A history of California and an extended history of its southern coast counties, also containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present, Volume I, Part 134

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1184

USA > California > A history of California and an extended history of its southern coