was only three years of age when
first brought to California — Stacy W. Clapp, the well-known dentist
of Pomona, has grown up with the fast-developing commonwealth, and
growing, has imbibed to the full the California spirit. He was born
at Ashland, Crafton County, N. H., on January 17, 1882, and is the
son of the late Eri G. Clapp, a native of Vermont, who married Miss
Alice Keyes of New Hampshire, who is now living in Los Angeles.
Eri Clapp came to California with his family in 1885 and located at
Covina, where he followed orange growing and developed a number
of ranches. Later he removed to Los Angeles, and in 1911 he died.
Besides our subject, there were four children. Carl is a druggist of
Covina; Helen is the wife of Claire Jenks, of Los Angeles; Arthur is
a rancher of Walnut Park, and Philip lives at Covina.
Stacy attended the grade schools of Covina and graduated from
the preparatory department of Pomona College, Class of 1902. Four
years later, he was graduated from the Dental College of the Univer-
HISTORY AND I'.IOGRAPHY 713
sity of Southern California. He practiced his profession in Los An-
geles for a short time, and then located at Pomona, where he has been
since 1907.
While at Pomona College he was active in athletics, and was a
member of both the baseball and football teams . He is a member
of the Los Angeles County Dental Association and the Tri-Counties'
Dental Association; he belongs to the Elks and is a past master of the
Pomona lodge of Masons.
In 1906, and at Los Angeles, Doctor Clapp was married to Miss
Fannie N. Hendricks, a native of Kansas, whose parents were Mr.
and Mrs. W. N. Hendricks, of Los Angeles. Two children have
come to brighten the household — Stacy W., Jr., and Lota Alice. The
family attend the Episcopal Church of Pomona, and enjoy country life
on the Doctor's fully-developed orange and lemon ranch of eight acres
on the Base Line Road. His office is in the Investment Building at
Pomona, and there, in a well-appointed suite, fitted with every modern
convenience, he cares for a constantly-increasing patronage.
WILLIAM M. OGILVIE
A Scotchman who laid the foundation for his future, en\'iable
career in the schools and first-class technical establishments of his native
land, and then, coming to America, began to apply the fruits of his ex-
perience under conditions he might never have found so favorable at
home, is William M. Ogilvie, the rancher of West Holt Avenue, in
the Packard Orange Grove tract. He was born at Dundee, Scotland.
on January 18, 1881, and there attended the public schools and
academy, receiving a good business education. As a result of his ex-
cellent training, he became a bookkeeper and cashier in the Jute Spin-
ning and Weaving Manufacturing Company at Dundee, Scotland.
Migrating to the United States and California, he came to Po-
mona and joined the Scotch and Canadian colony in the Packard tract,
and in 1909 bought an orange grove of five and an eighth acres, which
was run down. He greatly improved the place, and set out lemons,
Valencia and Navel oranges, and walnuts. He owns a fine modern
tractor, and does contracting work on other orchards in the tract, culti-
vating in all over 100 acres.
On October 24, 1906, Mr. Ogilvie was married at Dundee to
Miss Nellie Dick. Her father followed the sea and sailed all over
the globe; and on one of his early trips, he came to San Francisco when
that place was a hamlet rather than a town. One daughter, Margaret,
blessed their union, and she also was born at Dundee.
The family attend the First Presbyterian Church, and Mr. Ogil-
vie participates in civic life and reforms along progressive lines. He
and his family dispense an old-time hospitality.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
WILLIAM HENRY SMITH
The biography of the Smith family, dealing as It does with
pioneer days both in the East and West, is of unusual interest and full
of incidents which bear on the history of the times. James A. Smith,
father of William Henry, was born in W^estern Reserve, Ohio, and
ciuring his school days was a classmate of James A. Garfield, and a
personal friend of that eminent statesman in later life. They were
closely related to the Burnside family, his second cousin being Gen.
Ambrose E. Burnside. James A. Smith married Maria Hanson, a
native of South Bend, Ind., and the young couple crossed the plains
to California in pioneer days, the husband walking the greater part
of the way while his wife drove one of the wagons, arriving in Hang-
town in 1852.
William Henry Smith was born at Grand Island, on the Sacra-
mento River, Colusa County, September 10, 1855. Here he was
raised until reaching nine years of age, when the family started East
once more ; they drove with wagons to Sacramento, and there took
steamer down the river for San Francisco, from which port they em-
barked for the Isthmus of Panama, and on December 4, 1864, crossed
the isthmus on the railroad, the young lad's first ride on a train. For
thirteen years the family lived in Livingston County, Illinois.
In 1874 the father bought a section of land near Artesia, Los
Angeles County, and in 1876 he returned to California and located on
this ranch and lived there until his death, in 1910. Young William
Henry worked with* his father on the ranch at Artesia until 1879, the
year of his marriage, which united him with Sadie Law, a native of
North Hampshire, England, who came to the LInited States when two
years old. After his marriage Mr. Smith operated a ranch of his own
at Artesia, comprising fifty-five acres devoted to grain and alfalfa.
From there he went to Madera County, where he had a ranch of 1,040
acres, and this he operated until 1912, when he traded his Madera
holdings for two ranches on East Franklin Avenue, Pomona, raising
peaches and apricots; after cultivating this property for four years, he
traded it for a five-acre orange grove at Fontana, San Bernardino
County, and two houses and three lots in San Jose, and other property.
He is also the owner of a one-fourth interest in a business block on
San Pedro street, Los Angeles, this property being located in the
wholesale district in the city. Mr. Smith's first visit to Pomona was
in 1894, when he drove from Artesia with a load of produce; the now
thriving town was then a village with more saloons than grocery stores ;
he has seen many changes both here and in Los Angeles, which he
watched grow from a small city, in 1876, to its present size.
The following children were born to Mr. Smith and his wife:
Mry. L. W. Nevens of Vallejo; George A., married and living in Oak-
land, Nellie M. died at the age of twenty-three; Caroline, wife of
HISTORY AND UK )GR.\PITY 713
D. W. Anderson of Pomona ; Leon W. entered the United States
Army October 5, 1917, was sent to Camp Lewis, later transferred to
Camp Kearny, he volunteered to go across early and went to France
as a casual, joining the "Yanks" Division September 12, 1918, in the
One Hundred Third Infantry. He served sixty-seven days at the
front, taking part in all the battles during that time, and came through
without a scratch, though when he fired his first shot his gun exploded.
He received his discharge April 19, 1919, and while in England visited
his mother's birthplace; Hope NL of Claremont; and Veda L., wife
of Forest Anderson of Vallejo. The mother passed to her reward
December 1, 1901.
FRANCIS HARDING WHITE, PH.D.
The colony of people who have selected Claremont as their home
are in many respects exceptional people, both as regards education and
accomplishments. This ideal spot has attracted men from all walks
of life, scholars, artists, eminent horticulturists, and the more practical
business man alike have found here the fulfillment of their ideas regard-
ing an environment in which to spend their days, and they in turn have
helped to make it what it is, educationally, socially and financially.
Among these, Francis Harding White fills a place of his own,
formerly as an educator, and in recent years devoting his time to his
writings, and also to horticulture. A native of New York State, he
was born in Attica, October 9, 1862, a son of Richard and Mary Anne
(Coleman) White, of English and Irish extraction. The father was
a railroad executive, and his death occurred in Washington, D. C;
the mother is also deceased.
Francis Harding White was the seventh child of the seven chil-
dren born to his parents. His education was started in the public
schools of Alexandria, Va., and the Attica Union school. He then
was prepared for college under private instructors and entered Prince-
ton University, graduating in 1887 with the degree of A.B., later re-
ceiving his degree of A.M. He also took a post-graduate course at
Harvard, getting his A.M. in 1898, and degree of Ph.D. in 1912. He
filled the position of professor of history and political science in the
Kansas State Agricultural College at Manhattan, Kans., from 1888 to
1897, then was instructor in Wellesley College in 1898-99. Four four
years he had charge of philanthropic and educational work in Brook-
lyn, N. Y.
After these years spent in useful work in the East, Mr. White
came to the West Coast and accepted a position as instructor in Stan-
ford University in 1904-05. In the latter year he came to Pomona
College and took a post here as instructor, later becoming professor
716 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
of history in the college, a position he retained until he retired in 1916
to gi\'e his attention to writing and study and to the development of
his orange groves.
A writer of some note, Mr. White has published a text book and
numerous articles in the Political Science Quarterly, the Charities Re-
view, and the Indiislrialist, his text book outlining United States
history.
When he married, Mr. White chose for his wife Miss Anna Fair-
child, the ceremony taking place June 24, 1891, at Manhattan, Kans.
Mrs. White is a daughter of the late Dr. Geo. T. Fairchild, who for
many years was President of the Kansas State Agricultural College, of
which institution she is a graduate. Six children have been born to Mr.
and Mrs. White: Arthur, Halsted, Alan, Helen, Irving and Milton.
A man of exceptional ability and mind, progressive in every meaning of
the term, Mr. White is greatly esteemed in the community and war-
rants his position by the interest he has shown In advancing the best
Interests of Pomona Valley at all times when within his power to do so.
His recreation is spent in playing golf, and the family attend the Clare-
mont Congregational Church.
CHARLES E. GREASER
A public-spirited man active In war work and In the extension of
popular education, who has more than once proven a citizen above
party, and who, therefore, enjoys the respect of all who have followed
his career, is Charles E. Greaser, the secretary and manager of the
Home Builders Loan Association, at 261 South Thomas Street, Po-
mona. He was born in Ohio, having first seen the light of day in Clark
County on November 29, 1859, and his parents were Michael and
Barbara A. (Baney) Greaser. The father died In Denver at the age
of sixty-six, while the mother is still living, making her home with our
subject. She had eight children — five boys and three girls — and
Charles was her second child.
He was educated at the public schools of Topeka, to which city
the family moved when he was ten years of age. Then he farmed In
Kansas until he was twenty-one, and after that he learned the carpen-
ter's trade. Having plenty of ambition, and the necessary capacity
for work, he studied architecture at night and operated not only as a
builder, but as a contractor. For several years he was supervising
architect with large concerns in Denver.
Coming here in December, 1895, he engaged in real estate and
insurance for the next ten years, and in March, 1908, he organized
the company he is at present associated with, assuming his position as
director, and commencing that series of prosperous programs which
has also affected the prosperity of many of Pomona's permanent in-
HISTORY AND lUOGRAPHV 717
terests. The Home Builders Loan Association has resources to the
amount of $1,225,000.00, from $25,000 of capital subscribed to the
above, and a guaranteed capital of $100,000, and a surplus of $25,000.
Mr. Greaser very naturally belongs to the Chamber of Commerce and
leaves no stone unturned to boost whatever the chamber endorses.
He has also ser\ed on the Board of Education.
At Topeka, Kans., Mr. Greaser was married to Miss Ida Wizer,
on November 29, 1888, and have two children that are living. One is
a son, Arthur D. Greaser; and the other a daughter. Miss Helen J.
The family attend the Methodist Church. Mr. Greaser is a member
of the Odd Fellows, the Encampment, Canton and ranks as major on
the general's staff, and he also belongs to the Rebekahs.
The Home Builders Loan Association has done much to develop
parts of the beautiful Pomona Valley and so may be regarded as a
valuable agency in the upbuilding of the state itself.
WILLL'\M H. PRESNELL
That it pays in dealing with your fellowmen not only to be honest
and just, but generous and sympathetic, is demonstrated in the career
of William H. Presnell, the proprietor and manager of the "Golden
Rule Basketeria," at 105-107 South Garey Avenue, Pomona. He was
born in Wellington, Sumner County, Kans., on July 24, 1880, and
there attended the grammar schools, graduating from the Sumner
County High School with the Class of 1903. His parents were Wil-
liam J. and Susan (Cunningham) Presnell, and the father followed
building contracting and farming, the latter after settling in Kansas.
William took a course in architectural drafting in the Inter-
national Correspondence School, and for three years thereafter he
remained in his father's office, drawing plans for buildings. When he
went to Wichita, Kans., he entered the employ of the International
Harvester Company as bookkeeper, becoming cashier, and then, for
three years, traveling auditor; and after that he removed to Winfield,
in the same state, where for a couple of years he was associated with
the Winfield Implement and "Vehicle Company.
In November, 1911, he located in Phoenix, Ariz., just when the
territory was coming into statehood, and was appointed by Governor
George Hunt a member of the Board of Special Examiners authorized
to make a survey and install an accounting system for state institutions,
state offices, boards and commissions, and to provide an accounting
system for all county officials in the state in order that they might be
uniform. He also assisted in installing the accounting system of
Phoenix, Ariz., at the same time that he had his own offices as a public
accountant and auditor in the Walker Building at Phoenix.
Mr. Presnell came to Pomona in November, 1916, and became
718 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
associated with the "White House Groceteria" as assistant manager
and half owner. He sold out his interests there, however, in March,
1919, and on May 20 of the same year he established and opened "The
Golden Rule Basketeria" at 105-107 South Garey Avenue, which has
been a success from the start. The store was remodeled under the
direction of the proprietor, and made modern in every respect, with
the latest and most approved fixtures. Everything sold in his estab-
lishment is of the freshest and highest quality.
Mr. Presnell takes his motto from the ennobling sentiment in the
Golden Rule, "Therefore all things, whatsoever ye would that men
should do to you, do ye even so to them;" and he not only strives to
put this sentiment into daily use in every transaction throughout his
extensive establishment, but he has made the reputation of his store
more widely known by a card, reading as follows: "Our aim always
to please, our goods to have quality, our service courteous." An
orchestra is in attendance Saturday afternoons and evenings, and
affords just the uplifting entertainment desired. As might be expected,
Mr. Presnell is an active member of the Pomona Chamber of Com-
merce.
At Payson, 111., Mr. Presnell and Alice Stewart were united in
marriage on December 25, 1906, and they have three children : Ralph,
Mildred and Lillian. Mrs. Presnell, who is a daughter of Cyrus and
Margaret Stewart, farmer folk of Adams County, 111., shares with her
husband the esteem and good will of a large cirde of friends.
MILTOxN W. ZANDER
It is hardly possible at the present day to fully estimate the influ-
ence that wonderful convenience of the twentieth century — the automo-
bile— has played in the colonization of desert wastes and the building
of cities in places formerly remote from the centers of habitation.
Suffice to say that some of our brightest business men are engaged in
the automobile industry.
Among Pomona's enterprising and successful citizens who are
engaged in handling automobiles is Milton W. Zander, the proprietor
of a garage at 150 East Monterey Street, and agent for the Hupmobile
and Briscoe cars. Mr. Zander is a Wisconsin boy by birth, and first
saw the light of day in the Badger State in Clark County, November
10, 1886. He was reared and educated in Elgin, 111., and came to
Pomona in 1903, a youth in his teens. For four years he served an
apprenticeship as machinist in the plant of the Pomona Manufacturing
Company, and spent one year on gas engines. In 1908 he engaged in
the auto repair business on his own account, having a small shop of
two rooms. As the business grew he erected a small garage, and later
built the fine modern building which he now occupies. In connection
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 719
with the business he runs a first-class machine shop and maintains a
service which is an important factor in making his sales, for his patrons
know that he can be relied upon to make a car satisfactory to the pur-
chaser, and the name — Milton W. Zander — stands for quali*-y and
satisfaction
In 1919, Mr. Zander won a beautiful silver cup offered for cars^ — ■
costing at factory $1200 or under — in the Los Angeles-Yosemite run;
he made the run with a Briscoe, covering the 374.5 miles on thirteen
gallons of gasoline, averaging 28.8 miles to the gallon, and since it was
the first time he had ever been over the route and unfamiliar with
same, oould have doubtless made a still better record had he been
familiar with the roads. On November 8, 1919, in an official test,
Mr. Zander, with three passengers, in a Briscoe four-cylinder car, made
a world's record for economy for four-cylinder cars by making 51.2
miles on one gallon of gasoline. Besides his automobile agencies Mr.
Zander also handles trucks and tractors and his garage stands for all
that is to be desired in a modern motor car business, an example of
the business ability and fair methods of its owner.
The marriage of Mr. Zander, which occurred in Riverside, united
him with Miss Effie Whipp, a native of Missouri, and two children
have been born to them, Dallas and Ellis. Fraternally, Mr. Zander
is a member of the Knights of Pythias. In his church affiliations he is
a member of the First Christian Church of Pomona, and in business
circles he is active in the work of the local Chamber of Commerce.
ROY HUSTON
The citrus fruit industry is one of the greatest and most important
industries of Southern California, and Roy Huston, foreman of the
packing house of the San Dimas Lemon Association, is well equipped in
knowledge of the various phases of citrus culture for the responsible
position he holds. He was born in Garden City, Cass County, Mo.,
July 20, 1883, the son of William J. Huston, who was born in Illinois,
of New England ancestry, and who came to Cass County, Mo., when
a young man. Mrs. Huston before her marriage was Miss Gertrude
Lotspeich, born in Cass County, anci descended from an old Southern
family. They followed farming there until the mother died in 1908,
when Mr. Huston sold out and retired to Kansas City. Of their six
children, Roy Is the eldest. He spent his younger years among rural
surroundings, experiencing the usual life of a boy reared on a farm,
attending the public schools. In 1905, when twenty-two years of age,
he came to Pomona, Cal., where for three years he was in the employ
of the American Beet and Sugar Company as foreman of the filtering
department at their factory in Chino. During the winter months,
when the factory was not in operation, he found employment in the
720 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
orange and lemon groves of the Valley, gaining a thorough knowledge
of the citrus fruit industry. In 1908 he entered the employ of the San
Dimas Lemon Association at San Dimas as night watchman of the
plant. Later he was picking foreman in the lemon orchards of the
association, and in 1913 was transferred to The Limoneria Company,
at Santa Paula, of which C. C. Teague is the manager. While with
this company he was general manager of the lemon picking crews, and
after three and one-half years in their employ he returned to San
Dimas and became foreman of the packing house of the San Dimas
Lemon Association, his present position. Not only an expert on
lemon culture, Mr. Huston is also a young man of superior executive
ability and sound judgment, and his valuable services are appreciated
by his employers. He is also president and general manager, as well
as one of the organizers, of the Citrus Improvement Company of San
Dimas. This company owns 320 acres at the mouth of the San Dimas
Canyon which they are improving and planting to lemons, having al-
ready fifty-five acres in orchard. The ranch is known as the Highland
Home ranch. This is a highly developed grove and the stockholders
in the company, of whom there are fifteen, plan to increase the grove*
to ninety acres in lemons.
In San Dimas Mr. Huston was married to Miss Ella Smith of
Pittsfield, 111., and they are the parents of four children, Evelyn,
Leonard, June and Ida Nadine.
MRS. IDA E. ABORN
A woman of culture and refinement, who has amply demonstrated
that she can manage an important California ranch and bring it to a
high state of cultivation, is Mrs. Ida E. Aborn, one of the prominent
residents of South Sycamore Avenue, Claremont. She is a native of
Barrington, R. I., where she was popular as Miss Ida E. Peck, the
daughter of Asa Peck, a descendant of an old Colonial family promi-
nently identified with the successful conduct of the Revolutionary War
and the securing of our independence from Great Britain. She is a
lineal descendant of Joseph Peck, who emigrated from old Hingham,
England, to New Hingham, Mass., in 1638. One of his descendants
bought land from the Indians, a farm that Mrs. Aborn's father owned
and where she was born, and it is still in the possession of the Peck
family. After a while, she lived for four years in Montclair, N. J.,
where her personality won her many friends; then she went to Ger-
many to educate her children in Leipsic, the great musical center and
book market of the world, and there for four years enjoyed advan-
tages not then found in the New World, still in its process of
formation.
On her return to America, Mrs. Aborn fortunately directed her
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 721
pathway toward the Pacific, and with her children located at Claremont
in the Pomona Valley. In 1908 she bought her present orange ranch
of ten acres on South Sycamore Avenue, Claremont — a tract of raw
land which she has developed into a fine place. She has erected a hand-
some, comfortable home and the usual outbuildings, and already has
one of the most attractive ranches of its. size for miles around.
Not less than seventeen varieties of fruit are on the place, besides
her oranges, for she has a good family orchard of apples, peaches,
pomelos, figs, almonds, apricots and grapes, all personally supervised
by her. This daily supervision of the estate Is both a pleasurable duty
and an inspiration to her, and in thus directing the ranch affairs, she
points the way in a very interesting manner for other women of Cali-
fornia to follow.
Two children gave Mrs. Aborn joy and comfort. A daughter,
Frances, herself the mother of three children, is the wife of Frank H.
MacDougall; a professor in the University of Minnesota; and a son,
Barton, who married and became the father of two children, died at
the promising age of twenty-four. Mrs. Aborn is an attendant of the
Congregational Church of Claremont, and took part in Red Cross and
other war work; and she Is a member of the Claremont Chapter of
the Daughters of the American Revolution, whose research and
memorial work recall the days when her pioneer ancestors bought then-
land from the Indians.
J. HARVEY DEERE, B.A., D.D.
Noteworthy among the active and talented ministers on the
Pacific Coast, J. Harvey Deere, pastor of the First Baptist Church of
Pomona, is known throughout the state and in Arizona as an orator
and public speaker and a most successful worker in his Master's vine-
yard. Broad and liberal in spirit, sincerely devout in his convictions,
he is a practical Christian, and his kindly, sympathetic nature makes
him a true minister of the gospel and a helper of men. A fluent and
convincing speaker, he reaches all walks of life, and an earnest effort to
save men to the highest purposes pervades all his works, his strong
moral force impressing young and old, and making him a power for
good in the community.
Mr. Deere first saw the light of day In Montgomery County,
Ind., August 31, 1871. After finishing his preliminary schooling he
attended normal school at Valparaiso, Ind., teaching one year there-
after. In 1894 he became a student at Wabash College, Crawfords-
ville, Ind., and during his college days there was acti\-e in athletics,
playing on the ball team two seasons, one of which he held the bat-
ting record of the team. In 1897 he was graduated from Franklin
College, Franklin, Ind., with the degree of A.B., and three years
711 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
later became an alumnus of the Rochester Theological Seminary of
Rochester, N. Y. Five years thereafter he took a post-graduate
course in theology at the Baptist Seminary, Louisville, Ky.
After thorough training and study for his life work, Mr. Deere
took as his first charge, the First Baptist Church of Lima, Ohio; after
a successful pastorate of two years the necessity of seeking health for
the family drove him into Dixieland, where he took charge of the
Carson-Newman College Church, and in addition to his pastoral re-
sponsibilities he supplied occasionally the chair of philosophy and logic
in the college.
In 1907 Mr. Deere came to Redlands, Cal., and after three years
in Southern California he responded to an unsought call to the First
Baptist Church in Phoenix, Ariz., where for five years he met with
wonderful success, baptizing 195 converts and receiving some 1000
people into the church. While there his Alma Mater honored him
with the degree of Doctor of Divinity. As things go in a minister's
life, Doctor Deere next found himself serving as pastor of the First
Baptist Church of Fresno, Cal. While in that city he became the
minister member of the Rotary Club, an organization of business men
with one representative from each classification of business. This gave
him touch with the business interests of the city and helped to increase
his responsibility in the making of public addresses. While in Fresno
he was also one of the Four Minute Men. ,
In the spring of 1918 Doctor Deere came to Pomona in charge
of the First Baptist Church, and during his short time here has built
up the work to no inconsiderable extent. His church has one of the
largest Sunday schools of any Baptist organization of the state. It
was loyal to the core to our country's call for men, sending more than
eighty of the flower of its manhood, and as remarkable as it seems all
of these men, save one, came back. Besides his active ministerial
labors the subject of this sketch Is the author of several printed sermons
and pamphlets. He is a Mason, and a man of geniality and nobility
of character, with his heart in his work of redemption.
The marriage of Doctor Deere, in 1897, united him with Cora
A. James, a native of Montgomery County, Ind. To them three chil-
dren have been born, Maurice and James passing on in tender years,
while a little daughter of four, Bettie Mae, remains to challenge hope
and crystallize ambition. Mrs. Deere has been a true helpmate to
her husband j^ a woman of many talents, active In church work, a leader
In the educational work of the church, musical in temperament and
training, a writer of verse, excelling also in landscape and china
painting.
The First Baptist Church of Pomona, situated on the corner of
Holt and Garey avenues, is a modern edifice with a seating capacity of
1700, and being the largest auditorium in the city, the building Is much
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 723
In demand for union meetings of a religious nature. The first church
of this denomination in the city was organized in 1870 by the Rev.
R. C. Fryer, in the Spadra schoolhouse, with just twelve souls in at-
tendance. In 1883 the Rev. M. Latourette, a missionary of the Los
Angeles Baptist Association, was sent here to organize a church, the
Spadra people agreeing to have their place of worship changed to
Pomona, which was done October, 1883. Regular services were held
in an old house on Fourth Street; later a house of worship was erected
on the corner of Ellen and Fourth streets, and the Rev. J. F. Moody
became pastor in August, 1884, with a congregation of forty-eight,
which by 1889 had been increased to 150 members. The present
beautiful church edifice was erected in 1910.
WALTER T. DAVIS
Like many other successful young men of Pomona \'alley, the
career of Walter T. Davis began amidst the orange groves of the
Valley.
He Is one of the many sons of Missouri who have ventured
farther west In their quest for a livelihood and have met with the well
deserved success that belongs as a rightful heritage to habits of Indus-
try and thrift. He was born in Berry County, Mo., April 25, 1881,
and came to Pomona in 1892, when eleven years of age, with his
adopted father, T. B. Copeland. Finishing his education In the Po-
mona public schools, he was engaged for three years on the Charles
Loud ranch and an additional three years In the Packard Orange Grove
Tract. He assisted in planting and budding many trees and helped
set out two-thirds of the Loud ranch. Forming a partnership with
Edward Levengood, they conducted the Pioneer Livery Stable In Po-
mona for two years. Later he sold his interest to his partner and en-
gaged In buying and selling horses, conducting sales and livery stables
very successfully. In 1913 he bought his present orange grove on
North Weber Avenue, at Pomona, where he Is now the owner of a
thirteen-acre grove of Navel and Valencia orange trees that are pro-
lific yielders for twenty-year-old trees, averaging from five acres 3000
boxes of fruit yearly.
In his choice of a helpmate he selected Miss Jessie Beck, with
whom he was united in marriage In 1900. She is the daughter of J. C.
Beck, one of the early settlers at Covina, Cal., and they are the parents
of three children: Ross O., Howard L. and Clarabell.
More than two decades have elapsed since his lot was first cast
in Pomona Valley, and Mr. Davis has witnessed many changes In
Pomona in that time. He Is full of interesting reminiscences relating
to experiences among the orange groves of early days. Fraternally he
Is Identified with the Loyal Order of Moose.
724 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
FRANK W. KNIGHT
Prominent among the successful business men of the younger
generation in Pomona, Frank W. Knight has risen to a position of trust
and responsibihty through his own capacity as a man of energetic,
thorough and progressive business abilities. That he inherited these
traits of character is self-evident, for he is the son of the late Frederick
W. Knight, who was identified with the citrus industry for the past
twenty-two years and was known to practically every large citrus
grower in the state. Frederick W. Knight was born in Montpelier,
Vt., but removed with his parents to Illinois when a small boy. On
coming to California in 1897, his interests centered in the industry in
which he remained until a short time before his death. Always an
active man, he carried heavy burdens of business until he was broken
in health at the time he resigned from his position as manager of the
Tustin Lemon Association, and on March 1, 1919, he suffered a slight
stroke of paralysis from which he never completely recovered, gradual-
ly growing worse until he passed away June 11, 1919, aged sixty-four
years, at the family residence In Pomona. He was a member of the
First Christian Church and also of the Odd Fellows lodge. A man
widely known and universally liked, his death in the prime of life has
left a void in the hearts of all who knew him. He is survived by his
widow and four sons and five daughters: Frank W. Knight, of this
review; Roy F. Knight of Yorba Linda; Roscoe W. Knight, who was
in the government service in Siberia and returned home November 7,
1919; Donald L., a student in the Pomona High School; Mrs. Effie
Hyatt of Cleveland, Ohio; Mrs. W. M. Boston of San DImas; Mrs.
William Randall of San DImas; Artie M., of Pomona, and Ray, of
Pomona.
Frank W. Knight was born in Dallas County, Mo., in 1883, and
when thirteen years old he came to California with his parents. The
family first located In Santa Paula, Ventura County, and after finishing
his schooling, PVank W. started his business career as chore boy on the
Limoneira Rancho, later took up the packing house work with that
same company and has remained In his chosen line of work since that
first beginning.
From Santa Paula Mr. Knight went to the Porterville and Exeter
section. In Tulare County, and worked in the orange packing houses,
and later to the San Jose fruit section, where he worked In deciduous
fruits, thus gaining a thorough knowledge of all branches of the busi-
ness. Coming to Southern California in 1904, he became foreman,
March 15, 1909, of the Cucamonga Lemon Association's packing
plant, and In one year's time was promoted to manager of the plant,
remaining with them in that capacity for three and one-half years.
On October 1, 1913, Mr. Knight became manager of the Indian
Hill Citrus Association of Pomona, and in 1916 was elected secretary.
HISTORY AND PJOGRAPHY 725
the youngest man to hold a like position in the Pomona Valley. He
still holds these offices, after six years of continuous service, a record
which speaks for itself. The packing plant is one of the first to be
built in the Valley, and has been enlarged and remodeled from time to
time, a precooling plant and an ice-manufacturing plant have been
built on the premises, making it one of the most modern and complete
plants in the state. It has a storage capacity of fifty carloads of
oranges, and 700 carloads are shipped yearly. The personnel of the
association is as follows: President, E. T. Sederholm; vice-president,
H. B. Davis; secretary and manager, F. W. Knight, all of Pomona.
Besides his business interests, Mr. Knight is interested with R. L.
Knox and Victor Young in orange and walnut groves in the Valley.
His marriage united him with Grace Neal, a native daughter of the
state, born at Whittier, and one daughter was born to them, Rita
May; the wife and mother passed away in January, 1919. The
family are members of the First Christian Church. Fraternally Mr.
Knight has been a member of the Odd Fellows lodge since his twenty-
first birthday, and he is also a member of the Knights of Pythias of
Pomona.
Pomona may well be proud of such men as Frank W. Knight, and
her rapid and substantial growth is a demonstration of their whole-
hearted civic pride and progressive work toward upbuilding the section
of the state surrounding their home community.
MACE B. DOUTT
One of the rising young men of Pomona and its expanding,
flourishing environs, who has gone ahead rapidly, thereby keeping pace
with the town, is Mace B. Doutt, the foreman of the College Heights
Orange and Lemon Association packing house at Claremont, who was
born in Hitchcock County, Nebr., on December 19, 1888, and when
eleven years old came to La Verne, Cal., with his parents. He was
educated at the La Verne public schools, and growing up has been
engaged in the orange and lemon industry ever since. In 1 9 1 2 he bought
an orange ranch of five acres in La Verne, v/hich he developed and
fully improved; and three years later he sold the property at a good
bargain. When he was only fourteen he commenced to pick oranges,
and at seventeen he started to work in the packing houses. He had
thus already had some valuable experience with oranges before he
came to own a grove for himself.
In 1913 he commenced to work for the packing house of the Col-
lege Heights Orange and Lemon Association at Claremont, and early
in 1918 he was made foreman of the plant. He now owns a ranch of
sixty acres in Merced County, in the San Joaquin Valley, which is plant-
726 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
ed to almonds, the ti-ees — four years old — just coming Into bearing.
This ranch in particular has a great future, and anyone might be proud
to possess so handsome a young estate.
Mr. Doutt was married at La Verne on June 5, 1912, to Miss
Adele Bussey, a native of La Verne, who has the distinction of being
one of the first white children to have been born in the town. She is the
daughter of Albert Bussey, born in Virginia, a pioneer of La Verne,
who came there when there were only six houses in the town. Mrs.
Doutt's mother was Mary Sallee before her marriage, and her parents
were J. P. and Judith A. Sallee, born in Mt. Sterling, Ky., and Missouri
respectively. Mr. Bussey was foreman of the Mills Tract on Lincoln
Avenue, and was one of the first men to set out, improve and develop
orange groves in the district. He brought the buds from the famous
Sunnyside grove at Redlands. Two children have blessed the union
of Mr. and Mrs. Doutt, and they bear the good old names of Jane
and Richard.
ALBERT P. CONDIT
A sturdy pioneer of the early nineties, whose coming to Pomona
meant the addition of another successful man of affairs to a commun-
ity already strong in prosperous men, is Albert P. Condit, who was
born in Delaware County, Ohio, in 1842. When only fourteen, he re-
moved to Iowa with his parents, where he began to farm; and at the
promising age of nineteen, when a young man usually is ambitious to
set out in earnest on his own career, he responded to the call of the
distressed nation and enlisted in the Civil War, joining Company H
of the Fourteenth Iowa Infantry. He took part in the battles of Fort
Donaldson and Shiloh, and during the latter contest was captured, with
nearly 3000 others, on Sunday, April 6, the very day that witnessed
the death of the Confederate General, Albert Sidney Johnston, for-
merly of Los Angeles and Pasadena — as a result of which he served
in a rebel prison in Chaba, Ala., and Macon, Ga., two months.
After the war, and until 1881, Mr. Condit farmed in Iowa, and
then he removed to Ames, in the same state, where he embarked in
the clothing business. Later, he ventured into real estate and insurance,
and after that he owned a farm of 160 acres in Hamilton County,
Iowa. Then he lived for a while in Grinnell, and from Iowa, in 1893,
he came west to California.
On settling in Claremont, Mr. Condit ran a feed and fuel business
for seven years, at the same time that, as a kind of "side line," he con-
ducted a real estate and insurance office. Then he moved to Highland
Park and later to Pomona.
On December 31, 1871, and at Marshalltown, Iowa, Mr. Condit
was married to Miss Kate O. Rice, a native of Iowa and the daughter
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 727
of Lucian Rice and Elizabeth (Allen) Rice, by whom he has had two
sons and one daughter. A. Ray Condit was with the Y. M. C. A. in
busy France nine months, while C. Clifford Condit resides in Pomona;
Kate was an accomplished musician and taught French, German and
music, and was active in building up Claremont College, leading the
glee clubs and choirs. She married Silas Brimhall, M.D., and passed
away in 1913.
Few men are more popular than Mr. Condit in fraternal circles,
being especially active in Vicksburg Post, G. A. R., of Pomona; and
few men are more esteemed in religious circles, the Congregational
Church of Pomona claiming our subject as an exemplary deacon.
EAKIN BROTHERS
A finely-equipped plant — by many persons of experience and im-
partial judgment declared to be the best in all Pomona Valley — and
one that reflects the highest credit not only on the proprietors who
brought it into action and now maintain and operate it, but on the
locality in which it is established, and which generously supports it, is
the up-to-date and thoroughly sanitary dairy of Eakin Brothers, a
firm composed of Charles M. and Freeman M. Eakin. Charles was
born in Wausau, Wis., on December 28, 1890, and Freeman in Elgin,
111., on August 19, 1892. The dairy is on East Cucamonga Avenue,
Claremont, and is often visited by those interested in dairy problems
and wishing to see an illustration of "the last word" in dairy science.
The father of these enterprising and well-informed young men
was Rev. John A. Eakin, a devoted minister of the gospel, now de-
ceased, who preached throughout the Middle West for many years
and in 1909 came to Claremont. Here he established the dairy in a
modest fashion, and later the sons took over the property and greatly
enlarged and improved the same. Their mother was Jessie Morgan
before her marriage, and she makes her home in Claremont.
There are ten acres in the ranch, and a fine modern barn for the
thirty-five Holstein and Jersey cows. The stock is of the best, with
the result that the milk and cream, 100 gallons of which are delivered
daily to Claremont, is much sought by those appreciating the purest
possible milk. The cow barn has cement floors and is sanitary in every
way. The milk house, too, contains all the modern appliances and im-
provements. An electric brush is used for washing the bottles, and all
bottles are placed in the sterilizing room, where they are steamed to a
heat of 180 degrees. There is also a machine for cooling the milk,
while the cement floors add to the coolness of the atmosphere.
Some of these strictly up-to-date arrangements are the result of
serious study of dairying by the elder brother, Charles Eakin, who
passed a number of seasons near Elgin, 111., the great dairy district,
728 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
and learned all the details of the business. He also attended the dairy
school of the Iowa State College at Ames, Iowa, and thus further per-
fected himself. For nine months, too, he was a student at Pomona
College, while Freeman, his brother, was graduated from that famous
institution with the Class of '14. Pomona Valley may well congratu-
late these aggressive and enterprising young men of affairs.
REGINALD L. KNOX
The descendant of two generations of pioneers in the state, and
himself a native Californian, with two sons to carry on the family
name in the upbuilding of their communities, Reginald L. Knox can be
called a name-worthy representative of a pioneer family and typical of
the public spirited and sturdy stock from which he descended. Born
in Los Angeles, May 23, 1884, he is the son of George C. and Maria
R. (Langenberger) Knox; his mother was also born in the Golden
State; and his grandfather, Gustavus A. Langenberger, came here in
1849, one of the Argonauts of gold mining days who came to seek his
fortune and remained to lay the foundation for prosperity in the state.
His father, George C. Knox, served as an engineer in the Confederate
Army during the Civil War, and after the close of the war, came west
to California and was one of the engineering corps that made the sur-
vey of the Pacific Coast. He has passed to his reward, but the mother
of the family is still living. This pioneer couple were the parents of
five children, four boys and one girl.
The third child born to his parents, Reginald L. Knox was edu-
cateti in the public schools of Los Angeles, and had one year in the
high school of that city. He then entered the employ of the Southern
California Fruit Exchange, now the California Fruit Growers Ex-
change, in December, 1899; was sent by the company to San Francisco
in 1906, and in 1908 came to Pomona and took a position as assistant
to Mr. Dreher, the manager of the San Antonio Fruit Exchange. In
1917, Mr. Knox became secretary and manager for the last-named
company and has since filled that position with credit to himself and
his employers.
The marriage of Mr. Knox, on November 4, 1915, united him
with Miss Kate Jordan, and two sons have blessed their union: Regi-
nald L., Jr., and Robert Jordan. In fraternal circles Mr. Knox is a
member of the Masonic order; he is a member of the Chamber of
Commerce of Pomona, and takes an active interest in all civic affairs
and movements. Patriotic to a degree, he served as captain during the
local war drives, and in all projects for the general welfare he can be
counted on to do his share. With his family, he attends the Episcopal
Church; in politics he supports the men best qualified for office.
HISTORY AXD IlIOGRAPHY 729
FRED D. WEAVER
How much of the convenience and pleasure of cycling, both with
the old-fashioned pedal-power and the more modern motor adjunct,
are due to a well-appointed garage or service station only those,
perhaps, who have been fortunate to patronize the Pomona Motor
and Cycle Shop at 218 West Third Street, so well conducted by its
proprietor, Fred D. Weaver, can realize. It is fully equipped in the
most up-to-date fashion, with all necessary machinery for the repair
of both motorcycles and bicycles, including acetylene welding and
brazing, while its fine stock of supplies evidence the merchant who
does not wait until something is called for, but anticipates the demand
and is ready for any emergency. When it is considered that the serv-
ice here is promptness and willingness itself, and that the highest ef-
ficiency is always guaranteed, one may comprehend the extent to
which Mr. Weaver has made his contribution toward the perpetu-
ating of one of the most healthful forms of exercise and one of the
most rational anti delightful of sports.
A native son, very proud of his association with California, Fred
Weaver was born at La Verne, in Pomona Valley, on May 28, 1894,
the son of John Weaver, a resident of Pomona, who was born in
North Manchester, Wabash County, Ind., on July 18, 1860. He
grew up in a farming district, where he followed farming for a while,
and then he learned the trade of a painter. On January 23, 1894,
having reached the Coast, he came to La Verne, and here for fifteen
years followed painting, while he was also a clerk in the hardware
and furniture store. He next located in Centralia, Wash., and for
seven years was in the employ of the Wholesale Fruit Company; but
in 1917 he returned to Pomona, and of late has been in the service
of the San Dimas Orange Growers Association. He married Miss
Ada Grossnickle, a native of Indiana and the daughter of Daniel and
Mary Grossnickle, by whom he had eight children, all of them still
living. Clarence M. lives at Malone, Wash.; Silas Leroy is at Lind-
say, in this state; Mary is now Mrs. G. Leach of Atwater, Cal.; the
fourth and fifth in order of birth are Homer B. and Fred D., the sub-
ject of our interesting review; Grace, the next, is Mrs. Guy Conrad
of McFarland, Cal.; and the youngest are Hazel, now Mrs. C. Corn-
wall, and Glenn.
Fred was educated at the public schools of La Verne, and at an
early age took such a great interest in bicycles that he visited stores
and repair shops, wherever he could, and soon learned all the makes,
and all their parts and how to repair them — not a small undertaking,
considering the range of the wheels on the market — so that from the
beginning he gradually drifted into the cycling trade. In 1909 he
worked for W. R. Bunch of LaVerne, who ran a cycle shop, and there
learned to repair motorcycles. Coming to Pomona, he entered into
730 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
a partnership Avith Clark Levengood and opened a cycle shop on West
Third street, at the corner of Thomas, and this partnership continued
until, in January, 1916, Mr. Weaver opened a shop of his own, — the
one he now has. He is agent for the Crown bicycle, made by the
Great Western Manufacturing Company, and one more and more
popular with the youth "who knows."
At Ontario, Cal., on Jarnuary 17, 1916, Mr. Weaver was
married to Miss Bertha E. Watt, a daughter of E. and Susan Watt,
and native of Missouri, and two sons have blessed their union : Dale
and Melvin. The family, following the Weaver tradition, attend
the Church of the Brethren in Pomona.
VICTOR CURTIS AUGUSTINE
An exceedingly clever master of the pencil and brush, whose rep-
utation for artistic labor is permanently established, is Victor Curtis
Augustine the well-known sign writer, A^'ho was born in Mansfield,
Ohio, on October 13, 1874, a son of John and Charlotte (Leppert)
Augustine, both now deceased.
Victor was the fifth child, in a family of six and he was educated
In the public schools of his home-town — just enough of a drill and an
introduction to the real hardships of life to assist him when, as a
youngster, he entered the city of Cleveland and became an apprentice
to his trade. He was compelled to work by day to earn his support;
but at night, when others slept, he studied In an art school to perfect
hintself. Finally, he reached that degree of proficiency that ever
since he has followed this line of work.
In 1910 Mr. Augustine came to California and bought an orange
grove, and for about six years was engaged as a citrus grower. In
1916 he once more turned his attention to his trade of sign writing,
and in this field he has distinguished himself, and makes a specialty
of sign-writing. As opportunity presented Itself, he performed again
what he had repeatedly accomplished before he came to the Pacific
Coast; and many times, he created opportunity and so directed his
activity that it spelled progress for Pomona and vicinity. And here
he remains, not merely because he likes the Valley, but because his
daughter is being educated here, in the excellent schools.
Mr. Augustine was married to Miss Anna Bender, a woman of
rare attraction, who died in February, 1912, leaving one child, Cath-
erine May. In 1916, for a second time, Mr. Augustine was married,
this time to Alda Whitlock, but for a second time death deprived him
of her companionship, Mrs. Augustine passing away on May 17,
1918. For years Mr. Augustine has attended the Congregational
Church; and for years he has also striven for better citizenship under
the guidance of the Republican party.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 731
GEORGE E. JONES
Among the substantial citizens of La Verne is George E. Jones.
He is a native of Tennessee, having been born at Piney Flats, Sullivan
County, in that state, March 20, 1883. He was engaged in farming
in his native state until he came to Pomona, Cal., sixteen years ago,
in 1903, when he was twenty years old. He worked on the Richards
orange ranch at North Pomona for twenty-two months, and was after-
ward with the Pioneer Truck Company at Los Angeles for a short
time. He returned to Pomona Valley and was employed on the Ever-
green ranch at La Verne for two years. After leaving the Evergreen
ranch he formed a partnership with J. S. McClellan, under the firm
name of Jones and McClellan, and conducted the Lordsburg livery
stables. He then, in 1907, entered the employ of the San Antonio
Meat Company, and since then has become a stockholder, director and
manager of the La Verne Market, the position he now occupies. He is
serving his first term as trustee of La Verne and is chairman of the
finance and purchasing committees. When La Verne was incorporated
he was the first city marshal.
He married Miss Eva Sparks, born in Pomona, and they are the
parents of two sons, Carl and Floyd by name. He is the owner of a
six and one-half acre orange and lemon ranch in full bearing on P'ort
Hill Boulevard. In his religious convictions he is a Methodist and a
member of the First Methodist Church at La Verne and a member of
the official board. Fraternally he is connected with Lodge No. 107 of
the Knights of Pythias at Pomona and the Modern Woodmen. He
is also a member of the La Verne Chamber of Commerce, as well as
the La Verne Orange Growers Association and the La Verne Lemon
Growers Association.
REV. ALFRED LNWOOD
Among the early pastors who preached in Pomona Valley is
Rev. Alfred Inwood, pastor of Trinity Methodist Church at
Pomona. He was born in Bedfordshire, England, December 17, 1859,
and completed his education at St. Peter's College, Wexford, Ireland,
and at St. Peter's Medical College, Dublin, Ireland. In 1886 he
received the degree of A.B. from the College of Puget Sound, Tacoma,
Wash., and in 1913 received the degree of D.D. from the same col-
lege, and came to California in 1887, taking his first charge in
Ontario, San Bernardino County, in that year. Since that time he has
been actively identified with the Methodist Church in Southern Cali-
fornia. For the past thirty-one years he has been associated with the
Southern California Conference, fifteen years of that time being regis-
trar of the conference. For six years he was superintendent of the San
Diego district, and also preached in Long Beach and Los Angeles. He
72,2 HISTORY AND PJOGRAPHY
was a delegate to the General Conference for two sessions, and he has
been trustee of the University of Southern California at Los Angeles
for ten years. He was field superintendent of the Methodist Hospital
at Los Angeles for two years, resigning the office in October, 1918, to
take charge of the Trinity M. E. Church at Pomona. The Trinity
Methodist Church at Pomona was organized in 1907, and occupies
a fine modern church building on Pearl Street. The church has made
a rapid growth, and numbers over 700 members. It is supporting two
missionaries. Miss Ethel McClintock in Mexico City and Sidney E.
Edwards in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Reverend Inwood was united in marriage with Miss Anna G. Wil-
liams, a native of Canada, and their union has been blessed with the
birth of six children, four now li\ing: Gertrude A., Pauline IVL,
Alfred E. and Esther.
DANIEL WALTER ANDERSON
Among the successful dairymten of Pomona Valley, Daniel W.
Anderson deserves special mention for what he has accomplished by
his own unaided efforts. He was born December 25, 1877, in Wayne
County, Iowa, and was brought up in Monroe County in that state and,
having followed agricultural pursuits all his life, is thoroughly con-
versant with all that leads to success in his chosen vocation. His
earliest recollections are in connection with his father's farm, where as
a boy he followed the plow when he was so small he could barely reach
the handles of the implement. He paid a visit to California in 1904,
with the usual result — he returned in 1912 to remain.
Mr. Anderson leased land at Compton, Los Angeles County, the
first year of his residence in the state, then purchased his present place
of four acres at the corner of South Towne and Franklin avenues,
Pomona, and began to build up a herd of pure-blood Holsteins. After
making the subject a study he considers the Holstein breed the most
satisfactory, as they are more rugged and greater milk producers than
other breeds. He had a heifer with her first calf which gave seven
gallons of milk daily the first year; the second year the same cow with
her second calf averaged nine gallons daily for five months. His test
of butterfat ran from 3.9 to 4.4 per cent, on the whole herd. The first
two years he raised his own feed, but now considers it more economical
to purchase it. For eighteen months he shipped his milk to the Cres-
cent Creamery at Los Angeles, and in a test for bacteria, including
milk from over one hundred dairies, the milk from his dairy was pro-
nounced superior to all the others.
He also raises peaches and apricots on his ranch and from a crop
from a few trees in 1917 received $476. The gross receipts from his
ranch in 1918 were $15,000. This represented the work of himself
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 733
and a helper. He has built up and sold two herds of Holsteins. The
first, in 1914, which consisted of twenty-nine head, sold for $3000.
In February, 1919, he sold what was considered the best herd in
Southern California, consisting of fifty head, which brought $10,500.
This is a sample of the increase in values in the past five years. He is
now building up another herd from the same stock and already has
twenty heifers. His stables and milk houses are up-to-date, modern
and sanitary.
On April 6, 1914, Mr. Anderson married Carolyn E. Smith, a
native of Los Angeles County, whose father, W. H. Smith, is also a
native of Southern California, and whose mother, Sarah Law Smith,
was born in Northamptonshire, England. Mrs. Anderson's grand-
father, J. A. Smith, known as "Section" Smith, was a Los Angeles
County pioneer, with the further distinction of having been a school-
mate of President J. A. Garfield, and of being related to General
Burnside. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson are the parents of two children,
native Californians, Walter K. and Dale Law. Mr. Anderson is a
self-made man, who began life with the assets of strong hands, courage,
a willing heart and good judgment. His success is due to persistent
effort, and the sagacious use of his natural endowments. He is es-
teemed by his many friends in the community in which he resides.
ELMER ELLSWORTH KELLY, M.D.
A distinguished representative of the medical profession of Cali-
fornia, who promptly and generously tendered his services to the gov-
ernment at the entrance of the United States into the war, is Elmer
Ellsworth Kelly, the well-known physician and surgeon of Pomona,
who was born in Mills County, Iowa, on September 25, 1861, the son
of the Rev. Isaac and Ruth (Smith) Kelly, both of whom gave their
lives for ministerial and missionary work in the Methodist Church.
Both parents were natives of Ohio.
After having located for a while at Oakland and San Jose, the
family came to Pomona in 1898; and here the father died in 1905,
while the mother enjoyed life for another five years. She was the
mother of twelve children — of whom nine are living — and Elmer Ells-
worth was the ninth child and seventh son in the order of birth.
He was educated at the public schools of Iowa and at the Malvern
Academy, and in 1885 he graduated from Simpson College with the
degree of Bachelor of Philosophy, later receiving the master's degree.
He then studied medicine at Cooper Medical College in San Francisco,
from which he was graduated in 1887.
After graduating. Doctor Kelly practiced for twenty-three years
in San Francisco, and in 1910 he came to Pomona to live. In 1889-90,
he demonstrated anatomy in Cooper Medical College, and from 1896
734 HISTORY AXD BIOGRAPHY
to 1901 he was professor of anatomy in the College of Physicians and
Surgeons in San PVancisco. In 1907 he was president of the San Fran-
cisco Medical Society, and in 1898-99 he was a member of the State
Board of Medical Examiners. He belongs to the American Medical
Association, the, State and County Medical Societies and the Academy
of Medicine of San Francisco.
For eighteen years Doctor Kelly has been a member of the State
Executive Committee of the Y. M. C. A., and twice he was honored
with the presidency of the state convention. He was chief medical
examiner of the local exemption board during the war, and took an
active interest in all war work, contributing time, effort and money
whenever possible.
In 1901 Doctor Kelly was married to Miss Annie G. Phillips, of
Boston, daughter of Charles Phillips, an engineer, and by her he has
had one child, Phillip Ellsworth Kelly. The family attend the Trinity
Methodist Episcopal Church. Doctor Kelly is a thirty-second degree
Mason, a Knight Templar and a Shriner.
NELSON GRANT McCAIN
A thoroughly-trained, practical builder whose experience alone is
a valuable asset both to himself and the community in which he oper-
ates, is Nelson Grant McCain, who is very naturally interested in every
building movement in the Valley. He was born in Buchanan County,
Mo., on April 20, 1863, son of the Rev. Nelson McCain, who was
both a Methodist minister and a farmer and acted for four years as
chaplain with the Northern Army during the Civil War. He married
Mary Ritchie, daughter of John D. Ritchie. Mrs. McCain is still liv-
ing at the ripe age of four score, while her husband had attained the
more advanced age of eighty-nine, passing away April 7, 1919. There
were six girls and four boys in the family, of whom our subject was
the fifth child born, but the other three sons are deceased.
Nelson was educated at the common schools of Missouri and the
high school of Hamburg, Iowa, finishing his schooling in Kansas,
Vv'here he remained with his parents until he was twenty years of age,
when he learned the carpenter's trade.
At the beginning of the great boom period in California, in 1886,
Mr. McCain first came to California and located at Pomona; and
here he has continued to live, with the exception of three years. Dur-
ing this time he has built some of the modern business blocks, among
them the State Bank, the Capital Grocery Building and the Home
Furniture Block, as well as the old High School, and many of the finest
residences in the city. All of his work, where the conditions permitted,
has been marked with substantiality and sensible ornamentation.
Mr. McCain, who is a Republican, is commissioner of the Second
HISTORY AND lilOGRAPHY JV:^
Ward, although never a seeker for pubHc office. His many friends
requested him to run and — that meant his election by handsome ma-
jorities. He belongs to the Chamber of Commerce and stands ready
to boost Pomona against all competitors in or outside of the Valley.
At McPherson, Kans., on May 3, 1886, Mr. McCain was mar-
ried to Miss Minnie Maltby of Kansas, by whom he has had six chil-
dren— three boys and three girls — all enjoying an enviable popularity.
Mr. McCain belongs to the Odd Fellows and the Elks, and few mem-
bers are more popular there.
HUGH S. TEITSWORTH
Thanks to the high-grade character of the service once introduced
and ever since maintained by Hugh S. Teitsworth, Pomonans given to
motoring have long ago learned that in seeking first-class auto anci
machine repairing they need go no further than the Studebaker Service
Station, at 410 East Second Street, one of the best-equipped shops in
all the Valley.
On May 24, 1887, Mr. Teitsworth, the son of Minor C. and
Anna (Nelson) Teitsworth, was born in the bustling city of Min-
neapolis, where he commenced his schooling under the best of advan-
tages, but when he was nine years of age he removed, with his parents,
to Los Angeles, and there finished his education under the direction of
his father, who was a teacher. Later he took a very comprehensive
course in electrical engineering in the Scranton Correspondence School,
and after the thorough training there, found no difficulty in getting a
first-class engagement at the famous store of the H. Jevne Company,
at Broadway and Sixth Street, Los Angeles.
After two years with that firm, he took up the miCchanical end of
auto repairing and worked as a machinist in the repair shops of the
Pacific Aviation and Motor Car Company, the Maxwell Company
and the Knox Auto Company, thereby gaining a complete knowledge
of the electrical and mechanical features of the automobile. Then,
in 1913, he located at Pomona, where he entered the employ of the
A. L. Wood Garage on East Monterey Street as a machinist. Later
he formed a partnership with Fred Duvall as a partner, under the firm
name of Duvall & Teitsworth, and took over the garage and machine
shop, conducting the same for two years. They then transferred their
business to the Studebaker Garage at 410 East Second Street, where
they devote their time to expert repairing.
In October, 1917, Mr. Teitsworth bought out his partner, and
now he is the sole owner of the repair department of the establishment
described above. He has installed a complete outfit of modern machin-
ery, and handles all kinds of work from the heaviest auto truck to the
smallest auto, including cylinder boring, battery repairing and many
716 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
other things requiring knowledge and first-class workmanship. He em-
ploys a carefully-selected force of six men who are kept constantly
busy; and being himself expert, he is able to direct the work to the
greatest advantage. As a Studebaker service station, Mr. Teits-
worth's establishment is undoubtedly one of the best-equipped in the
entire state.
In June, 1913, Mr. Teitsworth was married at Los Angeles to
Miss Laura A. Wright of Detroit, the daughter of Z. W. and Mary
Wright, by whom he has had one daughter, June. Always popular
socially, Mr. and Mrs. Teitsworth are especially so in the fraternal
circles of the Knights of Pythias and the Elks, both of Pomona. He
also belongs to the Citrus Belt Auto Association.
HERBERT C. KETTELLE, D.D.S.
Born in Tipton, Cedar County, Iowa, December 19, 1875,
Herbert C. Kettelle, a dentist of Pomona, is the son of William and
Eliza J. (Robert) Kettelle, the former a manufacturer of brick and
tile in that state. Both parents are now deceased. Herbert C. received
his education in the grammar and high schools, graduating from the
latter in 1894. He then put in one year at the Iowa University in
Iowa City, and two years in the Northwestern University at Chicago,
graduating in 1897 with his degree of D.D.S. He practiced his pro-
fession at Jefferson, Iowa, for twelve years after leaving college, then
came to Pomona in August, 1909, and continued his profession here
until 1911. At that time he went to Colorado, but returned to Po-
mona in 1915 and has since that time been practicing in this city, with
a large clientele to speak for his ability in his profession.
The marriage of Doctor Kettelle on December 31, 1902, at Jef-
ferson, Iowa, united him with Miss Mabel Clara Huston, born in
Burlington, but residing at that time in Jefferson. Five children have
blessed their union : Herbert Russell, Kent William, Clare, who died
May 31, 1916, aged four years; Harold Huston, and Pearl.
Fraternally Mr. Kettelle is a member of the Masons, holding
membership in Pomona Lodge, No. 246, F. & A. M. While in Colo-
rado he attended the Grand Lodge; he also is a member of the Odd
Fellows, belonging to the Grand Lodge and the other branches of the
order except the Canton. In business circles he belongs to the Chamber
of Commerce. In politics he supports the Republican party. Fond of
the mountains and outdoor life, the doctor enjoys for recreation an
occasional hunting trip, returning with evidence of his prowess with
the huntsman's rifle. A public-spirited man, he has at all times shown
a real interest in the advancement of Pomona, both in civic and social
matters, and served as local chairman of the Preparedness League
of American Dentists, among other public duties.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 7i7
HARRY J. LAVARS
In enumerating the men who have contributed to the material
welfare of Pomona in the successful culture of citrus fruit, mention is
due Harry J. Lavars. He is one of our English cousins who crossed
the water in search of a land that would better his financial prospects
in life. He was born in Kent, England, July 19, 1858, and is the son
of a member of the British Navy who served his country valiantly
during the Crimean War.
Educated in the schools of his native country, Henry J. later
became a stationary engineer and found employment in the large stone
works and brick plants of England. The year 1891 found him in the
city of Los Angeles, Cal., and in searching for a good location he
chose Pomona, where he purchased a five-acre orange grove on Arroyo
Avenue in the Packard Orange Grove Tract. The place had just been
planted, and he later added to his acreage by the purchase of an addi-
tional four acres just opposite his first piece of property. His orchard
is very productive, yielding from 4000 to 5000 boxes of fruit yearly.
His oldest son, Harry M., is living in Alhambra. The second
son, William T., lives in San Francisco, and the youngest, Harold,
resides in Pomona. Mr. Lavars was married a third time to Mrs.
Gertrude Warren, born in Illinois, but residing at La Verne, October
25, 1919. Mr. Lavars is the owner of two modern cottages at Bel-
mont Heights, Long Beach, Cal. He takes a deep interest and is a
stanch worker in the cause of prohibition. From the beginning he has
been a member of Pomona Fruit Growers Exchange, having seen the
benefits of cooperative business methods while living in Flngland.
WILLIAM A. KENNEDY
Prominent in banking circles in Southern California, William A.
Kennedy is numbered among the most able men in financial matters in
the Pomona Valley. His birth occurred July 25, 1871, on a farm
in west Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, his parents being Alexander and
Maria (Shaffer) Kennedy. The father, a farmer in that state, has
since passed on, but the mother is still living. Two children were
born to this worthy couple, W. A. being the youngest.
William A. Kennedy received his education in the public schools
of his native state and finished with a course at the Grove City College,
after which he found employment with the First National Bank at
Grove City, Pa., as assistant cashier, continuing with them eight years.
He then bought an interest in the St. Louis Wholesale Paper and
Twine Company, and for five years was a member of that firm. Sell-
ing out his interests, in 1903 Mr. Kennedy came to California, first
locating in Long Beach, where he remained for seven years with the
738 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
First National Bank of that city. In 1909, he came to Pomona, and
here continued his banking experience, first as escrow officer for the
First National Bank for four years, and since then has been cashier
of the institution.
The marriage of Mr. Kennedy, on August 22, 1894, united him
with Bessie Bell, a daughter of William Bell, and they have taken their
part in the church and social life of the city. A Republican in national
politics, Mr. Kennedy in local matters votes for man rather than party.
Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic Lodge, Chapter and Com-
mandery, and in business circles he belongs to the Chamber of Com-
merce. From the beginning of his residence here he has shown a deep
interest in the upbuilding of the city and Valley and stands ready at
all times to back his interest with substantial help. For recreation he
indulges in horseback riding, the beautiful roads about Pomona afford-
ing an ideal background for that sport. With his wife he attends the
Pilgrim Congregational Church.
FRANK WHEELER
The realty of Pomona Valley constitutes one of the greatest
attractions for business operations, and Frank Wheeler of Claremont
is well known in this connection as a man who has made a success of
the real-estate business. Of English ancestry and birth, he was born
at Nottingham, England, December 20, 1856, and is the son of Ben-
jamin and Mary (Radford) Wheeler. Both parents are now de-
ceased. The father while living did much government work. In a
family of twelve children, nine of whom are living, Frank is the eldest
son. He left school at the age of fourteen and was apprenticed to the
steamfitting trade, which he afterwards followed.
After traveling extensively and visiting almost every seaport in
the world in search of health, Mr. Wheeler came to America in 1882.
He spent two years in New York City, where he worked at his trade
of steamfitting and where he occupied the position of foreman, then
went to Chicago and continued the occupation. He was manager of a
steam-fitting business in that city three years, and in 1893 came to
Claremont and engaged in the culture of oranges. He has been en-
gaged in the real estate business for twelve years.
Mr. Wheeler's marriage united him with Miss Mary J. Cron,
and they have two children, Stuart G. and Kathryn F. Politically
Mr. Wheeler adheres to the principles advocated in the Republican
platform. Fraternally he is a Mason of the York degree aad a
Shriner. He is president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of
San Gabriel Valley and in that connection is well known in California
for what he has accomplished. His integrity and worth, as well as his
HISTORY AND lilOGRAPHY
deep interest and activity in all that pertains to the betterment and
upbuilding of Pomona Valley, has won recognition among his fellow
citizens
H. VERNER BRIGHT
One of the proprietors of the Reynvernel Groves is H. Verner
Bright, who was born at Dover, on Laice Erie, near Cleveland, in
Cuyahoga County, Ohio, where he was reared, receiving his educa-
tion in the schools of that place and in Cleveland. When he was
thirteen years of age he began making his own way, entering the
sales department of Bowles & Burdick, wholesale jewelers, where he
continued for a period of seven years. Then in order to have out-
door work, he accepted a place on the survey corps of the county
surveyor of Cuyahoga County, working up from rodman to transit-
man and found the experience enjoyable, interesting and also very
beneficial to his health. After three years in the county surveyor's
office, he resigned and entered into partnership with his brother,
Fred, as Bright & Bro., general manufacturers of tools and special-
ties. They were the inventors of the Bright turnstile, which has
since come into worldwide use.
The first exposition at which the Bright turnstile was used was in
the Old Piedmont Exposition Grounds in Cincinnati, in 1884. After-
wards the National League and American League took it up and it
came into universal use by railroads, large manufacturers and exposi-
tions, not only in the United States and Canada, but in South America,
Europe and the Orient. He made trips to Europe and South America
introducing the turnstile. During the late war the Government made
various uses of the Bright turnstile at loading stations, messrooms
and munition places, to register employees and soldiers. Among im-
provements to the turnstile is the pay-as-you-enter system, as well as
a coin control turnstile for fairs and expositions, which was first used
at the St. Louis Exposition.
In 1900 the brothers dissolved partnership, Fred Bright taking
the work of the manufacture of the typograph, while H. V. con-
tinued in the manufacture of tools, novelties and turnstiles, and the
small business has grown to very large proportions under the name
Bright Turnstile Company. They also manufacture ticket machines,
ticket choppers and cancelling machines. With his brother, under
the firm name of Hess-Bright, they were manufacturers of ball-
bearings in North Philadelphia until they sold their interest in Octo-
ber, 1916. He was also interested in the Cleveland Cap Screw Com-
pany, now the Steel Products Company, one of the largest producers
of welded steel products in the country. He has sold his interest in
this business.
740 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
His first trip to California was in 1905. He was prepared to
like it because from a boy he was intensely interested in California,
and his dream from a youth of ten years was of an orange grove in
California. Liking it here he came to California each winter, and
in 1912 he purchased his present grove, which was set out in June
of that year. He selected this site for his home and no more sightly
place can be found; here he built a large, beautiful, modern residence,
making of the whole one of the show places of the district, being
located on the mesa in San Dimas Canyon.
Associated with Harry Damerel of Covina, he is engaged in
raising oranges and lemons. Individually and in partnership they
own 215 acres of orange and lemon groves in this region. He is well
pleased with the locality, finding on investigation it is second to none
in the United States.
The marriage of Mr. Bright occurred in Cleveland, Ohio, when
he was united with Miss Lillian Oviatt, also born in Dover, who
presides gracefully over her husband's home, assisting him in dis-
pensing the true hospitality of which both are very fond.
EMERY ROSCOE YUNDT
In the life of this successful banker of Pomona are illustrated the
results of perseverance and energy, coupled with diversified talent and
learning. He is a citizen of whom any community might well feel
proud, and the people of Pomona Valley, fully appreciating his ability,
accord him a place in the foremost ranks of the representative citizens
and business men. Identified with the banking interests of Pomona
since 1905, he has helped in the development of its commercial and
agricultural growth, and has been an important factor in the upbuild-
ing of the resources to be found in this fertile section.
Born in Naperville, 111., December 22, 1869, Emery Roscoe
Yundt is the son of Simon and Catherine (Lehman) Yundt, who were
farmers by occupation back in the Eastern state, and are now living in
Pomona. Of the two children born to his parents, Emery Roscoe was
the oldest, and was educated in the public schools and Mt. Morris
College, Mt. Morris, 111., and then entered the University of Chicago,
from which he was graduated in 1894 with the degree of Ph.B. He
then taught school for one year in a boys' school at Racine, Wis., the
institution being under the management of the Episcopal Church. In
1897 he came to Los Angeles, Cal., where he was physical director of
the Y. M. C. A. for one year. From there he went to Schuyler, Nebr.,
and was principal of the public schools of that town for one year, and
for three years in Nebraska City.
After these years spent in teaching, Mr. Yundt was sent to the
Philippine Islands as provincial treasurer in the U. S. Treasury Depart-
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 741
ment, retaining the post for three years. He then, in 1905, came to
Pomona, and in 1906 was one of the organizers of the State Bank
here, and has since that date been cashier of the institution.
The marriage of Mr. Yundt, which took place in Schuyler, Nebr.,
in 1900, united him with Miss Grace Stanton of that city, and two
children have been born to them: Deryl V. and Arlene. Mr. Yundt
is a member of the Church of the Brethren and is a member and secre-
tary of the board of trustees of La Verne College and deeply interest-
ed in its growth and success. Politically, Mr. Yundt supports the pre-
cepts of the Republican party. He is a man of keen vision and broad
in his views; always active in any work going on for the advancement
of his home city, he is well known and equally well liked in the com-
munity. Always an athlete, during his college days he became well
known through his football record, made while he was a member of
the Chicago University football team. He was trained by Alonzo
Stagg, the famous coach, and was a member of the team that crossed
the continent and won renown and new laurels far from their home
grounds. The same energy that he devoted to football in those days
is now given to furthering the progress and advancement of his chosen
environment, Pomona Valley, and it is the public-spirited, cultured and
loyal people residing in this beautiful section which make it the highly
developed spot it is today.
WILLIAM BURR FOOTE
A railway man whose experience in the handling of men proved
of great value in the successful prosecution of war work, for which,
with commendable patriotism, he early volunteered his services, is
William Burr Foote, the affable and attentive manager of the Pacific
Electric Railroad. His birthplace was in Itawamba County, Miss.,
where he first saw the light on April 14, 1878, and his father was
William Henry Foote, a cotton buyer, farmer and merchant, who mar-
ried Mary Ann Riley, the daughter of Nathan Riley. Mrs. Foote is
still living, the mother of five children, among whom William was the
eldest. William Henry Foote, who did his duty as he saw it in sup-
porting the Confederacy as a soldier in Company C of the Thirty-
fifth Alabama Regiment, is now deceased.
The schools of Whiteville and New Castle, Tenn., offered our
subject his first educational advantages, and then he continued his
studies at the Jackson, Miss., Commercial School, and finished at the
high school at Whiteville. Then, for eight years, he was in the service
of the Memphis Railroad, coming west in 1909 and passing to the
service of the Pacific Electric.
In the beginning, he was in the company's employ at Los Angeles,
where he remained until September, 1910; next he went to Ontario
742 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
with the Pacific Light and Power Company; and in 1911 he came to
Pomona, when the Pacific Electric took over the Ontario and San
Bernardino Heights Railroad. Now he has charge of tKe Pomona
and Ontario local lines, and the San Dimas line, and the line running
from Lone Hill to the San Bernardino interurban.
On May 5, 1913, Mr. Foote was married at Ontario to Miss
Elizabeth H. Mezera, a daughter of Joseph and Anna Mezera, and
a native of Wisconsin; and two children have blessed this union. A
son is William Stuart Foote, and a daughter has been named Marjorie
Mezera. Mr. P^oote is a Mason of the third degree, and Republican
who served on the draft board. He was a lieutenant in all the war
drives, and he was a captain in the Y. M. C. A. drive. The lure of the
outdoor world appeals to him, and busy man though he be, he is par-
ticularly fond of garden work and the cultivation of flowers.
CHARLES PHILLIP BAYER
A fine fellow personally, and an accomplished leader in com-
munity endeavor, is Charles Phillip Bayer, whose record of accom-
plishment for Pomona and the Valley is well known. He was born at
Chicago, 111., on November 4, 1888, the son of Phillip Bayer, a
merchant prominent in business circles, who married Emma C. Mar-
graf. Both parents, esteemed and mourned by many, are now dead.
Charles, the only child, was educated in the Hedrick, Iowa,
grammar school and in 1906 graduated from the high school of that
town. Pushing out into the world, he was for nine months with the
Simmons Hardware Company of St. Louis, and then, because of poor
health, he went to Texas for a short time and worked for the engineer-
ing department of the Santa Fe.
In 1907, Mr. Bayer, hearing of the attractions of Southern Cali-
fornia, and con\-inced of the superior advantages of Pomona, came to
this town, and for seven and a half years engaged in brokerage. His
strong and winning personality from the beginning drew to him many
friends, while his application of high standards of ethics to the trans-
action of business inspired confidence and increased his patronage.
On April 1, 1915, Mr. Bayer was elected assistant secretary of
the Chamber of Commerce, and on April 1, 1917, secretary. In time,
too, he was made secretary of the Commercial Secretaries' Association
of California and secretary of the Associated Chambers of Commerce
of the San Gabriel Valley. Now he lectures daily in the Los Angeles
Chamber of Commerce on the resources and attractions of the Pomona
Valley.
Mr. Bayer was a member of the National Guard of the State of
California for seven years, and first sergeant of Headquarters Com-
pany, Seventh California Infantry; and he was honorably discharged
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 743
on the Mexican border during the late trouble there. Perhaps this
military experience has had something to do with Mr. Bayer's love of
the mountains and fondness for outdoor life.
On March 28, 1910, Mr. Bayer was married to Miss Florence C.
Maclntyre. Mrs. Bayer, who is an accomplished musician, was secre-
tary of the Ebell Club. One child blessed the union — Charles Donald.
Mr. Bayer is a Republican in national politics, but a genuine "booster"
without partisanship in local affairs. He is secretary of the Associated
Chambers of Commerce of San Gabriel Valley, also of the California
Association of Commercial Secretaries.
EDWARD A. HENZIE
A successful merchant in the college town of Claremont, Edward
A. Henzie was born on a farm near Pleasant Plain, Muscatine County,
Iowa, July 16, 1866, the son of John Jacob and Sarah Elizabeth Jane
(Watham) Henzie, born in Pennsylanvia and London, England, re-
spectively. They resided in Iowa and were farmers until they retired
and now live in Grinnell, Iowa, having raised a family of three boys
and three girls to aid in the world's work. The eldest child, Edward
A., received his education in the public schools of his home community,
and also in the school of experience, as he began helping his father on
the farm from boyhood on until twenty years of age.
Leaving the farm at that age, Mr. Henzie found employment in
a store at Deep River, Poweshiek County, Iowa, and remained there as
clerk for the next eight years, when he bought an interest In the store
and remained for fifteen years as a partner In the business. At the
expiration of that time, in 1 9 1 0, he sought new fields for his endeavors,
and came to California, after his arrival first spending one year in
Pomona, and then. In 1911, came to Claremont and engaged in his old
business, opening a grocery store and meat m.arket. His years of ex-
perience in this line made success a natural outcome, as does also his
reputation as being honest in all his business dealings.
Mr. Henzie spends his leisure time in orange cultivation, his
orange grove being located on the base line. He divides his time be-
tween his two interests, this leavmg him small leisure for outside affairs,
although he is deeply interested In the further growth of his home
section and ready at all times to work with his fellow-citizens toward
that end. A Republican in politics, he Is serving as a city trustee of
Claremont. In fraternal circles he is a member of the Knights of
Pythias in Pomona and of the Modern Woodmen in Claremont.
The marriage of Mr. Henzie occurred at Deep Ri\'er, Iowa,
August 24, 1892, uniting him with Miss Sarah Elizabeth Craver, a
native of that place, and a daughter of Cornelius and Elizabeth
(Light) Craver, natives respectively of New Jersey and Illinois, who
744 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
were agriculturists and early settlers at Deep River. Her father died
November 1, 1919; the mother is still living. Of their seven children,
six are living, Mrs. Henzie's twin sister, Mrs. Mary Stockhouse, being
deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Henzie have two children. Forrest M.
enlisted and served in the motor transport division of the United States
Army twenty-seven months and Is now an automobile dealer in Ana-
heim, and Wesley C. also enlisted and served in the United States
Naval, Reserve Force until mustered out, and is now in the automobile
business in Ontario. One grandchild, Elizabeth Lee, brings joy to the
family. Mrs. Henzie is a member of Claremont Chapter, O. E. S.
They are members of the Christian Church in Pomona.
FRED W. HARTMAN
Well known in business circles In Pomona, in which city he is now
a member of the firm of Miller & Hartman, dealers in new and second-
hand furniture, Fred W. Hartman needs no Introduction to the people
of the Valley. He was born In Fort Wayne, Allen County, Ind.,
September 20, 1874, and attended the public schools of his native
state. His school days over, he became an employe In the finishing
department of the Packard Piano Works at Fort Wayne, and learned
the trade of finisher, later he entered the employ of the Nickel Plate
Railroad, where he remained three years as a fireman. His next step
was to take up the trade of painting in Fort Wayne and this calling
he followed with pronounced success until November 17, 1919, when
he embarked in his present line of business in Pomona.
It was In 1906 that Mr. Hartman felt the call to come to Cali-
fornia and he arrived In Los Angeles. After looking about the state In
search of a location he selected Pomona as a likely field for his trade
and became a permanent settler here In 1908, and soon was recog-
nized as an expert workman and here he plied his trade as contracting
painter and paper hanger. He kept three men continually at work and
many of the homes In the Valley show his artistic touch. His work
took him Into Claremont and Chino, where he worked on some of the
best homes and buildings. Desiring to get into another line of business
he found a field In the new and second-hand furniture lines and Its meet-
ing with results from the start.
In selecting a life companion his choice fell upon Bertha Bru-
baker, a native of Kansas, who was reared from a small child at
Covina, Cal., and their union has been blessed by the birth of three
native daughters of the Golden State, Hilda. Mildred and Dorothy.
Fraternally Mr. Hartman is a member of Pomona Lodge No.
246, I. O. O. F., in which he Is past officer, and he Is also a member of
the order of Yeomen.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 745
HENRY M. CRAWFORD
Among the men of Pomona Valley who have worked their way to
reasonable success is Henry M. Crawford, prominent and successful
fruit grower and buyer for the Sunset Canning Company of Pomona.
The scenes in his early life are in connection with the Lone Star
State, where he was born in Nacogdoches County, December 26, 1870.
He was reared and educated in Texas and followed the merchandise
business in his native state. He was the proprietor of a store at Lynn
Flatt, and later at San Angelo, Texas, and was also interested in the
cattle business. While living in Texas he was school trustee. Decem-
ber 31, 1908, he came to Pomona, Cal., and purchased the ranch he
now owns on East Grand Avenue. The property was unimproved at
the time Mr. Crawford purchased it. He planted it to Tuscan cling
and Phillips' cling peaches, setting out all the trees himself. The
orchard is well cared for and is an abundant producer, yielding fifty
tons of fruit in 1917.
Mr. Crawford was united in marriage with Miss V^annie Huff
of Texas, and they are the parents of six children. Lucile is the wife
of B. H. Moore of San Bernardino; New lives in Long Beach, and
Paul, Gertrude, Anna L. and Joseph are at home.
Fraternally Mr. Crawford affiliates with the Woodmen of the
World, and in his religious associations is a member of the First Meth-
odist Church at Pomona.
ANSON C. THOMAS
Numbered among the prominent business men of Pomona we
find many native sons of the city taking an active part, as is fitting,
in the progress and upbuilding of their home community, and to these
men all credit is due for their public-spirited activity in all work for
the welfare and advancement in all directions of the city and sur-
rounding country, which owes much to their efforts along public and
business lines. Among these Anson C. Thomas has taken an active
part. Though not a native of the city, as his birth took place many
miles away, in Baraboo, Wis., August 29, 1886, he was brought here
by his parents when but an infant, and was reared and educated here.
His parents, Thomas C. and Isabell (Case) Thomas, were pioneers
of the Valley, and did their part in the development work carried on
in the formative period of its development. The father had served
his country during the Civil War, in Company A, Sixth Wisconsin
Infantry, as first lieutenant; in 1884 he came to Pomona, and his
family followed him, in 1886. Here he engaged in the real estate
746 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
and insurance business until his death, which occurred in 1891. The
mother is still li\-ing.
Anson C. Thomas was the youngest of four children born to
his parents, and attended the public and high school of Pomona. He
then went east and took a business college course and later worked
as bookkeeper there. After remaining east three and one-half years,
he returned to Pomona, in 1908, and was with the J. M. Powers Shoe
Company for two and one-half years. In 1911 he came to the
Triangle Shoe Company as manager, and one year later bought into
the company and is now proprietor of the Triangle Shoe Store; this
quick advancement in business speaks for the caliber of the man, and
also for the prosperous condition of the community.
On June 8, 1914, Mr. Thomas married Miss Natalie Wilbur.
He has joined in the fraternal life of the city, and is a member of
the Masonic lodge; of the Elks, and in business circles belongs to the
Chamber of Commerce. He is fond of outdoor life and takes his
recreation in hunting and fishing and motoring, and also owns an
orange grove to take up his time in horticultural development. Mr.
Thomas makes the best interests of Pomona Valley his interests, and
his success is deserved.
SYDNEY R. BOYD
A prominent resident and man of affairs of Pomona, who has im-
plicit faith in the future of Southern California and has become a great
"booster" in particular of Pomona Valley, is Sydney R. Boyd, senior
member of the real estate firm of Messrs. Boyd & Gates, of 103
South Garey Avenue, Pomona, dealers in orange, lemon and grape-
fruit groves, alfalfa and other country ranches, and city property. His
own home ranch is a place of fifteen acres of a choice orange grove at
1406 East Fifth Street — one of the oldest orange groves in the Valley,
rich in varieties of \'alencias, Mediterranean Sweets, Seedling and
Blood oranges.
Mr. Boyd was born in Lyon County, Ky., on February 15, 1861,
and there reared until he was eighteen years of age, when he went to
Nashville, Tenn., and followed steamboating, clerking on steamers
running on the Cumberland River. After four years, he returned to
Kentucky and followed the mercantile business in the towns of Prince-
ton and Fredonia, Caldwell County, Ky., until the Spring of 1906,
when he decided to come to the Pacific Coast.
In April, then, he arrived in Pomona and at once located here,
starting in the real estate business for himself, and this he has followed
practically ever since. With Frank Smith as a partner, and under the
firm name of Smith & Boyd, he put on the market the well-known sub-
division. Tract No. 1007, ten acres located on North Towne Avenue,
HISTORY AND P.K IGRAniY 747
between Columbia and Alvarado streets. This property, in one of the
best residential sections of the city, has all been sold, and many fine
homes built there, so that the exploitation of the same has been a
definite contribution to the proper expansion of the city.
Later, when in business alone, Mr. Boyd subdivided Tract No.
2069 on San Antonio Road and at the corner of Columbia Street, and
the five acres there have all been sold and built upon. Mr. Boyd him-
self erected a number of fine homes on each of these tracts, which he
later disposed of, one by one, at a fair profit. He has also dealt ex-
tensively in orange groves, and has bought and sold no less than
twenty-five in the Valley.
He has been twice* married, the first ceremony taking place at
Princeton and on September 28, 1886, when Miss Jennie Easley, a
charming lady, and a native of Lyon County, now deceased, became
his wife. She left three sons, Sydney E., Leonard H. and John Baxter
Boyd. On the occasion of his second marriage, Mr. Boyd was united
to Mrs. Elvin Rice Averitt, also a native of Kentucky, and a lady
representative in every way of the delightful social side of Southern
life.
Mr. Boyd has served the city of Pomona for four years as a
member of its City Council, when the council entered the new city hall.
He belongs to the Masons, and he and his family attend the P'irst
Presbyterian Church.
ALBERT CAMPBELL GERRARD
On every hand there is convincing proof of the growth of the city
of Pomona, and Albert Campbell Gerrard, president of the Alpha
Beta stores, occupies a distinctive place among those who deserve their
share of credit for assisting in the city's upgrowth. He is a Canadian
by birth, having been born in the province of Ontario, May 18, 1876,
and is the son of Alexander and Marion (Campbell) Gerrard. His
father, an ex-school teacher and preacher, now retired, at the age of
eighty-three, is spending his declining years at Santa Ana.
Of the ten children in the parental home, Albert Campbell is the
sixth child, and received his education in the public schools of Canada.
He came to California in 1890, first locating at Riverside, where he
engaged in the restaurant business, afterwards being occupied in the
meat business for a period of eight years in that city. He then spent
six months in Long Beach, then went to Pomona and again entered
the meat business, continuing the employment for se\-en years. He
afterwards spent one year in Santa Barbara, and a year in Long Beach,
and while there he invented the Butcher's Ready Reckoner. Then
four years were spent in Santa Ana and once more he returned to
Pomona and a year and a half ago formed the Alpha Beta Company.
748 Hie^TORY AND BIOGRAPHY
They have a chain of eight stores — the Whitehouse, established in
1917, and the Triangle, in 1914, in Pomona; two in Santa Ana, and
one in Huntington Beach, Claremont, Ontario and Riverside.
His marriage united him with Miss Emma L. Bond, October 29,
1902. The children born to them are Melvin, Francis, James, Ruth-
mary and Paulhugh. In politics Mr. Gerrard is a Prohibitionist. He
is a member of the Christian Church and also of the Chamber of
Commerce . He is fond of music and of outdoor life and the pleasures
of automobiling; is liberal and progressive in his ideas and methods,
and is imbued with a just pride in all matters pertaining to Pomona, in
whose welfare he is deeply interested.
JOSEPH A. ALLARD, JR.
Among the profesional men of Pomona Valley none have shown
a more willing spirit to advance the interests of the Valley and its
people than J. A. AUard, Jr., of Pomona, where he is among the
recognized leaders of his profession, that of the law. He was born
at Waterbury, Conn., May 8, 1887, the son of Joseph A. Allard, well
known as an enterprising and reliable merchant of that city, who mar-
ried Miss Rosalie Carmier and they became the parents of six children.
Joseph, our subject, was the eldest of this family and he received
his education in the grammar and high schools of Stratford, graduat-
ing from them with honors. He then entered Yale and in 1909 he
received the degree, of Ph.B. from that institution; and three years
later he graduated from the Yale Law School with the degree of LL.B.
Mr. Allard then came to California and began the practice of his
profession at La Verne, then Lordsburg, but a year later he took up
the practice in Pomona and he has been identified with the bar here
ever since. He soon established a clientele that has been ever growing
with the growth of the community and has taken his place with the
men who have had as a special object the betterment of conditions in
general of the people and the community. He has served as city at-
torney of La Verne since 1913, with the exception of two years; was
active in war work in conjunction with the draft board, and is a mem-
ber of the Los Angeles County Bar Association.
At New Haven, Conn., on October 22, 1912, Mr. Allard was
united in marriage with Miss Harriet L Butler, a native of that state,
and they have one child, a son, Joseph Gordon. The family attend
the Pilgrim Congregational Church at Pomona, in which Mr. Allard
is a member of the board of trustees. Mr. Allard is a member of the
Masonic fraternity, a patron of the Eastern Star, a member of the Odd
F'ellows and the Woodmen of the World. He is a member of the
board of directors of the Masonic Temple Association of Pomona.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 740
JACOB CAMERS
Not everyone who has ventured into the auto-supply field has
succeeded so well in pleasing both himself and the public as Jacob
Camers, one of the three partners of the Pacific Auto Wrecking
Company, at 545 West Second Street, Pomona. He is a native of
Russia, where he was born on May 1, 1882, and in that country of
skilful journeymen he learned the trade of a custom tailor.
In 1906 he came across the ocean to the land of greater free-
dom, and for six years followed his trade in New York City. Then
he traveled west to Los Angeles, and in that city worked as a tailor
for two years. He did so well that he formed a partnership with J.
Berman for the manufacture of ladies' cloaks and suits, and the indus-
trious partners had a shop on Broadway between Third and Fourth
Streets.
Selling out his interest to his partner, Mr. Camers came to Po-
mona in 1916, and here he entered into partnership with S. Goodman
and A. Welenchik and formed the Auto Wrecking Company.
They leased a stable on Third Street near Thomas for ten dollars
per month, but as their business rapidly grew, they leased more exten-
sive quarters on South Thomas Street, opposite the Opera Garage.
In 1918 they moved to their present location, where they have the
largest outfit and stock of its kind between Los Angeles and San
Diego, while they also operate a branch store in San Bernardino.
They started with a capital of $800, and $15,000 is now their reg-
istered capital.
The Auto Wrecking Company buys autos, wrecks them and sells
their parts, and they also do rebuilding. They do retreading in their
own vulcanizing department, which is the largest in the Valley, oper-
ating five moulds. Besides carrying a large line of second-hand tires
and tubes, they are agents for the National Tire and also the Kokomo
Tire.
From small beginnings, these progressive men have built up a
large trade, and the partners are now Jacob Camers, A. Pall, and
S. Goodman — the latter being in charge of the San Bernardino store,
while Mr. Pall travels on the road, buying up autos. Such is the
extent of their rapidly expanding trade, that they buy from two to
three machines weekly during the year. They also carry a full line
of auto parts, and have everything required by the autoist. They
make old tires look and act like new, and in every department and
respect, give good service.
In 1905 Mr. Camers was married in Russia to Miss Mary Stark,
a native of Russia; and three girls have thus far blessed the happy
union. Rosa is thirteen years of age; Sarah Is eleven, while Anna is
two years old.
750 HISTORY AXD BIOGRAPHY
POMONA FIXTURE & WIRING COMPANY
A concern that enjoys the enviable distinction in Pomona com-
mercial circles of being the leader in its line is the Pomona Fixture &
Wiring Company, conducted under the able management of Cyrus W.
Jones and J. Frank Rambo, proprietors. Mr. Jones was born in
Butler County, Kans., on September 15, 1890, and as a youngster
resided in Oklahoma. When he was thirteen he removed to the state
of Washington, and there, at North Yakima, he attended school. His
first employment was in a dry goods store in Seattle, where he profited
much in not only getting acquainted with business methods, but in
acquiring a knowledge of human nature; and after a year spent in
his old home town in Kansas, he came to California.
In 1907 he was lucky to locate in Pomona, and for six years he
clerked in the Orange Belt Emporium. Then, in 1913, he started to
learn the electrical business in Pomona with A. J. Pirdy, and when
the Pomona Fixture & Wiring Company was formed, he entered their
employ and later became vice-president of the company.
On October 25, 1916, with J. Frank Rambo as partner, he
bought out the company and as well-muted coworkers, these gentle-
men have pulled together ever since, steadily improving the service
and increasing greatly the volume of business.
At Pomona, and on April 16, 1911, Mr. Jones was married to
Miss Jennie P. Passmore, a native of Iowa, and the daughter of O. C.
and Alice E. Passmore, pioneers from Colorado. One daughter has
blessed their union, Eleanor. The family attend the First Baptist
Church, and Mr. Jones is a member of the Pomona Lodge No. 107,
Knights of Pythias, and the Yeomen.
J. Frank Rambo's native place was Des Moines, where he was
born on June 5, 1883, and he was educated at the public schools and
the Capitol City Business College of that city. He next passed some
time on his father's ranch, getting there that agricultural experience
and out-of-door exercise that has proven of such benefit to many; and
then, for six years, he was with the A. B. Avis Hardware Company,
and for three years was accountant with the Pomona Manufacturing
Company. As already stated, he became a partner with Mr. Jones
in the Pomona Fixture & Wiring Company, and by assiduous applica-
tion to the problems in hand, and through his own valuable experience
with the trade world, he has contributed his share to making their
enterprise a decided success.
Under the impetus given by the new proprietors, the Pomona
Fixture & Wiring Company has become the leader in the Valley in
the department of its operations. Besides being contractors in elec-
trical work, they carry a full line of electrical appliances, and are
service station agents for the Westinghouse Electrical Manufacturing
Company, while they also represent the Hamilton Beach Manufactur-
HISTORY AND lUOGRAPHY 751
ing Company. They carry electrical auto supplies and electrical wash-
ing machines. Experts in their line, they have done the wiring, by
contract, for the Avis Hotel and many of the finest homes in Pomona,
the College Heights Orange & Lemon Association Plant, in Clare-
mont, the Union Ice Company's establishment at the same place,
Pomona College buildings, including the library building, while they
installed the first ornamental street lighting system at Claremont, and
also put in the same in front of the Claremont High School. They
did the intricate and elegant work for the Claremont School for Boys,
as well as for many elaborate homes in Claremont, the Chino Cannery,
the buildings of the George Junior Republic School at Chino and all
the work on the buildings of the Diamond Bar Ranch near Pomona.
Such an establishment as the Pomona Fixture & Wiring Com-
pany is always a valuable asset to any community, and its worth to
both Pomona and Claremont and all Pomona Valley is sure to be
demonstrated more and more as the years go by, and these progressive
towns continue to be peopled by those who demand the best obtainable
service.
Mr. Rambo was married at Pomona on August 16, 1910, to Miss
Winifred L. Passmore, the daughter of O. C. and Alice E. Passmore.
Mrs. Rambo is a sister of Mrs. Cyrus W. Jones.
HARRY T. BELCHER
Among the far-seeing, promising young men in the Claremont field
of finance, whose advice is often sought, and whose influence is felt in
both commercial and industrial circles, is Harry T. Belcher, the popu-
lar cashier of the First National Bank. He was born at San Francisco
on March 19, 1884, the son of Robert T. Belcher, the college profes-
sor who married Miss Minnie Tresilian, natives of Bandon, Ireland.
Robert T. Belcher was a graduate of Queens University, Dublin, Ire-
land, coming to Claremont in 1907, where he has since been one of the
professors in Pomona College. Of their family of four children,
Harry is the eldest.
Harry T. Belcher studied at the Mt. Tamalpais Military Acad-
emy, from which he was graduated in 1 894; and then, for eight years,
engaged with the Matsons Bank of Montreal in Canada. Returning to
the United States and to California in 1906, he accepted a post with
the Western National Bank of San Francisco and then with the Citizens
National Bank of Los Angeles, in which institutions, working accord-
ing to American methods, he had a good chance to show what he
could do.
Since 1913 Mr. Belcher has been cashier of the leading institution
with which he is at present connected; he has also become a member of
its board of directors and has naturally grown to be active in the Clare-
JSl HISTORY AND lUOGRAPHY
mont Board of Trade. He is a Republican in national politics, but
works for the advancement of good local movements regardless of
party calls. During the late war he was naturally very active in the
different war drives and served as chairman of the Claremont Victory
Loan Committee.
At Claremont, on September 5, 1916, Mr. Belcher was married
to Miss Nellie M. Parsons, the daughter of C. M. Parsons and Mary
G. Parsons of Claremont, Cal. They are members of the Congrega-
tional Church and Mr. Belcher is secretary of the Men's Union; he is
also a Mason. Claremont is fortunate in numbering such young men
among its advance guard.
PHILIP L. RICCIARDI
An Italian-American, who has succeeded so well through his own
ability and industry that he has for years reflected most creditably
on the land of his nativity and also on the country of his adoption,
is Philip L. Ricciardi, the genial and wide-awake proprietor of Philip's
Shoe Store at 290 South Thomas Street. He was born in Sicily
on November 10, 1889, attended there the public schools, and at the
early age of eight, commenced to learn the shoemaker's trade. He
mastered custom shoemaking in particular, and thus equipped, he set
sail, in 1908, for the United States.
He came direct to Los Angeles, where he had relatives, and there
attended night school in order to learn English. He was for a while
in the shoe-repairing department of Wetherby-Kayser, and also in
the Bootery, and later he started a repair shop of his own at Seventh
Street and Grand Avenue. Still later, with Charles Pass as a partner,
he opened a shop at Eighth and Hill streets.
On New Year's Day, 1914, these partners bought out the Block
Shoe Repairing Shop on South Thomas Street, Pomona, Mr. Ricciardi
coming to Pomona to take charge, while Mr. Pass remained in Los
Angeles to take care of the shop there. Later, the partnership was
dissolved, and as Mr. Ricciardi stuck to the ship at Pomona, his busi-
ness prospered rapidly.
In May, 1919, therefore, he leased a much larger store next door
to his old place, and while still carrying on the repair shop, put in a
full line of shoes. He has the best-equipped repair shop in the Val-
ley, and repairs on the average of fifteen hundred pair of shoes
monthly. This item alone may be taken to indicate the extent of his
profitable trade.
Like many of his nationality, Mr. Ricciardi is musical; indeed,
he is an artist on the cornet. His father was the leader of a band in
Italy, and at the very precocious age of nine years, he played the cornet
in his father's band concerts. He was also a cornet player in the
Seventh Regimental Band, California National Guards, and in 1916
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 753
he went with that regiment for three months to Xogales, Arizona,
during the Mexican troubles. Since then, he has been cornet player in
the Pomona City Band.
Mr. Ricciardi was made an American citizen in 1918, and is a
Yeoman, and a member of the Loyal Order of Moose. He was mar-
ried at Pomona, on August 22, 1917, to Miss Beatrice De Caprio, a
native of Seattle, Wash., and the daughter of A. and Josephine De
Caprio; they have one son, Philip E. Ricciardi. He owns his own
home, a comfortable dwelling at 544 East Pasadena Street, Pomona,
and he gives a willing hand to the work of the Pomona Chamber of
Commerce.
CHESTER J. MORRIS
A man whose enterprising spirit and broad, fair methods of
dealing with patrons is clearly reflected in his well-organized business
is Chester J. Morris, proprietor of the Pomona Carpet Cleaning and
Awning Works, advantageously situated at the corner of Park Avenue
and West Bertie Street. He was born in Crawford County, Pa., in
the district where the first oil well drilled is located, on November 5,
1883, and when ten years of age the family moved to Jamestown,
N. Y., where he attended school. When he was fourteen, he secured
employment in a dry goods store, and still later he was in a woolen
mill and also the Jamestown Wood Working factory. After ten
years, he returned to Pennsylvania, and in the city of Titusville he
was for a while an insurance agent; discontinuing which he managed
a shoe business there.
On October 9, 1909, Mr. Morris arrived at Pomona, and soon
afterward he was given employment by Joseph La May, who man-
aged the Pomona Carpet Cleaning and Awning Works. He under-
took the work of outside man soliciting trade for the house, and per-
haps no experience could have served him better, first to master the
details of that commercial line, secondly to learn locality and people,
and third to add to his stock of human nature acquaintance, always
of such value to a business man. He held that position for four years,
and then, for a couple of years, was in the employ of the Munger
Laundry.
In June, 1914, Mr. Morris bought out the Pomona Carpet Clean-
ing and Awning Works and is now sole owner. Under his skilful
direction, the concern has been improved in all of its departments,
and the volume of its business has naturally steadily increased. The
works not only eradicates the dust from rugs and carpets, but by a
scrubbing and sterilizing process, it thoroughly cleans the same, and
when the cleansing has been accomplished, the rugs are in a condition
almost as good as new. Mr. Morris also makes and installs awnings,
754 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
and as he does all the work in this line in Pomona, he easily controls
the whole territory of the Pomona Valley.
At Titusville, Pa., in 1905, Mr. Morris was married to Miss
Grace M. Streeter, a native of Pennsylvania and the daughter of
Sidney and Emily Streeter, by whom he has had three children:
Mildred, Dorothy and Clifford. In his fraternal connections Mr.
Morris is a charter member and treasurer of the Loyal Order
of Moose, and also a member of the Maccabees. The family attend
the First Presbyterian Church.
WARREN PENN
The local dealer for Pomona Valley for Dodge Brothers Motor
Cars, Warren Penn, was born at Broken Bow, Custer County, Nebr.,
on October 12, 1890, and there attended the grammar school, and
later had the advantage of two years at the normal school at Peru,
Nebr. He entered the railroad shops at Havelock, in the same state,
and served as an apprentice to the machinist's trade for two or three
years.
On January 21, 1909, Mr. Penn enlisted in the United States
Navy, for a term of four years, and for six months he attended the
Navy electrical school at Mare Island. He was made chief machin-
ist's mate and was appointed to the U. S. S. California, (since
sunk,) where he served in the dynamo room. He visited China,
Japan, South America, the Philippine Islands, and other interesting
and remote places, traveling some 72,000 miles, and in the end ob-
tained official papers qualifying him as first assistant engineer, on any
ocean steamer in unlimited tonnage.
Following his experience in the Navy, Mr. Penn was located in
Los Angeles for six years, from 1913, when he was with the Harold
L. Arnold Auto Company, as salesman, and with the used-car depart-
ment. On March 15, 1919, he came to Pomona to take the agency
of the Dodge Brothers Motor Cars, and he carries a full line of
touring, roadster, enclosed, truck and business cars, and maintained a
temporary show room in the front of the Opera Garage, until the
new quarters on North Garey Avenue were available. This building
was erected by Ernest Richter and is the most modern structure of its
kind in the entire Valley, and is equipped with every convenience found
in the larger garages in any city. The Dodge Brothers cars were the
most extensively used of any American cars on the battle fields in
France. They were made up for ambulances and truck carriers, and
stood the heavy strain imposed upon them under all and varying, as
well as extremely trying conditions. A thoroughly experienced mech-
anician, Mr. Penn is a distinct asset to the business ranks of Pomona
Valley, nor could he find a more promising field for his future oper-
ations.
HISTORY AXD ISIOGRAPHY 755
THOMAS HARRISON
Among the business men of Pomona who have helped to bring
the city to its present standard of prosperity, Thomas Harrison is well
known as a public-spirited and progressive man of affairs and one who
can be depended upon to do his utmost toward the advancement of the
common welfare. Born February 4, 1875, in Surrey County, England,
his parents were Thomas and Mary (Holmes) Harrison, natives of
that country and farmers by occupation. In 1894 the family came to
the United States and in this country the father has passed to his
reward.
The second of three children born to his parents, Thomas Harri-
son was educated in the schools of England. After their arrival in the
States, he spent fourteen years with the Lake View Gas Fixture Com-
pany, in Chicago. He then came west and spent six months in Los
Angeles, a year in Pasadena, and then settled in Pomona, and in De-
cember, 1910, the firm of Harrison-Fitch Electric Company was
formed, and has built up a successful and far-reaching business, dealing
in all kinds of electrical work, fixtures, etc., and success is due without
doubt to the reputation for honesty and fair dealing which has been
the watchword of the firm since its beginning.
Deeply interested in the progress of his home city, Mr. Harrison
has proven himself a valuable citizen to his adopted country and is
respected as such throughout the community. He is the owner of ten
acres of citrus orchard in San Dimas, to which he gives considerable of
his time. He is an ardent supporter of the prohibition cause, and in
church affairs is a Methodist.
The marriage of Mr. Harrison united him with Miss Kate May
Spansail and two children have been born to them, Marion Elizabeth
and Donald Leslie.
EDWARD G. STAHLMAN
An up-to-date brickmaker whose assiduous application to the study
of the industry enabled him at length to master all the branches is Ed-
ward G. Stahlman, foreman of the Pomona Brick Company. He was
born on a farm near Sparta, in Randolph County, 111., on July 27,
1878, the son of Jacob and Katherine (Nice) Stahlman. His father
is still living at the age of seventy-three; but Mrs. Stahlman, who was
the mother of eight children. Is dead.
Edward, the fifth child in the order of birth, went for a while to
the rural schools and then worked on the farm with his father. He
was for a while In the high school ;'but he left home at the age of nine-
teen, and so did not enjoy all of the advantages given to thousands of
American youth. His mother had then died, and very likely that fact
had something to do with his pushing so far from, home as California.
756 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
At any rate, he arrived in Riverside in 1897, and for two and a
half years remained there. He worked at the brick business, and from
the first was alert to investigate local conditions. He went to Red-
lands, then to San Bernardino, and afterward to Los Angeles, at which
places he examined and studied the various clays, and experimented
how best to burn them. Some of his time was spent at Huntington
Yard, and then with the Independent Brick Company in Los Angeles.
He came to Pomona in 1905, and he has been with the Pomona Brick
Company ever since.
On July 4, 1904, Mr. Stahlman was married to Miss Myrtle May
Morgan, the ceremony taking place at Riverside; and they have four
children — Lois, Elsie, Edna and Merton. Mr. Stahlman belongs to
the Odd Fellows and to the Fraternal Brotherhood. In politics he
is a Republican and is serving on the board of education of Pomona.
Although often invited to set himself up in business elsewhere, Mr.
Stahlman has found only one place that agrees with him and his health,
and that place is Pomona.
JAMES DIXON JOHNSON
No class of men have been more conspicuously prominent in the
upbuilding of Pomona and vicinity than the real estate dealers, and a
strong proof that the development of the city is enduring is afforded by
the growth of its insurance interests.
Among the representative citizens who are engaged in the real
estate and insurance business is Claremont's popular city clerk, James
Dixon Johnson. Mr. Johnson, who is a native of Pomona, Cal., was
born January 31, 1886. He is the son of Cassius C. and Louise A.
(Moore) Johnson, who came to California about the year 1881 and
settled at Pomona, where they engaged in ranching, and developed
water by putting down an artesian well. The senior Johnson pur-
chased a tract of land which he afterwards subdivided and called John-
son's Home Place, and it is now all in orange groves. He died in
1906. His widow is still living.
In a family of three boys and two girls, James Dixon is the
second child. He was educated in the public schools of Pomona and
Claremont, graduated from the preparatory school and followed this
by a year in Claremont College. He then became a member of a
scientific expedition whose field of work was British Honduras, where
he remained one year. His father died soon after his return to Clare-
mont, and he became successor to his interests In the lumber, real
estate and insurance business. He afterwards disposed of his inter-
ests in the lumber yard, but continued the real estate and insurance
offices, in which he has been successful.
His marriage, October 6, 1908, united him with Miss Evangeline
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 757
Kendall of Long Beach, and they became the parents of three chil-
dren: Esther Elizabeth, who died November 14, 1916, at the age of
five; Charles Revere and Roger Kendall.
Mr. Johnson has been prominent in the development of the
Pomona Valley. In 1912 he purchased a tract of unimproved land one
and a half miles north of Claremont, cleared it, developed water on it,
and with his brother, C. S. Johnson, set out the first twenty acres of
lemons in that section.
In his fraternal associations Mr. Johnson is a member of the
Masonic order and has taken the third degree. Religiously he is a
member of the Congregational Church. He was secretary of the
Claremont Board of Trade for four years and acted as its president
one year. He is secretary and manager of the Claremont Improve-
ment Company, and is active in Red Cross and Y. M. C. A. work.
He was elected city clerk of the city of Claremont in April, 1918, for
a term of two years. Mr. Johnson hunts and fishes for recreation, is
progressive and public spirited and takes a deep interest in all that
concerns Pomona Valley, whose interest he ever has at heart.
BENJAMIN E. CALKINS
An adopted Californian hailing from the Buckeye State, who has
brought to his present responsible trade operations considerable com-
mercial and governmental experience, is Benjamin E. Calkins, one of
the proprietors of the Alpha Beta Store, of the Triangle Grocery
Store No. 1, on Second Street and Park Avenue, Pomona. He was
born at Toledo, Ohio, on November 11, 1890, the son of Benjamin
R. and Matta M. (Plantz)' Calkins, also natives of Ohio, and at-
tended both the grammar and high schools of Toledo, getting his
preparation for a brush with the great, wide world in the same stim-
ulating environment so favorable to many distinguished Americans
from that commonwealth.
In 1908 Mr. Calkins came to California and, li\'ing at Los An-
geles, continued his studies under private instruction and at the Los
Angeles Polytechnic, after which he gave instruction in the Wallace
private school in Los Angeles. Then he went into business and was
special agent for the bottled water of the Mountain Spring Water
Company of Riverside County. Selling out in three years, he then
became associated with the Union Oil Company as traveling sales-
man, remaining with them until March, 1917, when he entered the
employ of the Government in the purchasing department of the ship-
yards in San Pedro.
Coming to Pomona in the summer of 1918, he bought an inter-
est in the Triangle Grocery, and is half owner of the Alpha Beta
Store No. 1, located at 480 West Second Street. This establishment
758 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
moved into its new home in the summer of 1919, a headquarters
fitted up most attractively — clean, sanitary and inviting.
Besides meat and groceries, there are departments for vegetables,
fruit and candy, and all goods are arranged in alphabetical order,
from A to Z, hence the name, Alpha Beta. The price is plainly
marked on each article, and you select what you wish and pay as you
go out. This system has proven very satisfactory with the buying
public, and the store, which is one of a chain of eight, is enjoying a
high degree of prosperity.
At San Diego on November 20, 1915, Mr. Calkins married
Miss Helen G. Hall, a native of San Diego and the daughter of J.
P. R. and Charlotte Hall; and they have one son, Bruce Calkins.
The family attend the Christian Church of Pomona.
B. CHAFFEY SHEPHERD
No more enthusiastic and unselfish advocate and supporter of all
that pertains to both the permanent welfare and the good name of
Pomona could well be found than B. Chaffey Shepherd, president of
the Orange Belt Emporium, who had charge of a quarter of the city
in all the war drives that placed Pomona among the leaders for
patriotic, substantial response to the call of the nation. He was born
at Brockville, Ont., February 17, 1880, the son of Benjamin Chaffey
Shepherd, a manufacturer in his younger day. He married Charlotte
Camm, by whom he had four children, Benjamin being the second
oldest.- The family came to Ontario, Cal., in 1884, where the elder
Mr. Shepherd turned to ranching, developed an orange grove in On-
tario, and after he had disposed of this he gave his attention to the
San Antonio Water Company, acting as its secretary, until he retired in
1906. He was a Mason, being past master of the Ontario Lodge, and
was a Knight Templar and a Shriner. He passed away on June 6,
1919, and his widow and all the children survive him.
Chaffey Shepherd, as he is familiarly called by his many friends
and acquaintances, was educated in the public schools of Ontario and
from a boy he worked in the Ontario Observer office, and in due time
he added the invaluable experience of the printer's trade, so that he
was able to serve for three years as the foreman of the Ontario Ob-
server. He then took a course at the Woodbury Business College and
later went back to Brockville, Ont., where he entered the Collegiate
Institute, which he attended until 1901. He then returned to Los An-
geles and accepted a position with the Southwest Printers Supply Com-
pany, next engaging for two years with the Central Lime Company of
that city, for whom he was head office man.
In March, 1905, Chaffey Shepherd came to Pomona, purchased
an interest in and became secretary and treasurer of the Orange Belt
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 759
Emporium, continuing the activities of these offices until October, 1918,
when he was elected president of the company. Orange Belt Em-
porium was started in 1901, and was then incorporated as the King-
Steffa Company. In 1903, on the. death of Mr. King, it was taken over
by the partners, who changed it to the Crawford-Moles Company, and
it was continued as such until A. E. Tate and B. C. Shepherd became
interested, when the name was changed to the Orange Belt Em-
porium. The Pomona Department Store being for sale in 1910, they
purchased it, and soon after they moved into their quarters on the
northeast corner of Garey Avenue and Second Street, in their present
large building, and since then have obtained additional room. The
business now occupies a space 90 by 120 feet, the basement also being
used for a sales department. The growth of the store has been phe-
nomenal and far exceeds their most sanguine expectations, being now
the largest store in Pomona Valley. Mr. Shepherd is also interested
in citrus culture and owns an orange grove in the Valley and by the
same methods and close application that has characterized his manage-
ment of the Emporium he is also making a success of ranching. He
is an active member of the Chamber of Commerce and has been
especially interested in advertising the advantages of Pomona and in
welcoming those who come to settle here.
On January 10, 1911, at Pomona, Mr. Shepherd was married to
Miss Mary Carmichael Davis, born in Grinnell, Iowa, by whom he has
had three children: Benjamin Chaffey 3rd, Philip Davis and Mary
Louise. The family reside in the attractive home which Mr. Shepherd
has erected In Alvarado Park. In politics Mr. Shepherd is a Republi-
can, and in fraternal circles he is a member of Pomona Lodge, No.
246, F. & A. M., and Pomona Lodge, No. 789, B. P. O. Elks.
REV. STEPHEN CUTTER CLARK, JR.
As rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church of Pomona, Rev.
Stephen Cutter Clark has taken his place in the community where he
was reared and educated and where he finds work to do In his chosen
calling. Born in Pasadena, August 6, 1892, he Is the son of Stephen
Cutter and Grace (Greene) Clark. The family came to California
in 1887, and locating in Pasadena, established a boys' school in that
city. The youngest of three children born to his parents, Stephen
Cutter, Jr., was educated primarily in the classical school for boys
conducted and founded by his father, then had two years at Occi-
dental College, and took his degree of B.A. from the State Univer-
sity in 1914. He then attended the Episcopal Theological School at
Cambridge, and graduated with the degree of B.D.
Reverend Clark was ordained in May, 1917, and his first charge
was at Park City, Utah. One year later, in August, 1918, he was
760 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
called to St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Pomona, and is now ably
filling that charge, a young man of fine mind and attainments, des-
tined to go far in his life work.
The marriage of Reverend Cljirk, at Berkeley, Cal., June 21,
1917, united him with Miss Helen Moodey, and one son, Stephen
Cutter 3rd, and a daughter, Helen Eveleth, have been born to them.
Fond of mountain climbing and outdoor recreation. Reverend Clark
gains new enthusiasm in such sports. He is duly interested in local
affairs, and at present is president of the Pomona Ministerial Union
and ready at all times to aid in worthy projects for bettering conditions
in the Valley, along either educational, civic or social lines. In political
matters he votes the Democratic ticket.
JOHN DOVOLOS
The social side of life in the prosperous and comfortable home
town of Pomona has not failed to attract to that city many proficient
in callings having to do with entertainment and pleasures, and among
these enterprising providers should be mentioned John Dovolos, of
the firm of Dovolos Brothers, proprietors of the well-known Athenian
Confectionery at the corner of First Street and Garey Avenue, with
a branch store at Ontario. He was born at Sparta, Greece, on Octo-
ber 25, 1889, and as even a small boy started to learn candy making
in his native land. No better school could ever have been selected,
for as Americans now know, the Greeks are among the most proficient
candy makers in the world.
At the age of fourteen, when many boys are still poring lazily
o\'er their books, Mr. Dovolos came to the United States and for a
while located at Minneapolis, where he went to school and rapidly
learned the English language. He also finished in that city his appren-
ticeship as a candy maker, his instructor and employer being P. Bozo-
los, one of the best-known confectioners of the Northwest; and when
he was well-equipped to grapple with the world, he came West, in
1907, with his older brother Andrew.
Fortunately coming to Pomona, -a town always appreciative of
good things, the two brothers bought out the Olympian Candy Store
on East Second Street, in the Central Hotel Block, and there, with
just ninety-five dollars capital, they started to found their fortune.
So well did they invest their principal, so clever were they in what
they set out before the inquiring public, that their trade grew rapidly
from the start, and now they own two of the leading candy stores in
the Valley. Experts in their line, they make all of the candy that
they sell; and they are thus able often to offer the "home-made" con-
fectionery so much in demand today. After a year and a half in this
first shop, they moved to their present store at the favorable location
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 761
at Garey Avenue and First Street. The Ontario store is managed by
Andrew Dovolos. John Dovolos at one time owned an orange and
lemon grove in the San Dimas district, and at present he owns valuable
Los Angeles real estate. Another brother, George Dovolos, is also
a member of the firm, and is located at the Pomona store. He served
for two years in the Greek cavalry in the recent Balican War, and
was twice wounded. He has been in Pomona for three years.
John Dovolos also has a fine war record, of which he is justly
proud. He enlisted in the great World War on April 28, 1918, a
member of the Three Hundred Sixty-third Machine Gun Com-
pany, Ninety-first Division, and this division did some of the best
and hardest fighting in the war. It was known, in fact, as the Wild
West Division, and it lived up to its reputation for aggression. It
was trained at Camp Lewis, went over-seas, and took part in four
important battles, the most noted of which was the Battle of the
Argonne. Mr. Dovolos was hit three times, and had his helmet shot
off, and for nine days and nights he was in the Argonne Forest. Such
was the terrific ordeal to which he and his co-fighters were subjected,
that only forty-four of his company were left out of two hundred men.
Altogether, he was three months at the front, and in that time 105
prisoners were taken by his company. He brought back many curios,
among which is a German helmet taken from a German he killed.
While in camp in France, he made candy for his company out of sugar
and chocolate, and named the same the Argonne Forest Candy; and
it is safe to say that never has his art given greater satisfaction than
to the soldier boys so far from home. Fraternally Mr. Dovolos is a
member of the Woodmen of the World.
HARRY B. WESTGATE
A public-spirited member of the Pomona Bar, who, at the call
of his country, promptly turned from the contests of the court room
to the fiercer struggles of the battlefield, is Harry B. Westgate, who
was born at Taunton, Mass., on May 24, 1888, the son of James E.
and Fanny (Gregor) Westgate. His father was a brick manufac-
turer, and as such was well known for the superior product of his
yards. He passed many busy, fruitful years in close relation to the
building trade, and is still enjoying life, with his good helpmate, in
Massachusetts.
The elder of the two children that blessed this union, Harry,
was educated at the common schools of his neighborhood and later
at the Bridgewater high school. Having decided upon the study of
law, he matriculated at the University, of Maine, one of the most
thorough of the excellent schools of New England, and in 1913 was
762 . HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
graduated from its College of Law with the degree of LL.B. Dur-
ing the following February he was admitted to the bar of Maine, with
full authority to practice in the courts of the state. •
In 1914, Mr. Westgate struck out for the West and finally
reached California; and after locating at Pomona, to which he was
attracted in part by the superior average of its citizenship, he was
admitted, in June, to the California bar. Since then it has been only
a matter of time for his steady and higher advancement, so that now
he is fortunate in a satisfactory and increasing practice. This mate-
rial success did not -prevent him from offering his services to the Gov-
ernment in that recent crisis which tried the hearts of millions of men;
he joined Company C of the Sixty-first Infantry, and was in the offi-
cers' training camp at the signing of the armistice.
In October, 1914, Mr. Westgate was married at Pomona to
Miss Ruth Abbott, of Pomona, the daughter of William T. and Nettie
J. Abbott; and one child — a son, Harry B., Jr. — was born of this
union. Mr. Westgate is a Republican, but nonpartisan in respect to
local affairs; and he belongs to the Knights of Pythias, thus taking his
part in local social life. He owns an orange grove such as many
would desire to possess, and this naturally makes him all the more
interested in Pomona Valley. He is now a member of the law firm of
Gallup and Westgate.
JASPER T. WELLS
The rapid growth and increased prosperity of this section of
California is without a doubt due to the men who have come here and
devoted their time and efforts to the study and propagation of the
citrus industry. Among these Jasper T. Wells deserves mention as
one of the experts in this line of horticultural development work, and
his years of study and work in orange and lemon growing have proven
profitable both to the community and to himself. Mr. Wells is a
native of Georgia, born in Savannah, December 3, 1871. He was
reared there and learned the trade of bricklayer in his youth. He
later went to Ellis County, Tex., and there engaged in the construc-
tion of brick buildings in Waco and Galveston.
From Texas Mr. Wells went to Oklahoma, when it was still a
territory, and voted for its statehood; he lived near P'eatherstone,
in eastern Oklahoma, and farmed there for ten years. The year 1904
found him in Pomona Valley, and he then started to learn citrus grow-
ing from the seed to the marketing. He worked for a time in the
nursery at LaVerne to gain the desired knowledge, and also on the
Evergreen ranch and the Payton ranch in that district. In 1912 he
came to Pomona and became foreman of the F. P. Firey ranch of
thirty-two acres devoted to orange growing. During his seven years
HISTORY AND I'.IOGR.M'IIV . 7r.3
in this capacity he has greatly improved the property and is considered
an expert in orange and lemon growing in this district, and in the
best methods for the cultivation of these fruits.
The marriage of Mr. Wells, in 1903, in Oklahoma, united him
with Miss Ona Woodside, a native of Kentucky, and three children
have blessed their union: Cecil, Alta L., and Ella J. The family
attend the First Christian Church. In fraternal circles Mr. Wells is
a member of the Modern Woodmen, and in civic affairs he is a be-
liever in the further advancement of the resources of this fertile
Valley.
ALBERT P. DOULL
To become an expert in a given line of endeavor shows in itself
a certain strength of character, and when the work is along artistic
lines it shows as well a definite gift in that direction which in its de-
velopment proves of much real value to humanity and to the enjoy-
ment of life. Albert P. Doull, the proprietor of the Art Furniture
Shop at 284-290 East Second Street, Pomona, has become known
throughout the state as a designer and maker of artistic furniture and
a dealer in antiques. A Canadian by birth, he possesses the art of
attention to detail for which that nation is noted, and this characteristic
he carries into whatever happens to gain his attention as worth while.
He was born on Prince Edward Island, and his early days were passed
at Summerside, a picturesque port on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where
he attended the public schools.
Mr. Doull started his business career by learning the cabinet-
maker's trade at Amherst, Nova Scotia, and there he resided for iive
years; when he left his native land, it was to cross into the States and
come to Minneapolis, Minn., for a year. In 1887 he came west to
San Diego, and there worked at his trade for a time, then opened a
store of his own, the Art Nook, on Sixth Street, in that city, dealing
in antique furniture, and continued in that location for a period of
seven years. Coming north to Los Angeles, he had charge of the
case department of Murray M. Harris Pipe Organ Company, during
which time he designed many elaborate organ fronts, such as the one
installed in the First Methodist Church on Sixth and Hill, the Cali-
fornia Street Methodist Church of San Francisco, and numerous
others. He also produced the preliminary sketches and built the key
desk of the largest organ in the world, exhibited at the St. Louis Expo-
sition. He was also in the employ of the Weber Show Case Company
and the Southern California Hardwood and Manufacturing Company,
both of Los Angeles.
In the spring of 1915, attracted especially to Pomona, Mr. Doull
opened here an art furniture shop, and uses his talent in making all
764 HISTORY AND I'.IOGRArHY
kinds of furniture to order; in the years in which he has been estab-
lished here he has made some of the choicest and most original work
for the best homes in the city. He provides artistic sketches of his own
for odd pieces of furniture, and repairs, restores, refinishes and repro-
duces old furniture such as the colonial and other periods, and is also
an expert wood carver. One department of his establishment is given
over to the buying and selling of antique goods, and as a side line he
also does upholstering and makes mattresses. Among his specimens
of master designs may be mentioned the front of the pipe organ in the
San Dimas Union Church, the grill work and panels of which are from
his own designs; this work alone has brought him very favorable
mention in artistic circles.
While in Los Angeles, Mr. Doull was a member of the Canadian
Club. During his residence in San Diego he acquired an unimproved
ten-acre ranch south of the city, which he still owns; and in Pomona he
has purchased Rose Court, corner of East Fifth and Reservoir streets,
and this is his home place. He is vitally interested in anything which
means the further advancement of this section of the state, and works
with his fellow citizens toward that end.
GEORGE B. WITMAX
A leading man in the bustling business world of Pomona, whose
trade is constantly growing, is George B. Witman, the well-known
jeweler and optician, of Second and Main streets, who was born at
Remington, Ind., on August 21, 1889, the son of A. H. and Mary
Elizabeth (Heilig) Witman.
He was but a small lad when he came to Pomona, in 1894, with his
parents, and here he attended the grammar and high school, enjoying
the educational advantages for which the city is famous. He then
continued his studies for a year at Pomona College, and afterward
took an optical course for a year at the Southern California Optical
College in Los Angeles, graduating as a licensed optician.
In 1910 Mr. Witman entered the employ of his father, A. H.
Witman, who conducted a jewelry store on West Second Street, Po-
mona, and through conducting the optical department he obtained
practical experience, while he also learned the jewelry trade. When,
therefore, his father was ready to retire, he was ready to succeed him
at the "old stand"; and on February 19, 1917, he purchased the store,
stock and good will.
Since taking over the business, he has doubled the volume of
trade, for he carries only the highest class of jewelry and silverware,
while he also has the largest stock of high-grade jewelry in Southern
California, outside of Los Angeles and San Diego. He is continually
on the lookout for the latest in the jewelry line, which he adds to his
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 766
stock; and this alertness Is much appreciated by his many patrons, a
large percentage of whom are among the class that "know." Recently,
alterations have been made in the store; a new floor has been laid, and
there is a new front with extra plate glass windows, so that the estab-
lishment and its home now rank with the best for its size in all
California.
On May 1, 191 1, at Pomona, Mr. Witman and Miss Eva G. Ely
were married; and they are the parents of two very attractive chil-
dren, George B., Jr., and Mary Elizabeth. Mrs. Witman is a native
of Fort Dodge, Iowa, and the daughter of F. M. and Mary Ely,
worthy pioneers long esteemed as neighbors and friends.
WILLIAM STANLEY WOOD
To devote one's life to the education and training of the future
generation is a work worthy of praise from all men, and nothing can
exceed it in importance to the great commonwealth. Pomona Valley
boasts of educational facilities which rank with the very best in the
state, and has long been a Mecca for families who desire the best to
be had along educational lines for their children, combined with ideal
home surroundings.
William Stanley Wood, a well-known educator and a member of
the faculty of the Claremont high school, Is a native of Northport,
Long Island, N. Y., where he was born May 25, 1882, a son of James
and Catherine (Barton) Wood. Both parents are now deceased. He
received his preliminary education in the public schools of Brooklyn,
N. Y. In 1901 he came to Los Angeles, earning his own way. Desir-
ing to further enlarge his education, he entered Throop Polytechnic
Institute in Pasadena, where he was graduated. From the latter insti-
tution he went to the University of California at Berkeley, and studied
manual training at Menomonee, Wis. Teaching for a year he entered
Stout Institute at Menomonee, continuing his studies in the line of his
specialty.
After finishing his college courses, Mr. Wood began teaching in
the Claremont high school in 1911, and is now serving as vice-principal
of the institution, an able educator and man of sterling worth and
character.
The marriage of Mr. Wood united him with Miss Beatrice
Lorina Jones, a native daughter of California, born at Long Beach,
and one child has blessed their union, Cathryn Jean Wood. The
family are members of the Congregational Church and enjoy the
friendship of the community in which they make their home, and join
in all worthy causes for the upbuilding of the Valley, both along edu-
cational and civic lines. For a recreation from his educational work,
Mr. Wood takes a deep interest in agricultural work and In gardening.
766 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
He has unbounded faith in the future in store for this section of
California, and is ready to back it up in a substantial way when the
occasion calls for it. In national politics he supports the Republican
party, but in local elections uses his own judgment in supporting the
men he believes best fitted for office.
OLIVER HARVEY DUVALL
That adverse circumstances are but obstacles to be overcome by a
man of character and energy finds convincing expression in the life
story of Oliver H. Duvall, who, by his own efforts, has risen above
his early struggles and become one of the well-known and esteemed
men of Claremont. He is a native of Indiana, born near Richmond,
February 3, 1865, a son of Ira and Elizabeth (Card) Duvall, both
now deceased.
The third child in a family of nine born to his parents, Oliver H.
received his education in the rural schools and had two years in high
school, later studied for one year at the Central Normal School at
Danville, Ind. He then taught school in Indiana and Ohio for two
years, and at the end of that period came to California, in the winter
of 1887, first settling in the Ojai Valley, Ventura County, for three
years and there engaged in various occupations.
In the fall of 1890, Mr. Duvall decided to gain further educa-
tional advantages for himself, though handicapped by health none too
robust, and also a lack of finances. Nothing daunted, however, he
entered Pomona College, and through the permission of the faculty,
opened a small book and stationery room in the college, which helped
him in working his way through college, and in 1895 he was gradu-
ated with the degree of B.L. That same year he had the opportunity
to become assistant postmaster and served in that capacity for two
years, and was later appointed postmaster, a position which he filled
for eighteen years, the office in the meantime growing until it was ad-
vanced from a fourth to a second-class office. Mr. Duvall received
his appointment through President McKinley, and has won the esteem
of his fellow-citizens through his years of faithful service. He em-
ployed his spare time in studying pharmacy, in due time becoming a
registered pharmacist, now being proprietor of the College Book and
Drug Store, and a well-known figure in the college life of Claremont
and the Pomona Valley. He has watched the trend of events in this
section and taken an active interest in the growth of the college and
Valley surrounding it, from a very small beginning to the present
period of remarkable advancement, and can rightfully feel that he has
had a share in its development. Besides his business interests, he is
interested in horticulture and has developed an orange grove of hi.s
own in the Valley. He was also an organizer of the First National
Bank of Claremont and is a director of the institution.
HISTORY AND HIOORAl'I h' 7i^7
The marriage of Mr. Duvall, in 1896, united him with Miss
Frances L. Billings, born in New York state and a graduate of Ober-
lin College, with the degree of B.A. She was also a pioneer of this
section, and established the first kindergarten in Pomona. One child
has blessed their union, Florence Elizabeth. The family are members
of the Congregational Church and join in the social and civic life of
the community. In political affairs Mr. Duvall supports Republican
principles and measures.
FRANCIS G. WYMAN
A gentleman who has done much to advance the study of the
proper care of citrus and other trees is Francis G. Wyman, manager
of the Growers Fumigation and Supply Company, of Pomona, one of
the most enterprising and promising associations actuated by the co-
operative idea in all California. He was born in Austinburg, Ohio,
on December 1, 1867, and when six years old was taken by his father,
George Wyman, to McPherson County, Kans., where he grew up on
homestead land. He attended the public schools, and alternately de-
voted his boyish energies to study and farming.
In 1892, he came to California and located in Lordsburg, now
La Verne, and for four years worked in orange ranches. Like many
others, this bright young fellow got possessed with the idea of buying
and improving land, and at Mud Springs, near San Dimas, he bought
ten acres of an orange grove, brought the tract to a higher state of
cultivation, and then sold it at a profit. Since that time he has owned
two other groves. For a number of years he lived in the San Dimas
district, and later he removed to Claremont, where he now resides.
At La Verne, on September 15, 1896, Mr. Wyman was married
to Miss Charlotte Small of Iowa, by whom he has had two children,
Marion L. and Charlotte Wyman. Marion was a junior at Pomona
College, and having attended the officers' training school at the
Presidio, was ready to receive a commission in the army when the
armistice was signed. His sister is a junior in the Claremont high
school. The family attend the Congregational Church, and Mr. Wy-
man is a York Rite Mason, and a Shriner, and he is a past master, a
past high priest and a past commander, all at Pomona, and was master
of San Dimas lodge. He has conferred the third degree on his son
Marion in Claremont lodge. He also belongs to the Knights of
Pythias.
Mr. Wyman is an expert and an authority on fumigation, and is
frequently consulted by those anxious to secure the best results. He
has made special addresses on the subject before the horticultural com-
mission, and articles from his pen have appeared in the California
768 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Citrograph of Los Angeles, a magazine devoted to citrus growing.
He first became connected with the Growers Fumigation and Supply
Company in 1910, and since his assumption of office, the organization
has greatly extended its field of operations.
The Growers Fumigation and Supply Company of Pomona,
which now has offices in the Investment Building, was organized in
1909 and is at present manned by the following officers: President,
Fred J. Smith; vice-president, D. C. Crookshank; directors, Messrs.
Smith, Crookshank and J. W. Romick, Lucien S. Taylor, C. O. Baugh-
man, J. J. Maechtlen, William A. Fox and W. O. Fritz. The com-
pany operates under the state laws of California, the same as the
packing houses, and is an association of citrus fruit growers. They
are in intimate connection with seven packing houses, and through the
latter as members, about 6,000 acres of citrus fruit are represented.
It is the largest association of its kind in Southern California, and
about 4,200 acres have been fumigated by the company in one season.
According to the report of Manager Wyman, made in May,
1919, the Growers Fumigation and Supply Company, in the face of
such adverse conditions as scarcity of labor, high cost of materials,
tents, etc., was able to make a most satisfactory showing before the
stockholders at the last meeting. The company has sustained almost
no losses, has laid aside the fine sum of $7,000 as a fund with which to
replace equipment, has paid six per cent to stockholders, and will re-
fund $5,240 to the growers this year. The number of trees fumigated
last year was 248,196; and as it is clear that through cooperation this
work has been done much cheaper than it could be undertaken by
private contractors, it is also clear that besides the saving in money,
there has been a guarantee of good, safe work that must have been
very considerable.
MAJ. HOMER LEO DUFFY
One of the popular and progressive men of the Valley, and the
son of an old pioneer of California, Homer Leo Duffy has demon-
strated his ability both in business and civic affairs. Born in Lexing-
ton, Nebr., September 8, 1883, he is the son of John A. and Elizabeth
J. (Moran) Duffy; the father was a contractor and carpenter by trade,
and in early days came to the Grass Valley mining country. He later
located in Pomona and here bought property between Thomas and
Garey streets and built the Eureka House, in 1885. Both parents are
now living in Los Angeles, and besides Homer Leo, they have two
daughters now living.
Maj. Homer Leo Duffy was educated in the public schools of
Pomona, and then took a course at Williams Business College. His
first employment was with the Edison Company, and he has been with
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 769
this concern for the past eighteen years, a record which speaks for it-
self. Studious and ambitious, he put in his spare time in study, and has
risen to his present position through his own energetic efforts. P"or-
merly cashier for the company, in 1916 he was promoted to the posi-
tion of chief clerk and now fills that important post.
Besides his business interests, Major Duffy has been active in mili-
tary affairs in the Valley. On March 16, 1900, he enlisted as a private
in the National Guard, was elected second lieutenant, and after serving
one and one-half years in that capacity, he was elected captain for six
and one-half years. He made a record during this time and while at
the head of his company every man qualified as a marksman or better
and received the grade of "excellent" with regard to equipment, etc.
Major Duffy himself has made a record in shooting and target prac-
tice. In March, 1916, he was appointed a major in the California
Quartermaster's Corps, and that year was called into the P'ederal ser-
vice, and mustered out January 10, 1917.
On May 9, 1917, Major Duffy was married to Ruth L. Brewer,
a daughter of H. L. Brewer of Pomona, and a native daughter of
Pomona Valley. Her father and mother, who were born In Cali-
fornia, came to Pomona in 1887, and both are living here now and are
among the early pioneers. Mrs. Brewer attended the Pomona schools
when a girl. In fraternal affairs Major Duffy is a member of the
Elks; the Knights of Columbus, in which order he is a grand knight;
and of the Fraternal Brotherhood. In politics he supports the Re-
publican party. A man of fine character. Major Duffy has interested
himself in all movements for the advancement of his section, and is
well known throughout the community.
ALFRED M. FOV\^KES
A splendid illustration of the value to a community of a worth-
while Institution of such a nature that, continuing to operate. It is
bound to expand, and expanding, It enriches and advertises the more
the town of which it Is such an important and promising part, is afford-
ed by Alfred M. Fowkes, the enterprising manufacturer of sweater
coats and knit goods, whose well-appointed factory Is at 274 East
Second Street, Pomona. He was born at Philadelphia, on March 14,
1876, and after enjoying the excellent public school advantages of the
city, he entered the employ, when a young man, of the Philadelphia &
Reading Railroad, to do office work.
With seven years' experience and recommendation, Mr. Fowkes
next embarked in business for himself, establishing a wholesale metal
refinery; and after that he took up the manufacture of knit goods, with
a specialty of Cardigan jackets. In 1906 he came west and to Po-
mona, and for a few years tried his hand at real estate and land specu-
770 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
lations, building and the buying and selling of houses and orange
groves; but then he returned east for a few years and came back only
in 1914.
The next year he established his present business — an enterprise
that has come to mean so much to Pomona, for it is the only manufac-
tory of its kind in Southern California, east of Los Angeles. It is, too,
a growing industry, for it was started with one hand-knitting machine,
and since then new and modern machinery for weaving has been added
from time to time, and at present all the machinery is run by electric
power. Zephyr and worsted are used in the manufacture of sweaters;
the skeins are wound from shuttles onto spools by electric power, and
the cloth is then woven in slips on new power machines, after which
they are joined by sewing machines, run by electric power, and the
sweater is complete. The large department stores of Los Angeles take
nearly all of the output, although some are sold at retail to Pomona
people. Inasmuch as this has proven to be a rapidly-growing indus-
try, larger and more commodious quarters will soon be taken; and
then, more than ever, the sweaters will appear in all colors and styles.
Six people are regularly employed in the factory, and it is naturally
only a question of time before the industry will afford many more
Pomonans employment.
While at Philadelphia, on February 8, 1899, Mr. Fowkes was
married to Miss Jennie Kephart, a native of Philadelphia, whose
parents represented old pioneer families. Now the happily-mated
couple have two children, Alfred M., Jr., and Beatrice. He is a mem-
ber of the B. P. O. Elks of Pomona.
EARL FREDENDALL
Holding an assured position among Pomona's citizens and in her
business enterprises is Earl Fredendall, proprietor of the Fredendall
Mercantile Agency in the city of Pomona. He was born at Wash-
ington, Kans., January 13, 1886. His parents, T. B. and Eva J.
(Collins) Fredendall, came to California with their family more than
twenty-five years ago, locating in 1893 at Ontario and afterwards re-
turning to Kansas. But the memory of California's sunny skies and
other attractions lingered with them, and ten years after their first
venture in establishing a home on the Pacific slope they returned,
locating permanently at Pomona in 1903, in which vicinity they are
now living on an orange ranch.
In a family of six children, consisting of three boys and three
girls, Earl is the second child. He was educated in the public schools
and graduated from the Pomona high school with the class of 1906,
afterwards taking a year's course in Pomona College. He then was
employed in the lumber business in South Pasadena, and spent one
HISTORY AXD r.IOCRAniV "1
year in Missouri in his father's store. He established his present
business in April, 1910. In the extremity of his country's need, he
joined the United States service and was admitted to the Field Artil-
lery, Central Officers' Training Camp at Camp Zachary Taylor, near
Louisv^ille, Ky. At the time of the armistice he returned home at his
own expense.
Mr. Fredendall married May 10, 1919, Miss Ola Thompson, a
native daughter of California, born at Claremont. In his political
convictions he is an adherent of the principles advocated in the plat-
form of the Republican party, and fraternally he affiliates with the
Masonic order, being master of Pomona Lodge No. 246, F". & A. M.,
and is also a member of the Elks and of the Chamber of Commerce.
He is deeply interested in the Pomona Valley and its development.
Public-spirited in its broadest sense, he takes an active interest in the
betterment of the community in which he resides in every possible way.
LOUIS FERRELL
The success in life reached by Louis Ferrell has been solely
through his own efforts, and he deserves the credit due any man who
has, through his industry and thrift, established a successful business of
his own and maintains the same, with honesty and fair dealing as the
basis of his success. Born in Howard County, Mo., Apirl 4, 1881,
he is a son of Andrew Summers and Juanita (McMuUen) Ferrell, the
former a farmer by occupation, who fought with the soldiers of the
Confederacy in the Civil War. The family first came to California in
1891, remaining in Los Angeles one year, and then returned to Mis-
souri. The lure of the West proved too strong, however, and 1898
found them living in Pomona, where the father's death occurred, and
where the mother now makes her home.
The youngest of two children, Louis Ferrell attended school in
Missouri, Los Angeles and Pomona, and as a young man learned the
trade of stone mason. In 1904 he engaged in business for himself in
Pomona, as a concrete contractor, and has since that time been active
in the business life of the city. He follows concrete contracting on a
large scale, sometimes employing as many as 100 men. Among other
contracts, Mr. Ferrell constructed the stone work on the Presbyterian
and the Christian churches in Pomona, the paving of Holt Avenue
from San Antonio Avenue west, and many of the sidewalks in the city.
Deeply interested in the upbuilding of Pomona Valley, Mr. Fer-
rell has won the respect of his home city as a public-spirited and en-
thusiastic worker for the development of this district, and especially
the water facilities of the Valley. He has been active in the war drives
during the country's need, and in all ways has proven himself a man
worthy the respect and friendship he has won in the community.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
ROLLIE A. STINE
A native of Southern California, and the direct descendant of
CaHfornia pioneers, Rollie A. Stine was himself a pioneer in the line
of business he chose for his life work, and the family history is most
interesting as an example of life in the Golden States from the days
of '49 up to the present era. In the "gold" days of romance and hard-
ships side by side, the first of the family came west. Grandfather Stine,
a genuine '49er. A few years later his son, Charles R. Stine, who had
been born in Ohio, crossed the plains to the state, using horses as far
as Salt Lake City and ox teams from there to the gold mines of
Tuolumne County. With his three brothers, John, Eugene and Amos,
he hauled freight from the mines to Stockton, and later he located near
Petaluma, Sonoma County, where he followed ranching.
Charles R. Stine chose for his second wife Miss Mattie Weekly, a
native Californian, and in the early seventies they came to Tustin,
when Santa Ana was a mustard patch and there were only two orange
trees in this section, and they were in the city of Orange. He helped
dig the Santa Ana irrigation ditch from the Santa Ana Canyon, the
first in the district, taking part payment in stock and part in money for
his labor. Later, he followed ranching, and is now living retired at
Chino. He brought his violin with him to Tustin and played for many
of the dances held by the Spanish in early days. Three children were
born to this pioneer couple: Flora, Mrs. W. H. Delphey of Chino;
Rollie A. of this writing, and William A. of Balboa. By a former
marriage there were two sons, Charles and Orla, both living in Los
Angeles.
Rollie A. Stine was born at Tustin, then Los Angeles, but now
Orange County, on January 12, 1878, and was educated in the Tustin
grammar and the Chino high schools. As a boy he worked on the
stock ranches, and later, in partnership with his brother, William A.,
he engaged in stock raising, ranching and dairying on rented land near
Chino; and while riding the range in the early days of this section he
had a personal acquaintance with old Spanish families and became
familiar with their happy life in those romantic times, and can recall
many interesting experiences at rodeos, dances and other gatherings,
when the early Spaniards proved their title as the most hospitable of
peoples.
In 1907 Mr. Stine located in Pomona, and for a while engaged in
the breaking and sale of horses. Then he established the first van
and storage business in the Valley, starting with horse power and
changing to motor power. His business has steadily increased as the
efficiency of the service given became known, and he now maintains
a storage warehouse and office at 203 North Park Street, where he has
as full and fine an equipment as may usually be found in a city four
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 771
times the size of Pomona. In the features of compact loading ami
careful handling he gives the best possible satisfaction, and with the
enclosed vans as a gtiarantee against damage by the elements, the care-
fulness of handling the smallest articles as well as those most valuable
to the owners, he maintains a business which is kept to the top notch
of modernity, and has succeeded as such methods applied to business
always do succeed. In fact, it would be difficult to conceive of modern
Pomona and environs without Stine's van and storage outfit. He is
also agent for the Transcontinental Freight Company.
On December 23, 1902, at Chino, Cal., Mr. Stine was married to
Miss Emma S. Fintel, a daughter of John F. Fintel, an early settler of
Pomona, who followed ranching successfully and is now deceased.
Five children have blessed their union: Leland R., Gladys, Clayton,
Evelyn and Loren.
CLYDE A. GATES
A Californian by adoption who has been in the Golden State only
a few years, but by foresight, good judgment and hard work has been
so successful that he has made his presence felt and has widely extended
his influence for good, is Clyde A. Gates, a member of the well-known
firm of Boyd& Gates, the wide-awake real estate dealers, whose offices
at 103 South Garey Avenue are a Mecca to many. Not only has he
attained eminence in the field referred to, but he is one of the leading
orange growers of the Valley, and so has much to do with influencing
the trend of events there.
Mr. Gates was born at Laporte City, Iowa, on December 23,
1872, and was reared at Fort Dodge, in the same state, where he at-
tended the public schools and then studied at a good business college.
As a young man, he clerked in a mercantile house at P^ort Dodge,
and then he became traveling salesman for a wholesale grocery house.
Next he went to Sioux Falls, S. D., and was the first exclusive auto
dealer there, setting the pace both as a retailer and a wholesaler, while
handling the Ford and acting as agent for the Buick.
In 1910 Mr. Gates came to Pomona, and bought twenty-six acres
of an orange grove on East Kingsley Avenue, located in the northeast
Pomona tract. This grove, consisting of many fine Navel and Valencia
trees, is twenty years old, and it has yielded as much as $14,000 gross
yearly. He made many improvements there, remodeled the residence,
creating twelve rooms, and in other ways much enhanced the value.
Mr. Gates entered into real estate dealing shortly after arriving
in Pomona, buying, selling and owning property. In the spring of
1919, he made a partnership, to operate in realty, with Sidney R.
Boyd, the name of the firm this time being styled Boyd & Gates. They
774 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
deal in orange groves, alfalfa ranches, city property and country
ranches. They handle only their own property, and do not work for
others on a commission basis.
When, at Fort Dodge, Iowa, and on February 26, 1896, Mr.
Gates was married, he chose for his wife Miss Letha Nash, a native of
Iowa, and three children have blessed their union. Howard C, aged
twenty-two, enlisted soon after the war was declared, and as a United
States Navy radio officer, was on the Pacific Mail steamship Cour-
ageous in the Pacific service for over two years. Walter N. has
reached his twentieth year, and Ronald B. is sixteen. The family
attend the P'irst Presbyterian Church, and Mr. Gates is both a thirty-
second degree Mason and a Shriner, and also a Knight of Pythias.
D. MAT TOLTON
Pomona owes much to her pleasant reputation among motorists
created by the excellent service station and auto supply shop of
D. Mat Tolton, whose headquarters are at 200 North Garey Avenue,
from which place he feels the pulse of the motor world and especially
keeps in touch with motoring in Southern California. He was born at
Attalla, Etowah County, Ala., on February 28, 1884, and was reared
on a farm, while he attended the country schools. For a while he fol-
lowed a mercantile career, first in a general merchandise store near his
home, then in a grocery store, and later in a gent's furnishing store in
Attalla. There he joined the Odd Fellows, and he still holds his mem-
bership in the lodge of his old home town.
He arrived at Pomona in December, 1909, and for a short time
worked at the Pomona Fruit Growers Exchange packing house, and
next he clerked in the Star and then in the Curtis Grocery. He after-
ward started a business of his own in Pomona, opening Tolton's
Tailors, a cleaning, repairing and tailoring establishment, but at the
end of four years he sold out, and then homesteaded 160 acres in Kern
County. He proved up on the same, and he still owns 120 of the
original acres.
Mr. Tolton served a four years' enlistment in the California
National Guard, and he went to the Mexican border in 1916, when his
enlistment expired and he was discharged. He returned to Pomona
and entered the employ of the Hub Clothing Company, where he was
busy for a year and a half. In November, 191 8, he was called for in
the last draft, and was seven days in the service of the World War
when the armistice was signed.
Returning to Pomona, he started, in January, 1919, in the auto-
mobile business with a service station at 200 North Garey Avenue;
and from the beginning he has been very successful. He carries a full
HISTORY AND BIOGRAI'HV 775
line of auto accessories, and has the exclusive agency for the Kokomo
tires, and he also carries the Fhk tires. Mr. Tolton also deals in
second-hand machines; and in three months made a record sale lor
cash, such was the confidence of the buying public in his judgment and
fair dealing, of no less than forty first-class cars.
Mr. Tolton was united in marriage on June 26, 1919, at Santa
Ana, to Mrs. Elizabeth Smith of Pomona. Fraternally he is a member
of the Knights of Pythias.
PROFESSOR B. P. STOUT
Preeminent among the many reasons for which Pomona is to be
heartily congratulated may be mentioned the advent and continuance
in that progressive city of Prof. B. P. Stout, the assistant pastor and
director of music of the First Baptist Church — evangelist, scholar,
orator and patriot, through whose combined gifts and zeal that church
has grown by leaps and bounds since he took the congregational helm.
He was born in Hunterdon County, N. J., and there attended the
public schools as well as the Lee Institute. He learned the watch-
maker's trade and became a most practical expert in that field, master-
ing also a knowledge of diamonds, and for some years he was one of
the leading business men of Hightstown, N. J., and afterwards of
Philadelphia, Pa.
Later he took up the work of an evangelist, which he has fol-
lowed with such signal success for the past twenty-five years, preaching
and singing the gospel of Jesus Christ in nearly every state in the
Union. He has led the singing for many of the noted evangelists,
among them Gypsy Smith, W. E. Biederwolf, L. W. Hunhall, Billy
Sunday and others of fame. Wherever he was persuaded to go, there
he sprang into an enviable popularity through the originality of his
methods and the intensity of his zeal, so that many communities sought
to retain him permanently.
In the spring of 1919 he came to Pomona as musical director in
a revival meeting that was held by the First Baptist Church; and the
leaders of the church, the Rev. J. Harvey Deere, D.D., and his asso-
ciates, were so much pleased with his singing and the interest he stimu-
lated that they asked him to name the terms for which he would con-
sent to become assistant pastor and musical director. Satisfied that at
last the field for which God had originally intended him had been
opened to his view, he assented and was immediately elected to the
position by the church authorities.
This highly complimentary engagement to assist in the build-
ing up of Pomona comes, after all, as a natural culmination to
a career thus far steadily rising and brilliant. Professor Stout was
musical director in evangelistic work and revival meetings all over
776 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
the United States for years, and in many churches regardless of de-
nomination, and while he was a resident of Philadelphia, noted for its
high musical standards, he was a member of a quartet and a soloist
in the First Methodist Church at Germantown. This quartet gave
many concerts, and did much to increase an appreciation of good music.
He has a wonderfully powerful high baritone voice, which was fully
developed under the direction of the most noted teachers. He was
also associated with the music of the Temple Church of Philadelphia.
In 1905 Professor Stout came to Pasadena, and since then has made
that city his home, although returning often to the East in the prosecu-
tion of his important work.
Professor Stout gives "Sermons in Song," something quite orig-
inal with him and of his own composition, and some of his numbers
have been composed by him and are sung with great effect. In the
Story of the Cross, he relates the life of Christ; while he also offers
"Mother," "Home and Heaven," "The Prodigal," "God's Call to
Men," and other original compositions far superior to those usually
presented by the average earnest but less gifted evangelist. He is a
member of the International Association of Evangelists, and also of
the Hightstown, N. J., lodge of Masons.
In the city of Trenton, N. J., Professor Stout took for his com-
panion in life Miss Susie Bamford, a native-of Trenton, N. J. She also
has musical genius and religious inspiration, and often sings with him,
so that she has been of the greatest assistance to him in his rescuing
work. Hers is a beautiful mezzo-soprano voice; she, too, has studied
under famous teachers; and she is among the most proficient of the
graduates of the Model Musical Institute of Trenton, N. J. Fortu-
nate would any community be that numbered two such gifted and
zealous uplifters among its citizen-residents as Professor and Mrs.
Stout.
HOMER E. ROBBINS, PH.D.
Among the younger professors at Pomona College, Claremont,
Cal., one who holds a very important position is Homer E. Robbins,
Ph.D., professor of classics and chairman of the committee on ad-
mission. He is a native of Oakland County, Mich., and was born
near Pontiac, June 5, 1881. His education, the foundation of which
was laid in the public schools, was completed at the University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, from which institution he was graduated and
from which he has received three degrees, that of B.A. in 1905, M.A.
in 1906, and Ph.D. in 1916. After graduating he taught the classics
at Holderness School for Boys at Plymouth, N. H., and later was
teacher of Latin and Greek at Washington and Jefferson Academy,
Washington, Pa. He afterwards returned to the University of Mich-
HISTORY AND lilOGRAPHV 777
igan at Ann Arbor for two years' graduate work, and next was pro-
fessor of Latin at Transylvania College, Lexington, Ky., from which
institution he accepted a call to Pomona College, Claremont, Cal., in
1915.
Although a comparatively young man, Professor Robbins has
had a wide experience in teaching classics and is gifted with high ideals
and marked executive ability, traits of character of inestimable worth
to a man in his profession.
His marriage, August 29, 1912, at Washington, Pa., united him
with Miss Lena Richmond, a native of Cattaraugus County, N. Y.,
and reared in Bradford, Pa., and two children have been born to them,
Eleanor Mabel and Esther Alena. With his wife. Professor Robbins
is a member of the Congregational Church at Claremont, and frater-
nally he was made a Mason in the lodge of which Daniel Webster was
a member, Olive Branch Lodge No. 16, Plymouth, N. H., and is now
master of Claremont Lodge No. 436, F. & A. M., and a member of
Acacia Masonic Fraternity at the University of Michigan.
WILLIAM D. SOMERVILLE
A resident of California since 1890, who has become a well-
informed and successful horticulturist, particularly in citrus culture, is
William D. Somerville, born in Terre Haute, Ind., on March 25,
1 868, the only child born to David D. and Hannah (Hoffman) Somer-
ville, natives of Indiana. His father, who was of Irish descent, was
reared on an Indiana farm, enlisted and served in the Civil War as first
lieutenant in an Indiana regiment. He died before William was born,
passing away on December 25, 1867. The mother survived him seven
years, passing away in 1875.
From the age of seven years William D. made his own way in the
world, working on farms for his board and going to school, later put-
ting in all his time on the farm. In those days much was expected of
him, and, as he says, he worked two shifts a day — eight hours in the
forenoon and eight hours in the afternoon. But he stood up under this
strenuous life and it made a man of him. He was always intensely
interested in the Pacific Coast country and decided to come to Cali-
fornia to live, so on July 22, 1890, he arrived at Redlands. For a
time he was on a survey corps, doing land surveying, and became a
transitman, continuing at civil engineering for four years, when he
returned to Indiana, where he was married, being united with Miss
Edna Wolf, also a native of Indiana. The young couple immediately
returned to California, locating at Riverside, where he followed citrus
culture. He was with the National Orange Company for a period of
eighteen years, beginning at the bottom by digging holes and setting
778 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
trees, but was soon placed in charge of a small grove. For the last
twelve years, however, he was superintendent in charge of their 800
acres of citrus groves, a position he filled ably and well, being espe-
cially qualified for this responsible work.
In January, 1916, he resigned his position to accept the superin-
tendency of the Evergreen ranch, a post he is now ably filling. His
close application and experience of many years in citrus growing has
placed him among the best-informed men in his line of work, and it is
no doubt due to his care and close application to the orchard that the
Evergreen Ranch, which comprises 200 acres of oranges and lemons, is
one of the best bearing in the La Verne district. Mr. Somerville con-
siders this one of the best sections in the state for raising Navel oranges
and has purchased a full bearing Navel orchard on the base line
northwest of La Verne.
In handling the large interests entrusted to him, Mr. Somerville
has established an enviable reputation for his capability and square
dealing, and he is justly popular among the citrus growers of Southern
California. In politics he is a protectionist and a stanch supporter of
the Republican party. Mr. and Mrs. Somerville are the parents of
one daughter, Mrs. Ethel Hamner.
FERRIS J. NUNNELEY
An active operator in important Pomona realty who has become
especially prominent during the late war on account of his volunteer
work in war activities, is Ferris J. Nunneley, a native son, born in Butte
County, on March 2, 1886, the son of James and Emma (Gaby)
Nunneley, the former a native of Ohio, who crossed the great plains
by ox team to Butte County in 1853, where he became an early settler,
and the latter a native of California. Enjoying the distinction of being
a charter member of the Pomona Chamber of Commerce, our subject
is still a live and honored member of that efficient organization.
The lad Ferris went to the public schools at Chico and later to
the Lincoln high school in San Francisco, and afterward took a course
in bookkeeping at the San Francisco Business College. Coming to
Pomona in 1907, he filed on a homestead of 160 acres in Palo Verde
Valley, and proved up on the same, dividing his time between the
homestead and Pomona; and having sold the acreage in 1911, he
bought a five-acre orange grove on North Towne Avenue, which he
still owns. This he has improved, developed and brought to a high
state of cultivation, so that it is now a good producer. He has also
owned other orange groves in the Valley, buying, selling and improv-
ing them; and among them was a ten-acre grove in the Packard Tract,
which he had title to for three years. Besides his other activities, he
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 7/0
carries on a general real estate business; and as he is thoroughly
familiar with soil conditions and land valuations, his patrons find that
he is an agent out of the ordinary.
Mr. Nunneley is not only a faithful and alert member of the First
Methodist Church, but he is Scout Master of the Boy Scouts of the
church, and leads some sixty boy members in their strenuous duties.
He regards this organizing the most pleasing thing that he has done,
and finds great happiness in taking the boys out every month. Each
summer, too, he takes them to camp — Lytle Creek Camp in the San
Bernardino Mountains — and there they have good bunks, a mess
house and headquarters. Mr. Nunneley is also active in the Sunday
School work of the church. He belongs to the Knights of Pythias of
Pomona, and was a keeper of the records and seals during the time
when the Pythian building was being erected in East Holt Avenue.
After serving as director of the Packard Water Company, Mr.
Nunneley was elected the company's president in May, 1919.
Of late Mr. Nunneley has been associated with the Service Pub-
lishing Company of Washington, D. C, which is compiling a record of
the soldiers who served in the recent war, and also a record of the Red
Cross and other organizations that assisted in the great work. He has
Pomona Valley for his district, and has been collecting the valuable
data from this section which will be incorporated and published later.
During the war Mr. Nunneley was also a member of the examining
board, and a lieutenant in the drives of the Chamber of Commerce;
and he received from the United States Treasury Department a medal
for the selling of war saving stamps.
At Pomona, on October 12, 1910, Mr. Nunneley was married to
Miss Pearl Reed, a native of Indiana, who was reared from her baby-
hood, or since 1887, in Pomona. She is a graduate of Pomona Col-
lege. They have one daughter, Virginia.
LINDSAY M. MILLS
Contributing substantially to the placing of realty and its develop-
ment in Pomona and throughout the Valley on a sound, broad basis, a
native son, of Canadian extraction, Lindsay M. Mills has amply and
handsomely justified the decided welcome accorded his family on their
entrance into "the States," by becoming one of the most efficient and
desirable of her aggressive and progressive citizens. As a member of
the well-known firm of Bangle & Mills (some idea of whose volume
of business is elsewhere given in this work in the sketch of E. E.
Bangle, another enterprising citizen and broker), Mr. Mills has stead-
ily sought to influence and guide the trend of real estate sales in this
section so that not only would a lively business be done, but that,
through honesty and justness in dealing, values sought for would be at-
780 HISTORY AXD BIOGRAPHY
tained and preserved, and such a sound and substantial foundation be
created as might be proof against panics and those deteriorations so de-
structive to a community, and often the cause of a setback from which
a town slowly or never recovers.
Born in Riverside County, on January 29, 1889, Mr. Mills was
the son of Archibald and Susan (Miller) Mills, members of a family
hailing from Canada. He attended the excellent grammar and high
schools of Riverside, and finished with a course at the best business
college there; and after following mercantile employment for a time in
that town, he associated himself with the General Fertilizer Company
of San Bernardino and Los Angeles. Becoming familiar with the busi-
ness, he traveled for some time on the road; and in 1912 came to
reside at Pomona.
Here he entered the real estate field as a general operator, mak-
ing a specialty of selling San Joaquin Valley lands; and after three
years of management for himself, during which time he put over some
large deals, he formed that partnership with E. E. Bangle of Pomona,
under the firm name of Bangle & Mills, which has proven of such
benefit not only to the two pushing partners, but to the communities
whose interests they have looked upon as their own. Particularly as
large operators in orange groves and alfalfa ranches, Messrs. Bangle
& Mills have been very successful; nor would anyone who has ever
dealt with them envy or begrudge them any of their prosperity.
As a patriotic, able-bodied citizen, loving justice and zealous for
freedom, Mr. Mills, true to the Canadian traditions of his family, and
equally American in his ideals, was in the great World War and was
ready when the armistice was signed (and only prevented by that his-
toric event) to go into action. As early as June, 1917, he enlisted
with Battery D of the One Hundred Forty-fourth Field Artillery (the
Grizzlies), trained at the Presidio, at San Francisco, and at Camp
Kearny, and went overseas with the Fortieth Division, in the summer
of 1918. He went into training on the 155 G. P. F. French field guns,
and was thus fully prepared in every way to be of service to the great
Allied cause; but sent back to the United States, he was ordered out
of service in February, 1919, after which he resumed the real estate
business he had laid down when he went to the front.
On June 17, 1919, in Pomona, occurred the marriage of Mr.
Mills, when he was united with Miss Martha V. Krehbiel, born in
Mc Pherson, Kans., who came to California with her parents, and is a
graduate of Pomona high school and Pomona business college and was
very popular in the younger social set. Greatly interested in the growth
of the Pomona Valley, Mr. Mills believes its best interest can be
furthered by the Chamber of Commerce, In which he is a very active
worker and considers it the best asset of the county.
Socially, Mr. Mills is as much a favorite as he is popular in busi-
HISTORY AND RIOGRAPHV 781
ness and in army circles. He is active in the First Presbyterian Church
of Pomona, standing openly for religion and truth, and is a welcome
member of the Knights of Pythias and was a charter member of Chas.
P. Rowe Post, No. 30, American Legion, at Pomona, and, in the same
self-sacrificing way he enlisted, still stands ready to uphold the patriotic
principles of the Legion.
SHELLBURN M. KEPNER
Since becoming a citizen of Pomona Valley in 1910, Shellburn M.
Kepner has been identified with several of the important interests here
represented, all of which have benefited by his business ability and
general progressiveness. Born in Pennsylvania, Mr. Kepner has a
heritage of Scotch blood, his paternal grandfather, Benjamin Kepner,
having been a native of the land of the heather and came to Pennsvl-
vania in his early days, locating in Juniata County. Shellburn's father,
Henry Kepner, was born in Juniata County, Pa., and married Caroline
Kloss. Of a family of seven children, Shellburn was the fourth in
order of birth, being born at Port Royal, Pa., November 6, 1853. He
was brought up on the farm and received an excellent education in the
public schools and at Tuscarawas Academy. After finishing his school
days, he followed farming for a time. In 1881 he was married to Miss
Emma McCulIoch, a daughter of James and Mary A. (Beal) McCul-
loch, born in Pennsylvania, of Scotch-Irish descent. Grandfather
Samuel McCulloch, born in the north of Ireland, came to Pennsylvania,
locating in Tuscarawas Valley, where he built a mill, always known
as McCulloch's mills. Mrs. Kepner received her early education in
tht local schools, and also attended the Tuscarawas Academy.
Shortly after their marriage in 1882, Mr. and Mrs. Kepner
moved to Shenandoah, Page County, Iowa, bought 160 acres of land
and engaged in farming and stock raising. Later they bought eighty
acres more, de\-eloping a splendid farm. While here Mr. Kepner
served on the school board and was an enterprising and progressive
citizen. In 1899 they sold their farm and removed to Boise City,
Idaho, where they bought land and engaged in stock raising, continu-
ing there successfully for a number of years, when they decided to
locate in California. On August 1, 1910, they came to Pomona and
purchased a residence, and in January, 1911, he bought his present
orange grove on Foothill Bouvelard and later bought ten acres more
adjoining, the whole tract now being in oranges and lemons. They
have added many improvements to the place, where they occupy a
beautiful stucco residence, built along the lines of Spanish architecture.
With three associates, he developed water by sinking deep wells and
installed a pumping-plant for irrigating their orchards.
Mr. and Mrs. Kepner are the parents of four children: Mary
782 HISTORY AND LUOGRArHY
Caroline, wife of A. S. Mack of Eureka; Roy M., an orange grower,
who resides near his parents; Helen M., a graduate of Flagstaff Nor-
mal School, was a teacher here and is now the wife of W. E. Bailey
and resides at Beaumont, Cal., and Margaret Clementine, Mrs. G. I.
Billheimer of San Pedro; she was a graduate of Bonita high school
and then attended Oregon Agricultural College at Corvallis, Ore.
Mr. and Mrs. Kepner are both Presbyterians, but now are mem-
bers of the San Dimas Union Church, Mr. Kepner being a trustee.
Mrs. Kepner is a member of the Wednesday Afternoon Club, San
Dimas, and a leader in the social life of the community. In 1919,
they made an extended visit of three months throughout the East,
going via Seattle and Yellowstone Park back to Boston, New York,
Pennsylvania and Iowa, where they visited their old homes, returning
on the Santa Fe and taking in Grand Canyon on their way home.
During his residence in Pomona Valley, Mr. Kepner has become
very prominent in the affairs of the community. He was an organizer
and is a director in the Farmers and Merchants Bank of La Verne, a
member of the La Verne Orange Growers Association and of the La
Verne Lemon Growers Asosciation, and president of the board of
trustees of the Bonita L'nion high school. He has two splendid orange
groves which he has brought up to a high state of cultivation. Their
beautiful home is presided over gracefully by his estimable wife, who
is active in civic and club work and a highly accomplished woman.
P. J. NEILLY
An experienced orange grower, whose success in creating valuable
citrus gro\-es has given him great faith in California orange lands^—
a faith he is desirous at all times of sharing with others — is P. J.
Neilly, who was born at Barrie, forty miles north of Toronto, Ontario,
Canada, on August 16, 1865. His father was Matthew Neilly, who
came of good old Scotch Presbyterian stock in the north of Ireland; and
while yet a lad, he crossed the briny deep with his parents and, settled at
Toronto in the New World. There he grew up and in early man-
hood man-ied Miss Elizabeth Hill, a native of Toronto, whose par-
ents were English, from the world's metropolis. They were farmer
folk in Ontario, and so spent their entire days there; devoted to their
ten children — eight sons and two daughters — among whom the subject
of our sketch is the fourth youngest in the order of birth.
Reared on his father's farm, he received a good education in the
public schools and perhaps such a training as would be especially
valuable to one growing up in agricultural Canada; but wishing to see
the great West, he started working his way to Vancouver, B. C, ar-
riving on the Coast in the "boom" year of 1886. During this ad-
venturous migration, he followed the carpenter's trade, and soon
HISTORY A\D r.lOr.!>;Al'llV 783
afterward came to Tacoma, Wash., where he engaged in contracting
and building. He also went into the realty field, and bought and
sold until the boom burst, when having overreached, like many over-
confident people of that period, he lost heavily.
In 1895 he came to Los Angeles and continued contracting and
building, as well as real-estate speculation; but having learned a lesson
in Tacoma, he escaped the disaster of many and made some money.
Next he went to Arizona, where he followed mining and was in charge
of construction at various mines from the North to Tucson; and then,
once again, he followed contracting and building. After that he
crossed to Cananea, Mexico, where he spent six years as foreman of
public construction with the Cananea Copper Company, and he was
there during the riots when the Mexicans surrounded them, and they
were besieged five days and had six men killed. The Americans all
stood guard until Colonel Coscoliski, commander of the Rurales, ar-
ri\'ed.
Soon after that Mr. Neilly received an offer from the Helvetia
Copper Mining Company in Arizona to become their foreman of
construction, and as a consequence of the inducements, he decided to
return to the States and again cast in his lot in Arizona, and only after
three years in that responsible position there, did he return to Los
Angeles. He had been employed for eleven years steadily, without
losing a day's pay; and with such a record took up new problems in
a new field with courage and cheerfulness.
On returning to California Mr. Neilly made citrus culture his bus-
iness, for he had long desired to enter that field; and in 1910 with
his brother he came to Claremont and bought eleven acres on the
Foothill Boulevard, which he sold a year later at a big profit. They
then bought another grove, which they immediately improved and
beautified, making of it very valuable property; and in April, 1919,
they sold it at a big advance, when the brothers dissolved partnership.
He thereupon purchased ten acres on Harrison and Mountain avenues,
Claremont, as well as a residence adjoining, and Mr. Neilly now owns
a desirable place of eleven and a half acres. He has a splendid, full-
bearing grove of Navels and Valencias-, and a large modern residence
with beautiful surroundings. Partly as a sequel to his activity in
these fields, Mr. Neilly is a director in the College Heights Orange
and Lemon Growers Association.
In Los Angeles, August 16th, 1905, Mr. Neilly was married to
Mrs. Mildred Ann (Shaw) Conklin, a native of Lincoln County,
Mo. Mrs. Neilly is a daughter of Bethuel and Cordelia (Walker)
Shaw, born in Lincoln County, Mo. Mr. Shaw's father was born
in the north of Ireland and his mother in Kentucky, of English
parents. They moved to Black Hawk, Gilpin County, Colo., in 1870,
where Bethuel Shaw engaged in mining until his death, while his widow
784 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
now makes her home in Denver. Mrs. Neilly is a cultured and re-
fined woman, who has become an invaluable helpmate to her husband.
He is a member of the Knights of Pythias of Pomona, and both he and
his good wife are active as members of the Congregational Church, at
Claremont. In national politics a Republican, Mr. Neilly knows no
partisanship in his loyal support of every movement for the uplift
and the upbuilding of the locality.
JESSE W. HOUGH
A native son of California, and with forbears who were pioneers
of the state, Jesse W. Hough was born in Santa Barbara, Cal., October
24th, 1885, a son of Theodore H. and Helen (Clarke) Hough.
The father combined ranching with his profession as a teacher, and
came to the state in 1874, the mother having been here since 1871,
and they were married in the Golden State. The father passed on
in 1888. His widow came to Claremont in 1896 and built a home
here and took an active part in Congregational Church work and the
upbuilding of Claremont. She served a term as selectman of the
town of Claremont and was one of the original stockholders of the
Claremont Water Company and of the Claremont Improvement
Company and for years was a member of the Rembrandt Club and of
the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Jesse W. Hough was the only child of his parents, and received
a splendid education, his first schooling being in the public schools of
Claremont, then to the preparatory school and Pomona College, from
which institution he was graduated with the degree of B. S., In 1908.
He attended Stanford University one year, and then Yale for two
years, leaving the latter with the degree of Master of Forestry in
1911. After finishing his college courses, Mr. Hough spent one year
as forest assistant of San Bernardino in the United States Forest
Service. Since that time he has been engaged in orange culture in
Claremont, developing a ranch of seven acres, in which he finds his
scientific knowledge of material aid.
The marriage of Mr. Hough at San Dimas, November 4, 1915,
united him with Miss Martha Gore, a native of Illinois but reared
in San Dimas, who also is a graduate of Pomona College, class of
1908, with the B. S. degree. She afterwards taught in San Dimas
schools. To Mr. and Mrs. Hough two children have been born,
Phoebe Anne, and Theodore Holmes. The family are members of
the Congregational Church.
Having grown up with this section of the state, Mr. Hough is
naturally a believer in even greater development for Pomona Valley
than has been demonstrated in the past decade. Every facility is here
for future progress, together with the men of broad and wise vision
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 785
necessary for such advancement, all of them pulling together for the
best interests of the commonwealth. With such men at the helm, no
future prosperity is too great to be possible.
Fond of outdoor life and exercise, Mr. Hough joins in with the
social life of the community in golf, and other sports, and also finds
congenial recreation in hunting.
CHARLES. E. OTTO
An enterprising merchant of Pomona who has done much to
advance trade here, especially in one or two fields in close touch with
local life, is Charles E. Otto, the vice-president and manager of the
Avis Hardware Company. He was born at Paterson, in Passaic
County, X. J., on February 1, 1883, and there attended the grammar
and high schools. When twenty-five years old, he removed to Cald-
well, Essex County, the same state, and began his business career with
the Grossman Bros. Hardware Company, in which large establishment
he gained a thorough knowledge of the business.
In the fall of 1912, seeking a larger field, he came west to Cali-
fornia and in No\'ember pitched his tent in Pomona. For a year,
he was one of the salesmen of the A. B. Avis Hardware Company, and
then for four years he took the management of that business. On
March 1, 1918, he located in El Centro, in the Imperial Valley, and
there became assistant manager of the Imperial Valley Hardware
Company, which operates seven stores in the Valley, and does a verv
extensive trade; but on March 1, 1919, he returned to Pomona and
put on a special sale for the reduction of stock with the Avis Company.
On May 1, the corporation referred to was formed, and Mr. Otto was
made vice-president and manager. Besides carrying a full line of
strictly modern hardware, and doing the largest hardware business
in the Valley, the Avis Company have recently added an auto-ac-
cessories department. Commenting on the announcement of the in-
corporation of the company, the Pomona newspaper said:
"Mr. Otto is one of the enterprising young business men of Po-
mona. He is thoroughly familiar with the hardware trade, and has had
a wide experience in every phase of the work. He is enthusiastic over
the future of this locality and believes that Pomona is so situated as
to make necessary its rapid growth as a business and trading center, as
well as one of the choicest residence localities in the state."
The marriage of Mr. Otto and Miss Mary Louise Rickerich, a
native of Caldwell, N. J., and the daughter of William and Louise
Rickerich, occurred at Caldwell on April 12, 1912. Mr. Otto is a
member, with his wife, of the First Congregational Church, and Mrs.
Otto is also active in the Ebell Club, while her husband is a popular
Mason.
786 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
CLEMENT ROBERT MAY
No industry in the history of the country has taken greater
strides than the automobile business, and among the leaders in this
business in Southern California, Clement Robert May stands foremost.
He is a native of Iowa and was born in Ollie, Keokuk County, in that
state, August 28, 1879. His father, Martin L. May, now deceased,
was a farmer by occupation, and his mother, before her marriage, was
Miss Isabell De Armond, who now makes her home in Pomona.
Clement Robert is the oldest child in a family of four boys. He
was educated in the public schools of Hedrick, Iowa, and as a young
man of eighteen engaged in the shoe business, continuing this occupa-
tion six years, and in the meantime handling a side line of bicycles.
He came to California in 1905, first locating at Los Angeles,
where he followed the occupation of motorman for a year and a half.
He then came to Claremont in 1907 and engaged in the bicycle busi-
ness in a modest way and a year later embarked in the automobile
business, in which he has been very successful. He occupies a building
55 feet by 140 feet in dimension and employs ten men. He handles
the Buick car, a machine of exceptional merit, and the well known
G. M. C. and Reo trucks, and his garage is well equipped for the care
of machines.
He married Miss Dora Sechrist, October 24, 1900, at Hedrick,
Iowa, and they are the parents of one child, Burdette by name. Mr.
May is a member of the Baptist denomination and also active member
of the Claremont Chamber of Commerce; is a member and vice-
president of the California Automobile Trade Association, with its
slogan, "Clean and attractive places of business," and his public spirit
never fails in any emergency for the city of his adoption.
WILLIAM ELLIS JOHNSON
The proprietor of the Mission Ice Cream and Confectionery
Store, William Ellis Johnson is a native of Rochester, Minn., and was
born August 20, 1890. He is a young man of progressive ideas and
a decided talent for business, as is evidenced in the steady advancement
he has made since entering business life. He came to Claremont, Cal.,
with his parents in 1905, at the age of fourteen, and completed his
education in the Claremont schools. The father had conducted a
bakery and confectionery store in Minnesota, and it was in his father's
store that young Johnson acquired a knowledge of the bakery and
confectionery business. After completing his schooling he was asso-
ciated with a nursery company in San Bernardino, and afterward re-
turned to Claremont, where he conducted a clothing and pressing
establishment on Harvard Avenue, known as "The College Tailors."
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 7^7
He made a success of the business, disposed of it and purchased "The
Mission," formerly owned by J. B. Anderson, and located at 235
West First Street, of which he took possession August 1, 1919, al-
though he had previously spent three years in Mr. Anderson's employ.
The Mission occupies a building by itself on the business street of
Claremont and is the most attractive store on the street. Both ex-
terior and interior are of Mission design, and under the able and
efficient management of its owner, its location and beautiful artistic
appointments attract the best class of patronage and it enjoys a large
business.
Mr. Johnson was united by his marriage with Miss Alma Daw-
son, a native of Pomona, and of their happy union two interesting
children have been born, \'irginia Irene and Pauline May. Fraternal-
ly Mr. Johnson is junior deacon in the Claremont Lodge No. 436,
F. & A. M., and is a member of the I. O. O. F. at Claremont.
MISS FLORA A. RICE
The superintendent of the David and Margaret Home at La
Verne, Miss Flora Rice, has won for herself a warm place in the af-
fectionate regard of the community for her years of devoted service
to the children in her care at the Home. She was born in Rochester,
Minn., the daughter of Rev. W. C. Rice, born in Joliet, Will County,
111., who enlisted in the Civil War, but was rejected. He was a
graduate of Hamlin University, the growth of which he has always
been actively interested in and was ordained a minister in the M. E.
Church. He preached in southern Minnesota for over fifty years and
was also a presiding elder. He is now seventy-eight years old and he
and his wife reside in St. Paul. They Avere the parents of five
childt-en: Mrs. Helen Peck, residing in San Francisco, is a deaconess;
Mrs. Edna Gerlick, residing in Minneapolis; Jessie, died in infancy;
Flora; and W. A., a Methodist minister in St. Paul.
Flora Rice was educated in the schools of St. Paul and attended
the Winona Normal, from which she was graduated, hav'ing majored
in kindergarten work. In 1905 she came to California and taught in
the Palo Alto schools, doing a special line of work. In 1908 she
was in charge of the kindergarten department of the Fred Finch
Orphanage in Oakland, after which she taught for a short period
in Fergus Falls, Minn. In April, 1911, she accepted her present
position as superintendent of the David and Margaret Home. With
the same zeal and energy that had characterized her former kinder-
garten work, she took charge of the Institution a few months after
its establishment, when the building was only half finished, the
grounds and yard uncared for, and there were no fruit or shade trees.
788 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Now they have a well-furnished, attractive and comfortable home, a
beautiful lawn, well-cared for garden and a fine variety of young fruit
trees.
Miss Rice, and her devoted assistant, Miss Elsie Barton, as
the present condition of the Home indicates, are qualified for the posi-
tion with their natural ability and love for children and their educa-
tional training along those lines. They preside over the institution
with dignity and grace. The children respond to their devotion and
show by their obedience and willingness their deep aifection for them.
The children all live at the Home and attend the public schools and the
Methodist Episcopal Sunday School at La Verne. The object of the
home is to help train and teach children to be self-supporting. There
are at present eighty-se\-en children in their care, forty-three girls and
forty-four boys. Flora A. Rice is indeed engaged in the most noble
work possible, for nothing can equal her labor of love. With all the
multitudious cares devolving upon her in connection with the Home,
she still finds time to take an active part in the religious life of the
community. She is a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church at La Verne, and prominent in the work of all its societies,
especially that of the Epworth League.
GEORGE CYRIL PLATT
A very successful and influential young man of San Dimas is
George Cyril Piatt, cashier of the First National Bank of San Dimas
and the San Dimas Savings Bank, who is a native of Brantford,
Ontario, born February 19, 1887, the only child of Geo. F. and
Catherine (Mudge) Piatt, born, respectively, in Brantford and New-
foundland, who were agriculturists at Brantford until 1887, when
he came to the San Fernando Valley, California. His wife and baby
boy joined him in 1888, and here the father engaged in horticulture,
setting out an orange grove at Chatworth Park. This ranch he sold
in 1892 and located at San Dimas, where they have since engaged in
citrus culture.
George Cyril Piatt's first recollections are of sunny California,
where he received a good education in the San Dimas schools and in
the Pomona high school, graduating from the latter in 1906. Soon
afterwards he entered the Bank of San Dimas which was later nation-
alized as the First National Bank, in time becoming assistant cashier.
When the San Dimas Savings Bank was organized in 1911 he was also
made assistant cashier of that institution and so well did he fill them
that he was in July, 1919, elected by the directors of the above insti-
tutions as cashier of the two banks, his years of experience making him
well qualified to hold the same.
Mr. Piatt was married in Covina, where he was united with Miss
HISTORY AND BIOGRArilV 789
Vyvyenne Faulder, born in Los Angeles, a graduate of the Covina high,
and two interesting children, Robert and Priscilla, have blessed the
union.
Having leave of absence from the bank Mr. Piatt served in Y.
M. C. A. war work in different California army camps from June,
1918, until December, 1918. He is an active member of the San
Dimas Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Piatt was made a Mason in San Dimas Lodge No. 428,
F. & A. M., being a past master of the lodge. He is a member of
Pomona Chapter, R. A. M., and with his wife is a member of the
Episcopal Church in Covina.
HORACE E. HOWARD
An Eastern gentleman who has made his contribution to the
successful development of the citrus industry in California is Horace
E. Howard, who lives at San Dimas and whose ranch is located on
the Foothill Boulevard. He was born at Vineland, N. J., on January
19, 1877, the son of E. E. Howard, who became a physician and
orange grower in Florida, and is now deceased. He married Miss
Clara Graham and she is also now deceased. The only child of this
union is the subject of our review. His education began with the
public schools at Wilmington, Del, and extended to the high school
of that town, from which he went to the Philadelphia College of Phar-
macy, where he was graduated in 1898. For nine years thereafter
he worked in Philadelphia as a pharmacist. All this while he was
steadily preparing for the work he was to do once he had settled on
the Pacific Coast in 1900.
After eleven years in the drug business in Los Angeles, Mr.
Howard turned his attention and energies to citrus growing in San
Dimas, and in that field he has been more and more successful. The
truth is, that few men understand the problems of citrus culture better,
while Mr. Howard has the advantage that he is both productive of
new ideas and willing to introduce new ways of doing a thing.
In Los Angeles on December 15,1906 Mr. Howard was married
to Miss Emma A. Banta of Claremont. She was born in Albany,
Ore., and has been deeply interested all her life in the gradual and
splendid development of her native section.
A thoroughly patriotic citizen, and one who is a member of the
U. S. Navy League and vigorously supports every patriotic program of
the government, Mr. Howard is nevertheless a man above party and
seeks to vote as he thinks — independently, every time. He is a
Mason, a member of the Consistory, and also a Shriner, and in all
fraternal circles is second to none in well-deserved popularity.
790 HISTORY AXD BIOGRAPHY
MITCHELL K. METZ
A native of the artistic and tlioroughly up-to-date city of Buda-
pest, Hungary, where he was born on December 25, 1872, Mitchell K.
Metz enjoys the distinction of being the leading fashionable tailor of
Pomona. He was educated in his native city, and while still in his
home town started to learn the tailor trade; but when eighteen years
of age he sailed from Europe for America, and at New York, of late
years recognized as one of the great tailoring centers of the world, he
finished his apprenticeship. He then removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, and
there became associated with the Cincinnati Woolen Company; and he
followed the trade in Baltimore and Chicago.
At the age of twenty-four, he started in business for himself, and
opened a shop at Farmer City, near Chicago, 111.; but satisfied that the
Pacific Coast had an even more brilliant future than the great interior
metropolis by the laice, he journeyed west to Los Angeles and became a
cutter for Messrs. Popkin & Nestor, the well-known tailors. In 1905,
he made his last removal, and cast his lines in Pomona, where he has
since resided.
Mr. Metz busies himself with tailoring for both ladies and gen-
tlemen, and caters only to the first-class trade. In so doing, he has
built up a fine reputation for quality and "class," for once that his
patrons have come to test his expertness and proficiency, they have
seldom or never left him for others. His knowledge of Old World
styles, and his anticipation of New World wants have made his work
very popular.
Mr. Metz has also been quite active in real estate development
in Pomona Valley. He has erected three houses in Pomona, and
bought and sold a number of orange groves ; and at present he owns
five acres in oranges in full bearing in the Ontario district. He also
owns a ranch of 160 acres in the Imperial Valley near Brawley, which
is under a high state of cultivation. He came to Pomona a perfect
stranger, and by hard, self-making work, he has "made good."
At Farmer City, 111., in March, 1897, Mr. Metz married Miss
Nellie Watson of Farmer City, 111., a daughter of William Watson, a
pioneer of that country. She is a cultured woman, and a member of
the Ebell Club of Pomona, and the mother of four sons. Herbert W.
served four years in the United States Navy and became a first-class
boatswain on the United States steamship "Frederick," on patrol duty
in South American waters, and later on the United States transport
"Koningin," he made fourteen trips to France during the war. The
second in order of birth, Harry T. Metz, also served in the navy on
the same boat with his brother during the World War. A third son
is Carl F., and the youngest is Stewart W. Metz. A prominent Mason,
Mr. Metz is a member of the lodge, chapter, council and commandery
in Pomona, a Shriner, and is also a Knight of Pythias.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 791
HERBERT S. OILMAN
A director of one of the most important public utilities, who has
been fortunate in bringing to the service of the concern he has in
charge a first-class scientific and technical training, is Herbert S. Gil-
man, the manager of the San Dimas Water Company and the San
Dimas-Charter Oak Domestic Water Company, who was born at
Rochester, Minn., on September 17, 1883. His father was Nathaniel
F. Oilman, a native of Derby Line, Vt., who came to Racine, Wis.,
and was a pioneer farmer. He responded to the call in the Civil War
and served in Company K, Forty-ninth Volunteer Infantry, and was
wounded in the Battle of Port Gibson, before ^'^icksburg; after four
years' service he was honorably discharged. When the Civil War was
over he removed to Rochester, Minn., and aside from farming he was
engaged in contracting and building. He died in 1912. The mother
of our subject was Anna Morris, born in Dayton, Ohio, who came with
her parents to Minnesota in pioneer days. She resides at the old home
in Rochester, the mother of four boys and four girls. Herbert is next
to the youngest and the only one in California. He not only attended
the grammar and high schools of Rochester, graduating from the lat-
ter, but for two and a half years was a student at the University of
Minnesota at Minneapolis, leaving the lecture room only on account
of a siege of typhoid fever. Then for five years he was foreman and
construction engineer on water works and sewers with William C.
Eraser, consulting engineer and contractor in different cities in Wis-
consin, Minnesota and the Dakotas.
In 1908 Mr. Oilman resigned to come to California. Settling at
San Dimas, he bought a ten-acre orange grove, his present place, and
went in for citrus growing. Becoming interested in the problem of
irrigation, he became president of the San Dimas Water Company,
holding that position for three years. After that he was made mana-
ger of the two San Dimas water companies, since which time he has
given them his time and best efforts. The companies now deliver both
irrigation and domestic water to the San Dimas and Charter Oak dis-
tricts, and no other companies, perhaps, have such a record for gen-
eral satisfaction.
At Pasadena on June 30, 1910, Mr. Oilman married Miss
Jeannette Cole, also born in Rochester, Minn., whose parents were
John A. and Mary E. (Van Dusen) Cole, born in Boston, but now
residing in Pasadena. Grandfather John M. Cole served in a Massa-
chusetts regiment in the Civil War. Three children have been born
to Mr. and Mrs. Oilman : Anne, Herbert S., Jr., and Jean.
In national politics Mr. Oilman is a Republican, although in local
issues he never allows partisanship to interfere with the endorsement
of the best men and the most desirable measures. Fraternally he was
made a Mason in San Dimas Lodge No. 428, F: & A. M., and is
792 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
junior warden; he is also a member of Pomona Lodge, Knights of
Pythias. He believes in cooperation for the rancher, so is a member
and director of the San Dimas Orange Growers Association and is
active as a director of the San Dimas Fruit Exchange. He is a director
of the San Dimas Chamber of Commerce, and with his wife helped to
organize the Union Church at San Dimas, in which he Is a trustee,
while Mrs. Oilman Is a member of the Wednesday Afternoon Club and
the Entre Nous Club.
CARL W. MIDDLETON
A specialist in a department of high-grade, artistic work. Involv-
ing superior mechanical skill, who has done much to fashion and main-
tain the art taste of Pomona and to develop a proper appreciation of
first-class technical skill. Is Carl W. MIddleton, proprietor of the Mid-
dleton Quality Jewelry Shop at 162 West Second Street, Pomona.
He was born at Utica, Mo., on July 1, 1886, there attended the public
schools, and later learned telegraphy. His parents were Charles W.
and Margaret (Gillies) MIddleton, natives of New York and Scot-
land respectively; and he started in life with some advantages.
After serving as telegraph operator on the Chicago, Burlington &
Quincy Railroad, he took up the trade of a watchmaker. He arrived
In Pomona In 1910, and again engaged In railroading, acting as tele-
graph operator and ticket agent for the Salt Lake Railroad for five
years.
In 1917, Mr. MIddleton bought out the jewelry store of E. E.
Fite, and since then he has conducted the establishment under his own
name. He started with a very small capital; but through hard work,
strictly his own effort, and fair dealing with the public, he has gradual-
ly built up his trade to Its present proportions — a degree of comfort-
able prosperity in which he naturally takes great pride. When he
assumed charge of the business referreci to, there was no watchmaker
employed for its patrons, and he Immediately started In to make a
special reputation for that kind of work; today he employs four expert
repairers. He pays the highest wages to his assistants, and commands,
therefore, the most expert.
Mr. MIddleton carries a general line of high-grade jewelry, which
includes cut-glass and silverware, diamonds and watches; and he uses
unique and original ideas in advertising. Once the passers-by were
greeted with the announcement, "We teach watches to tell the truth;"
and he Issued In 19 17 and 1918 calendars so unusually attractive that
they are worthy of special mention. On his 1917 calendar, for exam-
ple, was a picture of his little daughter, with a watch to her ear; and
under it were the lines, "Sure, It ticks; daddy makes 'em tick!" while
on the calendar for 1918 was a picture of the same daughter in colors,
HISTORY AND BIUGRArHV 793
dressed in the garb of a Red Cross nurse, sitting at the bedside of her
sick doll, with a watch in her hand, taking the pulse of her doll!
These calendars attracted wide attention and once more showed the
value of brains plus printers' ink. Mr. Middleton is the official watch
inspector for the Pacific Electric Railroad in Pomona.
Mr. Middleton was married on March 27, 1907, at Chillicothe,
Mo., to Miss Bessie Conklin, a native of South Dakota, and the
daughter of F. M. and Maria Conklin. Three children have blessed
the fortunate union: Carl W., Jr , Earl F. and Pauline.
RALPH S. CLARK
The efficient foreman of the El Camino Citrus Association, at
Claremont, Cal., Ralph S. Clark was born in Clark County, Ind.,
December 10, 1877, and came to San Diego, Cal., with his parents a
lad in his thirteenth year, in 1890, completing his education in the San
Diego high school.
As a young man the life of the range appealed to him, and he
became a cowboy, riding the. range in Imperial County, Cal., and in
that least known part of North America, Lower California, the land
of desert and drought, but of wonderful possibilities. While in Lower
California he was with John Canfield, and bought 400 head of cattle
for six dollars per head, drove them to the range, fattened and sold
them. Later, he rode the range for two years on the Cuyamaca Grant
of 22,000 acres In San Diego County, owned by Governor Waterman,
and afterwards worked on the Kelly Ranch. During his life as a cow-
boy he had many thrilling and interesting experiences. He came to
Claremont in 1900 and became box maker for the Claremont Citrus
Association. In 1911, when the El Camino Citrus Association was
formed, he became foreman of the plant, the position he now holds.
For thirteen years he was a member of Company D of the Seventh
Regiment, California National Guard, and rose from a private to the
rank of first lieutenant. He spent three months at the Presidio at San
Francisco learning the rudiments of the big defense guns, and during
the late war was drill master of the Claremont Home Guards. Out-
of-door life appeals to him and he spends much of his spare time in
the mountains hunting and fishing, being very expert with the rifle
and reel.
He married Miss Grace D. Robker, a native daughter, reared in
Pomona, and they are the parents of two children. Pearl, attending
Claremont high, and Edith. In their religious associations the family
attend the Christian Church at Pomona, and fraternally Mr. Clark
affiliates with Pomona Lodge No. 789, B. P. O. Elks, and the Knights
of Pythias.
794 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
THE DAVID AND MARGARET HOME FOR CHILDREN
No more worthy and appealing charity exists than the provision
for the care of Httle homeless children, who, through no fault of their
own, have been deprived of the advantages of a home with loving
fathers and mothers to care for them, caused in most instances by the
death of one or both parents. During the ten years of its existence,
the David and Margaret Home for Children, at La Verne, has justi-
fied the most sanguine of hopes in the real good it has accomplished
in the lives of the many children who have been cared for during that
period.
In 1910, Mr. and Mrs. Henry L. Kuns of La Verne presented
to the Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Southern California
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church a tract of land con-
sisting of seventeen and a half acres near La Verne on which was a
sixty-room building originally designed for a hotel. The gift was a
memorial for their deceased son and Mr. Kuns' father and mothci,
David and Margaret, and it was their desire to maintain a wholesome,
sanitary Christian home for children where they could receive a train-
ing that would equip them for a better and more useful future than
would otherwise be possible for them. At that time the old building
was unfurnished, and the floors, with the exception of a few rooms that
had been refloored by Mr. Kuns, were a menace to health and bare
feet; the yard and grounds were uncared for, with no place for cows
or stock of any kind, and no fruit or shade trees. Loving, patient
work, however, has transformed the whole surroundings, and now
there is a well-furnished, attractive and comfortable home, warmed
with hot-air furnaces; a completely equipped concrete laundry build-
ing; a beautiful lawn, bordered with plants and flowers; a well-cared-
for garden, which helps supply a goodly portion of the supplies for
the table; a fine variety of trees, both citrus and deciduous; and a small
barn and corrals for the horses and cows.
Ideally located in a fertile valley, amid orange groves, and com-
manding a fine view of the Sierra Madre Mountains, the environment
cannot help but have a beneficent influence on the lives of the little ones
who are being cared for here. It has always been the ideal of its
founders to make it a real home Instead of an institution, and that this
has been attained is shown by the love and appreciation the children
feel, for to many of them it is by far the happiest home they have ever
known. The Home is cared for by a superintendent, assistant superin-
tendent, five department matrons, a cook, a laundress and a farmer,
all of whom are not only well fitted for this work, but who are devoted
to its service.
At present the Home is caring for eighty-seven children, forty-
three girls and forty-four boys, and many needy cases have to be
turned away for lack of room and funds to care for more. The prime
HISTORY AND UIOGRAPIIV 795
object of the Home is to teach and train the children to be self-sup-
porting and industrial training is especially emphasized. Besides regu-
lar attendance at the La Verne district school, they are taught to share
in the work of the household and garden in every possible way. Prac-
tical lessons are given in sweeping, sewing, mending, bed making, etc.,
and much time is also devoted to religious and moral training, the
children all attending the Sunday school of the Methodist Episcopal
Church at La Verne.
To the devoted superintendent of the Home, Miss Flora Rice, a
review of whose life is given elsewhere in this volume, is due the larg-
est meed of praise for the years of loving, consecrated service she has
given to its upbuilding. Coming here in 1911, she took charge of the
institution in its infancy; she was exceptionally equipped through her
former kindergarten work to bring order out of chaos, and with the
added enthusiasm that comes from devotion to a labor of love. State
officials whose business it is to visit and investigate institutions of simi-
lar kind throughout the state have given her work the warmest com-
mendation, for through her efficient administration the average cost per
capita is much lower than that of many others. The board of man-
agers of the institution also deserve the greatest credit for their years
of work and time they have given to raising the funds to make it pos-
sible to carry on the noble work, and Mr. Kuns gives the credit to the
ladies of the Home Missionary Society and to the management for its
splendid success, that has exceeded his sanguine expectations. Mrs.
Henry L. Kuns passed away in 1915, but Mr. Kuns continues to give
the work his warmest interest and support; one of his recent donations
is an additional sixteen acres of land, and on this he expects to erect
another building. Other substantial bequests have also been made to
be used for additional buildings, thus making it possible to give this
loving care and training to a larger number of children.
ORMAL G. HARDY
It is not often that one so loyal to a town as Ormal G. Hardy has
proven himself to be to Pomona, vicinity and the Valley, is as well
rewarded, after years of hard work, in a monopoly of the field which
few if any deem it desirable or worth while to challenge; for Pomona,
large and enterprising as it is, boasts of no other establishment like
or equal to his. He was born in Monroe County, Iowa, on February
22, 1862, and reared in western Iowa, where he attended the usual
country schools. At an early age he started to work on a farm, and
later he farmed for himself on a farm ranch of eighty acres in Mills
County, Iowa, where he raised corn, hogs and cattle.
In 1899 he came to Pomona, and here he learned the trade of a
plumber with J. H. Wilkinson, who had a plumbing shop on North
706 HISTORY AND PJIOGRAPHY
Main Street. He was with him for six years, and during that time
worked in the finest homes in the Valley. He then started contracting
for himself, and opened a plumbing shop in Claremont, which he
managed with success. Among the many fine homes in that city in
which he installed superior plumbing, may be mentioned in particular
the residences of F". P. Brackett, Dr. A. V. Stoughton, J. L. Tomlin-
son, S. J. Meade, and A. W. Richards.
In 1917 Mr. Hardy returned to Pomona, where he has since been
contracting. In the fall of 1919, he opened up a plumbing shop again
in Claremont, and there he put his nephew, John Hardy, in charge,
still retaining, of course, his fully-equipped Pomona establishment.
Since then he has been rushed with business, so that he employs two
men steadily. His work being first-class and as near to perfection as
one can make it, he has built up a reputation which is in itself capital.
None among the many who have lived and prospered here, and looked
back upon the town with gratitude, has outdistanced Ormal Hardy in
his loyalty to the town that has been so loyal to him.
In the year 1883, and in the town of Glenwood, Iowa, Mr. Hardy
was married to Miss Pella Cook, a native of Ohio, who has contributed
to her husband's advancement; and since marrying he has become an
Odd Fellow, being now a member of the Pomona lodge, where he is a
past noble grand and has reached all the chairs of the Encampment.
JOSEPH SEVERNS DEHNEL
Among the lines of industry represented in Claremont is that of
the Union Ice Plant. Joseph Severns Dehnel, the successful manager,
of the Claremont branch of this company, was born in Mansfield,
Ohio, September 11, 1890, and is the son of V. A. and Carolyn
(Rhodes) Dehnel. His mother is still living, and of her two children
Joseph Severns is the youngest. He came to California with his par-
ents in 1903, and completed his education in the grammar and high
schools of San Diego. During the high school course he spent his sum-
mer vacations in the employ of the company he now represents, having
been with them for the past twelve years.
The Union Ice Company is the oldest of the companies of its kind
in the state of California, and among the leaders in the cold storage
and ice business, doing a large business in the precooling and icing of
cars that carry fruit to the eastern markets.
The Claremont plant is among the most important and largest of
its kind in Southern California and, besides the business in the Valley,
they ship ice as far east as the Imperial Valley and north as far as into
Utah and Nevada for th_e Pacific Fruit Exchange. They employ
twelve men the year round in the Claremont branch, and thirty-five
men during the busy season. xMr. Dehnel came to the Valley in 1911,
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 797
and the wonderful expansion the plant has made in Claremont since
he has been in charge of it is due mainly to his sagacious judgment,
progressive ideas and efficient management.
Aside fi-om the management of the ice company's business
throughout Pomona Valley, Mr. Dehnel is interested in the firm of
Booth & Dehnel, clothiers — the Home of Hart Shaffner & Marks — •
234 West Second Street, Pomona, the leading clothing establishment
in the Valley.
He chose for a wife Miss Mary E. Sutherland, to whom he was
united November 9, 1911, and they are the parents of two daughters,
Carolyn F. and Mary J. Politically Mr. Dehnel supports the prin-
ciples of the Republican party, and in his religious convictions is a
Baptist. Fraternally, he was made a Mason in Claremont Lodge,
No. 436, F. & A. M., and is also a member of the B. P. O. Elks. He
is secretary and a director of the Claremont Chamber of Commerce
and doing active work in its behalf. He is an ardent lover of golf and
is a member of Indian Hill Golf Club, which in turn is a member of
the Southern California Golf Club, being chairman of the greens com-
mittee of the local club. During the years of his residence at Clare-
mont, all who know him have learned to appreciate the qualities of
citizenship he displays in his interest in the advancement of Claremont
and the Pomona Valley.
ALFRED I. McGANNON
What good marketing means to any town bidding for first-place
consideration as a home center is handsomely demonstrated in the
unique and first-class establishment of Alfred L McGannon, known
as the White House, and located at 120 East Second Street, Pomona.
The consummation of an ideal — to create and maintain and to furnish
only the best — the market has long since proven one of the first attrac-
tions to those coming to town, and one of the memories held most dear
by those going away.
Mr. McGannon was born in Johnson County, Kans., on April 23,
1873, and grew up in a farming district, where he attended the country
schools. He learned meat cutting and the butcher business in Olathe,
Kans., and he has followed the same line ever since. From Olathe he
went to Kansas City, and there he worked as a meat cutter.
Coming to California in 1905, he located in Los Angeles, work-
ing in the Park market at Fifth and Hill streets; and removing to
Pomona, he entered the employ of A. C. Gerrard on West Second
Street. With Mr. Gerrard as a partner, he conducted a meat market
in Ontario, and from there they went to Santa Ana, where they carried
on the same line of business for four years.
Returning to Pomona, Mr. McGannon became proprietor of the
meat department in the White House Market at 120 East Second
798 HIST(3RY AND lUOGRAPHY
Street; and there he has fitted up one of the most sanitary and most
modern meat markets in the Pomona Valley. He has installed a large
refrigerator, plate-glass show cases and many other things as practical
as they are attractive and appealing to the eye; and it is not surprising
that he caters only to the best trade — a fact speaking volumes, since
it is well known that the Pomona housewife is most exacting in the
insistence on a high standard. This personal, intelligent, considerate
attention to patrons, coupled with the offering of the best that the sea-
son affords, in an environment pleasing to the purchaser, has naturally
proven a great drawing card, and made the White House the market
of markets for Pomona.
In 1898 and at Pomona, Mr. McGannon was married to Miss
Annie J. Beatty, a native of Nebraska and the daughter of John M.
Beatty, and one son has blessed the union, Howard T. McGannon.
The family attend the P^irst Methodist Church.
JOSEPH C. CLARKE
The office manager and salesman of the Opera Garage, at Po-
mona, Cal., Joseph C. Clarke is a native of London, England, and was
born April 7, 1885. He received a public school education and from
the age of thirteen to seventeen followed the trade of brush finisher
and maker in a brush factory at Whieldstone, England.
In 1902, at the age of seventeen, he sought a wider field for his
talents and came to the United States. He became a student in the
high school at Lysander, N. Y., and spent four years in that state,
following the occupation of farming in the summer months. In the
spring of 1906 he journeyed westward to the Pacific Slope and accepted
a position with the Sugar Beet Factory at Chino, as assistant store-
keeper. He retained the position three years, leaving it in 1907 tem-
porarily to take a business course at Woodbury's Business College at
Los Angeles. In 1910 he came to Pomona and became cashier for the
Pomona Implement Company, remaining in the position a year and a
half. He then entered the employ of L. W. Matthews in the pump
and auto business, and when the Ranchers Manufacturing Company
bought out the pump department he entered the employ of the Ranch-
ers Manufacturing Company as salesman. He retained the position
until the fall of 1911, when he became business manager for Osier and
Matthews. He went east in 1915 and spent a year, and returned to
California as credit man for the Osier-Racine Rubber Company. He
spent thirteen months in Los Angeles, and in the spring of 1917
entered the employ of Lee R. Matthews in the Opera Garage at
Pornona, as office manager and salesman, the position he now occupies.
He is the owner of a fine ten-acre walnut ranch in the Ontario district,
south of Narod. This place was formerly a peach orchard. After
Mr. Clarke purchased it he planted it to walnuts, which will soon
HISTORY AND lUOGRAPHV 799
come into bearing. The place is iiighly developed and is a \aluablc
piece of property.
His marriage united him with Miss Maude E. Coles of New York
state, and they are the parents of a daughter named Marjorie. In his
religious convictions Mr. Clarke is a member of the First Methodist
Church, and fraternally he affiliates with the Pomona Lodge of I. O.
O. F. He is highly esteemed among a large circle of friends for his
many estimable qualities.
GEORGE W. MII:LER
A most valuable man for Pomona and Pomona Valley, because
he is unquestionably a thoroughly up-to-date expert in his line and,
therefore, one sure to advance, from time to time, the science of his
field, is George W. Miller, foreman of the mechanical department of
the Pacific Electric Railroad at Pomona. He was born at Denver on
April 7, 1882, the son of George W. Miller, a native of New York
state, who married Christine Kennedy, a native of Glasgow, Scotland;
and while still a child, he was taken to Yakima, Wash., where he ob-
tained his first book instruction in the public schools.
When eighteen years of age, he located at Fresno and there
entered the employ of the Fresno City Railroad Company, in whose
service he held the positions of motorman, conductor and finally fore-
man of the car barn, having charge of the barn and overhead lines.
During this time, he pursued a course in mechanical construction, repair
work, etc., in railroading offered by the famous International Corre-
spondence School at Scranton, and in 1907 he resigned and located at
Sausalito, Cal., where he engaged with the Northwestern Pacific Rail-
road, to work in their repair department. He remained with that
company until the fall of 1909, when he returned to Fresno, where he
engaged in installing machinery in the various fruit-packing houses.
In the spring of 1911, Mr. Miller came to Los Angeles and ac-
cepted a responsible post with the Pacific Electric Railroad, in the car
repairing department. In the fall of the same year he was transferred
to Riverside, as foreman of the mechanical department, and in 1912
he was sent to San Bernardino in the same capacity. In the spring of
1914, he came to his present position in Pomona.
Since his advent into this progressive and attractive city, and his
display of ability and experience so valuable to the company which he
represents, Mr. Miller has had a number of offers to change his loca-
tion and take up work elsewhere; but he loves Pomona, is loyal to the
town to the extent of being one of its best "boosters," and he still
stands by the ship in which he has already sailed many pleasant waters.
Fraternally, he is a Woodman of the World; but he had no need to
join that or any other organization to insure his popularity, for every-
body who knows George Miller is glad to call him friend.
800 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
HARVEY M. HANAWALT
There are few more inspiring examples of self-won success in the
history of Pomona Valley than that furnished by the career of Harvey
M. Hanawalt, the successful cement and concrete contractor, and one
of the city trustees of La Verne. He was born on a farm near Johns-
town, Pa., September 30, 1879, and was reared there, where he fol-
lowed farming until he came to La Verne, Cal., In September, 1902.
His father, George Hanawalt, born in Juniata County, Pa., was a
minister of the Church of the Brethren and would ride over the moun-
tains to his different charges, preaching gratis and farming for a living.
While engaged in farming near Johnstown, Pa., he married Lucinda
Stietzman. They came to La Verne in 1902, where he resided until his
death in 1913 ; his widow survives him and resides at Burbank.
Harvey M. Hanawalt spent his early years on a farm and re-
ceived a good education in the public schools. After his arrival at La
Verne he attended Lordsburg (now La Verne) College for a time,
paying his own way, and then engaged in the cement contracting and
building business in La Verne. He began on a small scale, with a
cement block machine, and though he was discouraged by others he
persevered, and after securing his first contract he found himself on
the road to success and since that time he has never been without a job.
Mr. Hanawalt made a specialty of building cement reservoirs, in which
work he was very successful, and it is to these splendid reservoirs, con-
structed by him, that much of the credit is due in the development and
increasing of the water supply of Pomona Valley. Mr. Hanawalt has
built reservoirs at San Dimas, Glendora and Claremont. In addition
to this work he has built miles of cement sidewalks and curbs in La
Verne; constructed the Sixth Street roadway in Claremont; built the
concrete bank building at Puente, and constructed practically all of the
cement foundations for the fine homes built in recent years at La Verne.
Mr. Hanawalt has built for himself nine fireproof buildings in
La Verne, all of which he sold except the old State Bank building, the
Postoffice block and the Motor Inn Garage. To the list of buildings con-
structed by Mr. Hanawalt must also be added the beautiful new ladies'
dormitory of La Verne College. He is now building the second million
and a half gallon reservoir for the Albert M. Stephens Company and
Is also paving Philadelphia Avenue In Pomona. He employs from
fifteen to twenty men on reservoir construction. In which worJ< he has
made an enviable reputation. Besides this class of cement work he has
engaged in the making of artificial stone and has thereby added much
to the beauty of many of the fine homes in La Verne. There is scarce-
ly a street in La Verne that has not been improved or beautified by his
labors. In the fall of 1919 he formed a partnership with his brother,
Samuel E. Hanawalt, in the contracting business.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 801
Mr. Hanawalt is highly esteemed by the citizens of La Verne and
his election to the office of trustee was no surprise to his many friends,
as it was a recognition of his sterling qualities as a progressive citizen.
In the board of trustees he is chairman of the street and road com-
mittee.
On September 29, at La Verne, Mr. Hanawalt was united in mar-
riage with Miss Annie C. Nelson, a native of Indiana, who came to
La Verne with her parents when she was six years of age. Her father,
Clinton D. Nelson, of English and Irish descent, was born In Warren
County, Ohio. He was one of the early settlers of La Verne, a well
known contractor and builder who erected many houses there. Mrs.
Nelson was Mary Kleine, born in Indiana, of an old Virginia family.
While manager of the San Dimas Orange Exchange, Mr. Nelson in-
stalled the first telephone in his home at La Verne. He and his wife
now reside at Long Beach. Mrs. Hanawalt is a graduate of the acad-
emic and commercial departments of La Verne College. Mr. and Mrs.
Hanawalt are the parents of three children: Robert, Catherine and
Nelson Ward.
SAMUEL M. FULTON
Whether Samuel M. Fulton, of Pomona, founder and secretary
of the Pomona Manufacturing Company, is a descendant of the dis-
tinguished Robert Fulton, who made the first practical application of
steam to navigation, or not, the fact is undisputed that his invention of
deep-well pumps Is a valuable acquisition to the mechanical world and
to all who employ the invention in pumping water from deep wells.
Mr. Fulton is a native of Dane County, Wis., and received his
education in the public schools and business college at Madison, Wis.
He was among the settlers of the '70s In California, and in May, 1877,
located at Sacramento, Cal., Avhere he became a teacher In the Sacra-
mento Business College, retaining the position until 1881. From
Sacramento he went to Gait, Sacramento County, where he was em-
ployed as a bookkeeper for three years. In 1884 he formed a partner-
ship with A. T. Ames, at Gait, and opened a machine shop. It was
while In this business that he Invented the Fulton pump, which Is now
In use all over the country for deep wells In irrigation systems. Mr.
Fulton closed his business Interests at Gait, and December 1, 1901,
came to Pomona.
In 1902 he helped organize the Pomona Manufacturing Com-
pany, the first and only plant of Its kind In Pomona Valley. An
old hay barn on East Bertie Street, near Parcelle, was Its humble be-
ginning. Later, more land was purchased and a modern factory erect-
ed. It is now the largest plant in the world devoted to the manufac-
ture of deep-well pumps. The United Iron Works of Kansas CItjs
802 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Mo., are the company's eastern agents. In addition to tlie manufacture
of the Fulton deep-well pump the company also manufacture valves
and pipes for irrigation purposes, and installs them in orchards and on
alfalfa ranches. Three-fourths of the pumps used in Pomona Valley
are supplied by this company, and Pomona is justly proud of this large
and important industry. Mr. Fulton owns a finely improved six-acre
ranch located just west of Ganesha Park and called Los Solana Rancho.
This property was unimproved when he purchased it, and is planted
to lemons, oranges and avocados.
Mr. Fulton's marriage united him with Miss Fannie L. Chase, a
native of New York state. In his religious associations he is a member
of the Congregational Church at Pomona, and fraternally affiliates
with the Knights of Pythias.
THOMAS E. GORE
A citrus grower who was some time in finding the field of opera-
tion for which he was best fitted, but who finally came to his present
activity equipped with an enviable experience, is Thomas E. Gore, who
was born on a farm in Mason County, 111., on November 26, 1849, the
son of Edwin Gore, born in Maryland, a farmer of wide repute in
Illinois. He married Miss Jane Thompson, a native of Ireland, the
daughter of Alexander M. and Jane Thompson, by whom he had nine
children, among whom Thomas is the fourth in the order of birth.
Having been given the advantages of the rural schools and
Jacksonville High and Lincoln University, Mr. Gore went in for teleg-
raphy, and for six years was with the Western Union in Chicago and
St. Louis. Then he entered the employ of the construction department
of the Santa Fe in New Mexico, after which he returned to Illinois.
While in Menard County, that state, Mr. Gore was married to
Phoebe Ann Pratt, a native of Mason County, and the daughter of
George and Sarah Pratt, following which he took up farming in John-
son County, Nebr., and continued in that line and locality for four
years.
Returning to railroad work, he came to San Dimas, Cal, in 1887
and opened the railway station for Santa Fe. He liked the neighbor-
hood so well that he remained five and j half years as the company's
representative, and in the meantime he bought and improved his ranch.
When the Southern Pacific came through and opened a station, he was
their first agent and continued for twelve years. Switching off again,
he retired to his ranch and made a success doubly sure of citrus grow-
ing. His ranch is located one mile southwest of San Dimas and em-
braces twelve acres of oranges and lemons. He is a member of both
orange and lemon associations. All these years he has resided with his
family in San Dimas.
HISTORY AND lUOGRAPHV 803
Four children and six grandchildren have given joy to Mr. and
Mrs. Gore. Martha has become Mrs. J. W. Hough of Claremont;
David is with his father; John E. is an educator and is principal of the
high school at Orland; and Grace is at home. The family attend the
Methodist Episcopal Church in San Dimas. In national politics Mr.
Gore is a Republican, while his interest in civic advancement is dis-
played through his activity in school board work.
BERTRAM W. GIBSON
Among the enterprising business men of Pomona, the possibilities
of which city have called forth the most creditable ambitions of men
who are destined to make their way in the commercial world, Bertram
W. Gibson has met with a success which speaks well for his far-sighted
business acumen and conservative judgment. A Canadian by birth, he
was born in Toronto, Ontario, May 18, 1888. On finishing the public
schools he took a high school course and also a first and second grade
collegiate course in Toronto. On finishing his education his first busi-
ness experience was in the freight office of the Grand Trunk Railway
at Toronto, where he served as clerk for five years. He next engaged
in the men's furnishing business with his brother-in-law.
In the fall of 1915 Mr. Gibson located in Pomona, where his
sister had preceded him by a few years, and here he learned the trade
of vulcanizer with Leslie Elliott and was in his employ until he enlisted
in the World War. Finding that he was very low on the list to be
called on conscription and fearing that he might not be called, he
enlisted October 21, 1917, in the Canadian Royal Flying Squadron
and was appointed corporal and stationed a great part of the time in
training camps near Toronto; he later was detailed to drill and in-
struct raw recruits in infantry drill, having squads of seventy-five men
under him, and thus he served his country, doing the unexciting tasks
set for him at home and finding his efforts to be transferred to overseas
service of no avail, he did his duty as called upon until his discharge
from service, January 16, 1919.
On his return to Pomona, in January, 1919, Mr. Gibson decided
to go into business for himself, and on the twentieth of that same
month he opened his vulcanizing shop and auto accessories supplies at
Third and Thomas streets, and in the first ten months he doubled his
business, a rapid advance even for these rapid times. He is district
agent for the Racine tires, his territory embracing the Pomona Valley,
and also carries a full line of Goodrich tires and of automobile ac-
cessories.
Mr. Gibson takes an active part in both the business and social
life of the community, and in fraternal circles he is a member of the
Masons, both in Toronto and in Pomona, belonging to the chapter
804 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
and council of that order; he is a member of the Knights of Pythias
of Pomona, of the Yeomen of that city, and in business circles he is a
member of the merchants' branch of the Pomona Chamber of Com-
merce.
WILLIAM WRIGHT HAMILTON
The foreman of the packing plant of the Exchange Orange
Products Company, at San Dimas, Cal., William Wright Hamilton,
although but twenty-three years of age, has a thorough knowledge
of the fruit-packing industry, and is well fitted for the important
position he occupies. He was born at Galesburg, 111., July 5, 1896,
and received his preliminary education in the public schools. He was
but sixteen when he came to Upland, San Bernardino County, Cal.,
in 1912, and was a student at the Chaffey Union high school. After
graduation from the high school, he took a two years' pre-legal course
at the Uni\'ersity of Southern California, and upon returning to Lip-
land, entered the employ of the Mountain View Fruit Association in
the shipping department. He accepted the position of foreman of
the Exchange Orange Products Company at San Dimas, August, 1919,
a position he held until October 15, 1919, when he was transferred to
the Anaheim plant, where he has charge of the cost department and
now makes his home in Anaheim.
In the past it has been a problem for orange growers and ship-
pers as to the disposition of high-grade cull oranges, — fruit that has
developed "puffy skin" because of ripening too rapidly through being
forced by unseasonable hot weather and other causes, and which would
not stand the long journey to the Eastern market, as well as fruit that
has been damaged by being bruised in the orchard, either during cul-
tivation, or, as sometimes happens even in sunny California, by hail.
While such oranges will oftentimes heal over the bruise to the skin,
they will not stand up for long shipments, although in other ways they
are high-grade fruit. This problem has been solved by the manu-
facture of marmalade from high-grade cull oranges. The process for
making marmalade was purchased of Thomas Crawford, of Anaheim,
by the California Fruit Growers Exchange, and the great selling
organization that handles seventy per cent, of the citrus fruit of the
state, originator of the "Sunkist" brand, has been making an unqual-
ified success of the marmalade business. The Exchange Orange Prod-
ucts Company is operated in conjunction with the San Dimas Mar-
malade Factory, which is engaged in making orange marmalade from
culls. Practically all of the associations that sell fruit to the California
Fruit Growers Exchange are now selling culls to the Orange Products
Company to be made into marmalade. As foreman of the plant, Mr.
Hamilton met with as great a success as he made in athletics, in which
HISTORY AND P.KIGRAI'IIV 805
he took an active part while in college. In 1917, he heUi the record
for Southern California in hop, skip and jump, making a record of
forty-two feet and eight and a half inches. He was a member of the
'Varsity foot ball team, and was elected a member of the "All Stars
Foot Ball Team of California." Fraternally he holds membership in
Upland Lodge No. 419, F. & A. M. Gifted with youth, energetic
In disposition and ambitious, he is quick to see and take advantage of
the door of opportunity when open, and his future is a promising one,
for in twentieth century phraseology of the old adage, "Everything
comes to him who works as he waits."
CHRISTOPHER H. GARRISON
The distinction of being next to the oldest contracting painter and
decorator, in point of continuous service, in the Pomona Valley belongs
to Christopher H. Garrison, and would speak volumes for itself were
it not known that the long years in which he has added steadily to a
valuable experience have developed talent of no small order. Second
only to S. S. Becks of Pomona, in pioneer service here, Mr. Garrison
started here In 1 89 1 . He is known by his friends as Senator Garrison ;
and as he boasts of many admirers and standbys, his popularity is as
wide as it is agreeable.
He was born at Paterson, Passaic County, N. J., on January 7,
1853, and after completing his education, took up the painter's trade
with his father, Robt. B. Garrison, who was one of Paterson's leading
contractors. In 1883, he removed to San Antonio, Texas, where he
was soon doing excellent work and a large business as a contractor,
but in 1891 he decided to come to California. Settling in Pomona,
he continued his contract work; and among the many buildings he
decorated are the Hooper Block, the American National Bank build-
ing, and numerous fine residences.
In 1911 Mr. Garrison located at Claremont, where he decorated
the First National Bank block, the San Antonio block, the packing
house of the El Camino Citrus Association, the Congregational Church,
a number of the buildings of Pomona College, and the residences of
Mrs. McKinney, P. J. Smith, and Mrs. Healy. He maintains a paint
store, where he carries a full line of paints and oils, setting up and con-
tinuing a standard in the quality of his stock as well as of his work.
This pioneer relation of Mr. Garrison to the field in which he so splen-
didly excels is as Interesting as the status of pioneers generally.
Mr. Garrison's mother was Ann Eliza Van Pelt before her mar-
riage, and she came from old Knickerbocker stock, the daughter of
Christopher Van Pelt, a machinist and pattern maker. About thirty
years ago he joined the Knights of Pythias, and he is now a member
of that organization in Pomona, having passed through all the chairs
806 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
and attended the Grand Lodge. In Paterson, Mr. Garrison married
Grace H. Hackett, of whom he was bereaved in 1898, leaving one son,
Robert B. Garrison, of San Fi
^rancisco.
JOHN C. STORMENT
Famed as a model home town, in which all that makes for the
security and happiness of human life is conscientiously and generously
attended to, Pomona owes much of its attraction and repute to such
substantial, broad-minded and far-seeing men as John C. Storment,
district manager of the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company, who
establish and maintain those institutions utterly indispensable to human
progress. His office is at 265 South Thomas Street, and from there
he directs the extensive operations of his company in a field where
something more than "making money" is the goal, and yet a field so
important to society that money, and plenty of it, has been the worker's
proper reward.
Mr. Storment was born in Marion County, 111., the son of S. A.
and Harriet Storment, and one of a family of twelve children, and
there attended the public schools, finishing his studies at Ewing Col-
lege, at Ewing in Jefferson County, 111. For nine years he taught
school in Southern Illinois, and in 1890 was graduated from the nor-
mal school of the University of Southern Illinois at Carbondale.
Then he was principal of the high school at Metropolis for one year;
and In 1891 he came to California and taught for a year at Azusa.
Removing to Pomona, Mr. Storment taught three years at Lords-
burg, and for three years was principal of the Sixth Street school, at
Pomona ; principal of the La Verne school one year, and also of the
San Dimas school four years. In all, he taught school ten years in
Illinois and twelve years in the Pomona Valley, so that he well de-
serves honorable mention in the history of popular education in these
two great states.
In 1903, Mr. Storment entered the life insurance field, and for
a year was sub-agent, and for three years district manager of the
Citrus Valley agency of the Aetna Life Insurance Company. Then
for ten years, he engaged in the real-estate business at Pomona, during
which time he made many notable sales. In whate\^er field he ven-
tured, his natural ability, together with his willingness and disposition
for hard work, brought him unqualified success.
Two years ago, Mr. Storment accepted a flattering ofter from
the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company as special agent, and in
1919. he was made district manager. His first year he wrote $150,000
worth of business, and this entitled him to membership in the Big
Tree Club.
This renowned organization is composed of agents of all the life
insurance companies of the United States and Canada, who have writ-
HISTORY AXD BIOGRAPHY 807
ten $150,000 worth of business or over yearly, and this membership
entitles them to a free trip to the annual convention held each year,
with all expenses paid. The last convention was held at Pittsburgh
on September 25 to 27, 1919, and this he had the honor of attending
and participating in. He will also be a member of the Big Tree
Club of 1920.
Mr. Storment is also a member of the Monday Morning Club.
The agents of the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company meet every
Monday morning at the home office in Los Angeles for mutual benefit,
and at such times addresses are delivered and opportunities given for
familiar talks. The Pacific Mutual Home Office agency is called the
Million Dollar Agency, as they write a million dollars of insurance
monthly; and its members are frequently given banquets by the com-
pany. Well may Mr. Storment be congratulated on his association
with these wide-awake and representative organizations.
Another ground for congratulating Mr. Storment is the recent
victory of the Prohibition party, to which he has belonged for many
years, and whose tickets he has long voted. His allegiance to that
party led him to help put the last saloon in Pomona out of business.
For twenty years he was a member of the Methodist Church of Po-
mona, and now he belongs to the Trinity Methodist Church and is
active in Sunday School work. He is equally a valuable worker in
the Y. M. C. A. field.
At Rockwood, 111., on June 4, 1891, Mr. Storment was married
to Miss Mattie Jeffrey, a native of Illinois and the daughter of W. M.
and Elizabeth Jeffrey, and four children have blessed their fortunate
union: Bertha studied at Pomona and Occidental Colleges and is now
Mrs. Howard S. Norwood of Pasadena; Frank L., pianist of the
Occidental College glee club and manager of the college paper, worked
his way through Occidental College and is now a student at the Uni-
versity of California; Arthur M. is at present studying at Occidental;
and Robert is a student at the Pomona high school.
HAL MAY
A rising young man of Pomona whose executive ability has been
amply demonstrated in the management of the Pen-Hill Confectionery
Store at 294 West Second Street, famous not only for the high quality
of its products, but for the volume of trade done in one of the best
appointed shops in the state, is Hal May, who was born in Ballard
County, Ky., where he grew up in a farming district. When only six-
teen, he left the farm on which he had obtained his start in life, and
located at Blandville, where he attended the public schools; and later he
studied at Owensboro College at Owensboro, Ky.
Having finished his studies, he pushed west to California; and in
1907 he settled at Claremont, then a far more modest town than today.
808 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
Soon afterward, he entered the employ of James Anderson, the con-
fectioner, and during three and a half years in his store, he gained a
thorough knowledge of the confectionery trade. Coming to Pomona
in 1912, he entered into partnership with J. P. Edmonds, to conduct
the Pen-Hill Confectionery Company; and in the summer of 1918 he
bought out his partner and since then has been sole owner of the
business.
The Pen-Hill Confectionery Store at 294 West Second Street is
one of the pioneer institutions of the kind in Pomona, and does the
largest business in that line in the city. The fittings of the store are
unusually modern and up-to-date, the mezzanine floor in particular
proving very popular with the younger set; and there each Saturday
evening, to the sweet strains of an orchestra, society gathers to par-
take of the daintiest and purest of ice creams, confectionery and sodas,
for which the establishment is famous.
At San Bernardino on August 14, 1913, Mr. May was married
to Miss Ruby Witter, of Indiana, the daughter of J. R. and Mabel
Witter. His good wife has partaken of his enthusiastic work in boost-
ing Pomona and environs, a worthy work that he never fails to push
forward as both a live member of the Chamber of Commerce and the
Merchants Association. Pomona is glad to number among its enter-
prising business men such an aggressive factor as Mr. May; and Hal
is more than ever satisfied that he pitched his tent here.
FRANK H. HARWOOD
Missouri has frequently been heard from along the Pacific, and
in no instance in recent Pomona Valley history more creditably than
in the case of Frank H. Harwood, the thoroughly capable president
of the Lemon Growers Association. He was born at Springfield, in
the Iron State, on December 13, 1875, the son of Alfred P. Harwood,
a Missouri stockman, who married Miss Margaret Burton. The fam-
ily came to California in the eventful late eighties, when so many
thousands of Easterners first came to know about the wonderful advan-
tages of this state, and from the beginning located at Upland. Soon
after Alfred Harwood embarked in the citrus industry and has been
in it ever since. He is still living, the father of four girls and two
boys, three of whom have survived.
Frank Harwood was educated at the public schools of Upland,
continuing his studies at the college at Ontario, and was graduated
from Pomona College with the Class of '98, when he received the
degree of B.S. Leaving college, he also went into the citrus industry,
and soon became the first manager of the Lemon Growers Associa-
tion at San Dimas. In that position of responsibility he continued for
fifteen years, and then he was made president — a real honor, when it
HISTORY AXD BIOGRAPHY 809
Is remembered that this is the largest lemon growers' association in
the Valley.
Naturally for one so well posted on the various and best methods
for citrus culture, Mr. Harwood has also engaged in growing for
himself of late years. He makes a specialty of grape fruit, for which
there is an increasing demand, particularly by the railway companies,
and some of the choicest of this dainty edible shipped from the Valley
is raised upon his well-kept ranch.
The marriage of Mr. Harwood to Miss Mildred Spencer took
place at Los Angeles on March 29, 1905, and three children have
blessed the happy union: Elizabeth, Jane and Alfred. A Republican
in national politics, although non-partisan in local affairs, Mr. Har-
wood belongs to both the Masons and the Elks.
L. E. SHEETS
Pomona has always been a city where opportunity for investment
of capital has yielded good returns, and this has proven true of the
city's leading music house, the L. E. Sheets Piano Company. L. E.
Sheets has been established in the piano business at Pomona since 1907,
and his place of business is at 285 North Garey Avenue.
He is a native of Geneva, III., born October 3, 1863, and was
reared in Batavia, that state. He received a good public school edu-
cation, graduated from the Batavia high school, and at the age of
twenty, in 1883, went to Dakota Territory, where he taught school
for a while, and was also in the hardware business at Esmond until
1888. In 1890 he came to Pomona, where he was employed by one
of the pioneer piano dealers of that place, R. S. Bassett, as traveling
salesman for his piano house. He afterwards returned to South
Dakota and engaged in the music business for three years, going
thence to Marion, Iowa, where he continued the occupation for thir-
teen years. The allurements of California finally brought him again
to the Coast to settle permanently at Pomona, in 1907, where he has
been continuously engaged in dealing in pianos ever since. His wide
experience, thorough knowledge of the business and good judgment
have all been important factors in the success he has achieved. His
line of pianos consists of the Knabe Ampico grands and uprights, the
Mehlin grands and uprights, which, by the way, are the most costly
pianos to produce in the world; the Haines Brothers and other
nationally advertised pianos, such as have never been carried by any
music house before, outside the large cities. He has a special piano
made for him, called the L. E. Sheets piano, In addition he is Po-
mona Valley agent for the New Columbia phonograph and records,
and also does piano tuning. In 1910 he planted twenty acres of land
to oranges, one mile southeast of Claremont, and afterward sold a
810 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
portion, retaining ten acres of the grove'. He has twenty-five sheep
on the place, and conceived the original idea of fertilizing the grove
with sheep manure, an experiment which has proved very successful.
Three acres of Valencia orange trees, fertilized in this way, yielded
$1,000 worth of fruit per acre in 1919. He is the pioneer in this
method of fertilizing. He owns an eight-acre alfalfa ranch in the
Chino district on which he raises alfalfa to feed his sheep.
He established domestic ties by his marriage with Miss Charlena
Woodbury, of Wisconsin, and three children are the result of their
union. Inez is the wife of H. J. Ryan, horticultural commissioner of
Los Angeles County. Helen is a graduate of Pomona College, and
Robert is in high school. Fraternally he affiliates with the Pomona
Lodge of F. & A. M., of which he is past master.
MORGAN P. SILVA
An enterprising agent, thoroughly posted as to his field of work,
its past history and its possibilities, who has done much to safeguard
the motorist and to promote the recreative sport of motoring, is Mor-
gan P. Silva, proprietor of No. 242 of the Tire Service Company,
located on Second at Gordon, Pomona, and distributor for Pomona
Valley of the famous Firestone tires. He was born in Chicago, 111.,
on April 23, 1882, a son of Frank P. and Cornelia (Birgle) Silva.
He attended the public schools and a business college of Chicago.
After a while he entered the Continental National Bank of Chicago
as a messenger boy, and while working himself up, gained a thorough
knowledge of banking.
In 1905 he came west to California, and in Los Angeles joined
the staff of the Farmers & Merchants Bank, where he became assis-
tant exchange teller, in charge of foreign exchange. In 1909, he
located at San Francisco and traveled on the road for A. Schilling &
Co., the famous tea, coffee and spice merchants. Six years later, he
helped organize the People's Baking Company, of San Francisco, in
which he is still a stockholder; it built up a large and profitable busi-
ness by selling bread direct at the homes of the patrons, for ten cents
a loaf, Mr. Silva acting as sales manager; all the employees were
dressed in white, even to white sanitary gloves, and now the company
Is one of the leading baking concerns of San Francisco.
After two years of hard work, he decided to go into business for
himself, and in September, 1916, he settled in Pomona as general
agent and local distributor for Pomona Valley of Firestone tires, and
In the past three years he has built up a very thriving business, his
previous experience as purchasing agent for the People's Baking Com-
pany making him familiar with this line of business. He started in a
small store in the State Bank Building in West Second Street, and
HISTORY .WD I'.IOGRAPIIY 811
when his trade grew too large to be handled there, he moved to his
present commodious store at Second and Gordon streets. A new
modern front has recently been put in, making it one of the most
attractive stores on the street. The odd name given by him to his
establishment, No. 242 Tire Service Company, is derived from his
telephone call.
He conducts an up-to-date \ulcanizing plant, anti does the largest
jobbing business in his line in the Valley, for he has the only tire press
in Pomona. This is an hydraulic machine of 200-tons pressure, and
is used in pressing steel rims on metal tires such as are used on motor
truck wheels. He carries, of course, a large stock of Firestone tires
of all sizes, both for autos and motor trucks. He has built up his fine
business on the motto that "Service Must be Satisfactory," and since
the Firestone Company have given him full authority to settle all
claims without referring the same to the home ofHce, it is comparatively
easy for him to maintain his high standard and to keep his wids
patronage.
Peculiar satisfaction is enjoyed by M-r. Silva in representing the
now internationally-famous tires; for the Firestone Tire & Rubber
Company are educating the people to send their goods by tire-equipped
conveyances, and they have established a "Ship by Truck" bureau in
every large city. In the summer of 1919, they held a truck parade
in Los Angeles, headed by a band of fifty pieces, and they also publish
a magazine devoted to the attainment of the same end.
At Pasadena, Cal., on November 6, 1906, Mr. Silva was married
to Miss Anna A. Lacey, a native of Chicago and the daughter of John
F. Lacey. One son, Morgan P., Jr., now twelve years of age, has
blessed the union. Mr. Silva belongs to the Chamber of Commerce,
the Merchants Association, the Elks and the Knights of Pythias.
WALTER A. SHETTEL
In no matter, perhaps, has Pomona, a city widely famous both
as a center of trade and a place of residence, been more successful
than in the large number of her men and women of affairs who, not
satisfied with their own prosperity, have labored long and assiduously
to advance the best interests of the town which gave them so gener-
ously of her patronage and support. Prominent among those thus
contributing to "boost" the Valley and its flourishing municipality, is
Walter A. Shettel, the secretary and treasurer of the Orange Belt
Emporium, and a member of the Chamber of Commerce and the
Merchants Association, distinguished for his live-wire activity.
He was born in Middlebury, Elkhart County, Ind., on September
15, 1882, and there attended the public schools, enjoying such advan-
tages as Indiana has long been noted for. His father carried on a
general merchandise business in the place, and in time Waiter entered
812 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
his father's employ, and grew up in the business, thereby gaining a
thorough knowledge of merchandising.
Coming to Pomona in 1910, Mr. Shettel bought an interest in
the Orange Belt Emporium, which is now the largest department store
in the Pomona Valley, conducted under the presidency of B. Chaffey
Shepherd, and reviewed elsewhere in this historical work. Mr.
Shettel serves as both secretary and treasurer, and as the buyer of the
firm, must be credited with much of the establishment's superiority as
the great trade center of Pomona and vicinity. This enviable relation
to one of the most attractive communities in all California has devel-
oped to the highest Mr. Shettel's natural disposition to take an active
part in local civic and commercial life, and whenever any worthy
movement is set afoot for the improvement or growth of the city, he
is sure to be among the first invited to cooperate or to lead.
Mr. Shettel was married at Middlebury, Ind., in 1904, his bride
being Miss Jennie Roth, also a native of Indiana; and one daughter,
Maxine, born at Pomona, has blessed the union.
CHARLES H. ALTER, D. D. S.
An example of what ability and ambition, coupled with judicious
choice, can accomplish, is afforded in Charles H. Alter, D. D. S., who
availed himself of the splendid opportunity open for the establishment
of a dental office in the active and growing city of Pomona.
A stranger when he came to this city in 1913, he has been build-
ing up a large and lucrative practice in dentistry since that date. His
well equipped suite of offices is located in the Investment Building, and
he is recognized as a leader in his profession. A native of Pittsburgh,
Pa., he was born in the Smoky City, May 18, 1878, and was educated
in the public schools. When a small boy he accompanied his parents
when they removed to California in 1890, locating in Garvanza, and
after three years sojourn there, they moved to Colorado and settled
on a ranch. Charles returned to Pittsburgh, Pa., where he grad-
uated from the Pittsburgh Dental College in 1901. In 1900, one
year before graduating, he opened an office in Pittsburgh, where he
continued to practice dentistry until 1904, when the call of the West
caused him to return to the Colorado ranch, where he remained until
1913. His choice then fell upon Pomona as a fair field in which to
continue the practice of his profession, and his good judgment has
been demonstrated in the success he has attained.
His marriage united him with Miss Helen Kissell, a native of
Hoboken, N. J., and they are the parents of two children, Ruth Eliz-
abeth, born in Colorado, and Mary Edna, a daughter of the Golden
West, born at Pomona. In his religious associations. Doctor Alter is a
member of Trinity Methodist Church at Pomona, and fraternally he
HISTORY AXD lilOCRAI'l IV 813
affiliates with the Pomona Masonic Lodge. He is a member of the
Los Angeles County Dental Association, and a member and secretary
and treasurer of the Tri-Counties Dental Association, which com-
prises a part of Los Angeles County, Riverside and San Bernardino
counties, and a part of San Diego County. During the war he was a
member of the dental examining board of Pomona district.
JAMES STARK BENNETT
Born at Sherburne, N. Y., on May 7, 1879, James Stark. Bennett
is the son of George Calder and Ella J. (Stark) Bennett. The fam-
ily removed to California and settled at Pomona in 1888, wherethe
father died in 1901. His mother is still living and resides at Red-
lands. Mr. Bennett acquired his early education in the public schools
of Pomona, leaving the high school before the holidays of his senior
year. He graduated from the Preparatory School of Pomona Col-
lege in 1898, and received his Bachelor's degree from the College in
1903. While attending school he was employed by Alden and Mer-
rill in their retail shoe store at Pomona and in 1900-1901 by Mr. A.
S. Avery, who succeeded to their business.
Mr. Bennett entered the Law School of Columbia University
in New York in 1903 and added to his education by teaching English
to foreigners in the city night schools. In 1905 he received the Mas-
ter of Arts degree from the Faculty of Political Science at Columbia
and his law degree the following year. He was admitted to the bar
of New York on examination in November, 1905, and to that of
California on motion, July, 1906. During the years of 1906-1909, he
was employed by the firm of Hunsaker & Britt, at the end of which
period he formed a partnership with Mr. E. J. Fleming, which was
dissolved in 1911, when he entered a partnership with Mr. Garfield
R. Jones, this continuing until 1914. Since the first of the year 1915
he has continued in general practice, with offices in the Van Nuys
Building, Los Angeles, where he is a member of the City Club, the
University Club and the Chamber of Commerce. Since his marriage
he has resided at Pasadena, where he is a member of the Cauldron
Club, the Neighborhood Club and Board of Trade. He is also a
member of the Political Science Club of Columbia University, of the
Sierra Club, of the Los Angeles Bar Association, and the Pasadena
Tournament of Roses Association. In politics he prefers to be a con-
sultant and has never held public office, with the exception of filling
a temporary vacancy as city attorney of Pasadena in 1913.
On October 8, 1907, Mr. Bennett married Miss Ethelwynn
Foote of Pasadena, the daughter of Charles R. and Sarah Frances
(Cole) Foote, and they have four daughters, Louise, Caroline, Con-
stance and Margaret, and one son, Rollin.
814 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
FREDERICK A. BLATZ
Among all the successful men who have found in Pomona and
its unrivaled Valley the finest field for the exercise of their respective
talents or genius, no one is more interesting, both as to his personality
and his life story, than Frederick A. Blatz, the contracting interior
decorator and paper hanger. He was born in New York City on
February 18, 1867, of German parents who, with a deep appreciation
of the great benefits of education, gave him every opportunity within
their means. On February 18, 1880, when thirteen years of age, he
made a winter trip to California with his parents, and they traveled
by stage from San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara, and thence through
Ventura to Los Angeles, which was at that time a small town. He
recalls the trip very clearly, with the many interesting experiences
and the sights by the way. The Southern Pacific Railroad had just
been built down through the Pomona Valley, and they took the trip
through the promising region on the train. Nearly all the Valley was
covered with sagebrush and cactus, cattle and antelope, although water
was scarce, and in many places was hauled to the town from cars on
the railroad.
Returning to New York City, Frederick finished his studies and
learned telegraphy, studying nights, after which, for five years, he
served as train dispatcher on the New York Central, at the Grand
Central station. Later, he was with the New York, New Haven &
Hartford Railroad in the same capacity, and wherever he served,
there he gave the best of himself, to the satisfaction of all concerned.
In 1905, Mr. Blatz came to California to live, and soon after
entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad as inspector on
the road. He traveled all over the state and Arizona inspecting the
automatic block signals, as well as their batteries, and during the six
years that he was in this service, he was often accompanied by his
eldest son, Edgar P. Blatz. They traveled on a motor car on the
railroad, and during these trips explored many mountains and much
desert land, hunting and fishing and prospecting for water. In the
North they explored the Mt. Lassen range when, mounted on pack
horses, they pushed fifty-five miles back from the railroad; they shot
deer and caught trout in the mountain streams, so that in time they
caught fish in nearly all the streams from the northern to the southern
end of California.
They would travel from fifty to one hundred miles a day on the
railroad motor car, and coming south they fished and prospected and
hunted in the Santa Cruz Mountains. They tried to find the famous
white deer, which was later shot by another hunter. In the south
they explored the San Jacinto Range of mountains, and especially
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 815
old Gray Back Mountain. They were all through the desert in the
Beaumont district and saw all the development from barley fields to
orchards. With Mr. Sutherland of the water department of the
Southern Pacific Railway, they prospected for water for the railroad,
trying to find a natural water supply in the San Jacinto Range.
In 1911, Mr. Blatz resigned from the railroad service, and on
account of Its climate. Its fine soil, water and home conditions and
educational advantages and churches, he elected Pomona as a place
of residence. He had learned the trade of an Interior decorator and
paper hanger as a boy, at his father's request, since his father thought
it best for him to have a trade, and with A. E. Pelton as a partner,
he bought out the paint and wall paper store of W. A. Vandegrlft.
Later, he sold out his interest, and since then he has done contract
interior decorating and paper hanging, decorating many of the finest
residences in Pomona, among them being the home of D. C. Crook-
shank, General Belcher, J. M. Booth and Dr. E. E. Kelly. In such
contracts as these his qualities as a natural artist come to the fore.
On July 23, 1892, at Mt. Vernon, N. Y., Mr. Blatz was married
to Miss Jennie C. Steele, a native of White Plains, N. Y., and a
daughter of the Rev. R. B. Steele, a Yale College graduate and a
Presbyterian minister of that city. Through this family connection,
Mrs. Blatz is a direct descendant of the Huguenots, and also of Gen-
eral Porter and Louis Morris, one of the signers of the Declaration
of Independence. She is a member of the Eastern Star Lodge of
Pomona, and of the Presbyterian Church, although Mr. Blatz belongs
to the Episcopal Church.
Seven children have blessed this unusually happy marriage.
Edgar P. Blatz, now deceased, served for three years in the National
Guard, and was with them In the Mexican troubles on the border.
He was promoted from sergeant to lieutenant of infantry In the World
War, and was an instructor in the Western cantonments in the use of
the famous Browning machine gun. He was also an expert shot with
the rifle. Later, he was transferred to the aviation corps and was in
command of the first All-Amerlcan squadron of fliers; but he was
taken 111 and died at Fort Bayard, October 14, 1918. He was a ca-
pable soldier, had a thorough knowledge of military matters, and could
well have been expected to be heard from; the squadron which he
commanded went overseas, and only two out of twenty-four came back.
A second son, Alfred, is the manager of the Pacific long distance
telephone office at Long Beach. He was a member of the Forty-
eighth Field Artillery, but did not reach France. A third son, Clar-
ence, is the manager of the Exchange's marmalade house in Pomona,
while the other children are Harold, Maxwell, Margaret and Harry.
816 HISTORY AXD I'.IOGRAPHV
C. RALPH CLARK
A successor to his father as proprietor of Clark's Bakery, C.
Ralph Clark was born in Des Moines, Iowa, November 30, 1883.
He received his education in the public and high school of Pomona,
and took a business college course in Los Angeles. On finishing his
schooling, he was with his father in the bakery and restaurant for a
time, then bought the Idyllwild candy store, which he ran for a short
time, then sold and returned to be with his father. With his brother,
Frank, he bought out his father's business, in 1913, both bakery and
restaurant, in 1914, bought his brother's interest in the bakery, then,
in 1917, sold his interest in the restaurant and now gives all his time
to the proper management of Clark's Bakery, a first-class establish-
ment and well on a par with the up-to-the-minute business establish-
ments for which Pomona is noted, employing se\en people, with added
employees at busy seasons.
The marriage of Ralph Clark united him with Miss Myrtle L
Rose, of Pomona, the ceremony taking place June 4, 1906, and one
child has been born to them, Kathryn Lucille.
Besides his business interests, Mr. Clark devotes his time to
orange growing, owning his own grove in the Valley. An energetic
and public-spirited man, he takes an active interest in the growth and
expansion of Pomona, and can be relied upon to do his share in all
movements that have for their object the best interests of the Valley.
Fraternally he is a member of the Masons, the Knights of Pythias,
the Elks, and the Fraternal Brotherhood. Politically he adheres to
the Republican party tenets.
JERE C. BOWDEN
Automobiling is a popular pastime in Southern California. The
salubrious climate, fine roads and scenic beauties are conducive to the
interests of the auto business, and thousands of automobiles of every
size and description are used, and many houses have been established
for handling the various popular makes of electric and gasoline cars.
Jere C. Bowden, the genial sales manager for the C. R. May Com-
pany, Pomona Valley agents for the Buick and Reo autos, and General
Motor Trucks, was born at Springfield, Mo., December 18, 1888.
He was a lad eight years of age when he came to California with his
parents In 1896, and his fundamental education was acquired in the
Pomona public schools. He graduated from the Long Beach high
school in 1907, attended Stanford University for a short time, and
was then sent out on a government surveying expedition. In 1908 he
engaged in geological survey for the United States Government in
Northern and Central California, following the vocation three years.
HISTORY A.\I) l;I()^,RAl'H^• 81/
From 1911 to 1916, he was in the employ of the San Dimas Quarry
.Company, the last two years of that time being in charge of the com-
pany's plant. This company got out rock for building boulevards
in Southern California. In 1916, Mr. Bowden engaged in the auto-
mobile business. He is one of the rising young business men of Po-
mona Valley, is thoroughly versed in the automobile business and
energetic and enthusiastic over the cars he handles. He is a fine sales-
man and is meeting with the success in his business that is his just due.
By his marriage he was united with Miss Ruth Martin, a native
of San Dimas, and two children have been born of their union, Wil-
liam and Elizabeth. Fraternally, Mr. Bowden is associated with the
San Dimas Lodge of F. & A. M. and the B. P. O. E. Lodge at
Pomona.
ROY H. CARTER
Among the efficient boosters of Pomona Valley, who have worked
for the advancement of all the best interests of this highly favored
region, is Roy H. Carter, the proprietor of the motor agency at Sec-
ond and Parcells streets, Pomona. He was born in Hendricks County,
Ind., on October 16, 1884, and was reared in a farming district where
he attended the usual country schools. Later, he topped off his studies
at the high school at Plainfield, Ind., and soon after located in In-
dianapolis, where he took up newspaper work on the Iiididiuipolis
Journal.
Then he went to Chicago and entered the employ of the Chicago
Binder and File Company, manufacturers of loose-leaf ledgers, and
there he had his first experience in salesmanship, traveling on the
road, broadening his knowledge of human nature, and getting familiar
with business methods on a large scale. Arriving in Pasadena, in
1908, he embarked in the real-estate business; but ten years after-
ward he saw the broader field to be developed in the automotive indus-
try and removed to Pomona.
Here, with Fred C. Trickey, he started in the automobile trade
in the Overland Garage; and on New Year's Day, 1919, he estab-
lished for himself the R. H. Carter Motor Agency. He was ap-
pointed agent for the Cadillac and Nash cars, the Moreland truck
and the Case tractor, and fortune smiled on him from the first. His
success in particular in selling the Cadillac led its company to enlarge
his territory, which now extends from the San Gabriel River to Wine-
ville. He also sold more Moreland trucks in the past six months in
the Valley than did the agents of all other trucks combined; and since
three trucks yearly was the average of sales in the Valley before he
accepted the agency, his accomplishment in selling over $70,000 worth
of that popular make in the first half year of 1919 speaks for itself.
818 HISTORY AND LUOGRAPHV
It is interesting to know that Mr. Carter's choice of Pomona as
the best place in which to locate in the automobile business was made
only after he had looked well over the entire state. He preferred
Pomona on account of its central location, the rich territory adjoining,
and the city's growing trade; and because he had great confidence in
the Valley and its future. As might be expected, having once cast
his lot here, he has become very active in both the Chamber of Com-
merce and the Merchants' Association.
At Pasadena on May 12, 1915, Mr. Carter was married to Miss
Dorothy Hartman, a native of Michigan and the daughter of Carrol
S. Hartman, formerly of Grand Rapids. Mrs. Carter has always
been the center of a circle of admiring friends, and shares with her
husband his enthusiasm for Pomona Valley.
FRANK CATELLI
The proprietor of the San Dimas F^ancy Bakery, a business he
established, Frank Catelli was born in the city of Lucca, near Florence,
Italy, May 3rd, 1884, and was reared on his father's farm and
received a good education in the excellent schools of his native place.
Having heard of the opportunities that awaited young men in the land
of the Stars and Stripes, he resolved, when sixteen years of age, to
migrate to America; so May 13, 1901, he arrived in New York City,
and three months later he made his way to Providence, R. I., where he
apprenticed himself to the baker's trade, beginning with a salary of
seven dollars a week, and at the end of two years he was receiving
fourteen dollars a week. Next we find him in Boston earning eighteen
dollars a week until he started in business in a partnership in New
Bedford, Mass., but eighteen months later, having heard gratifying
reports from California, he came to Los Angeles, April, 1910, and
immediately found employment in the Franco-American Bakery at
twenty dollars a week, resigning to accept the position of superintend-
ent of the Fancy Bakery in Long Beach, receiving twenty-four dollars
a week and expenses. This position he filled satisfactorily for a period
of three years and only resigned to remove to Tonopah, Nev., where
he was superintendent of a bakery, receiving a salary of $110 a
month and expenses. However, the climate of California appealed
to him so strongly that in eighteen months he resigned to return to
the Coast. In 1917 he came to Pomona, where he was employed at
his trade. He was made a citizen of the United States in Los Angeles
in 1918, and responded to the draft and was accepted and called out,
when the armistice was signed and he was not needed for service.
In January, 1919, he established the San Dimas Fancy Bakery,
to which he gives all of his time and best efforts, and is meeting with
deserving success.
2043
'■^I
Mim
i,-"'iK
iltml
Mim
iMMUiiiMHIlliiUUb^UteL
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Open Library
American Libraries
TV News
Understanding 9/11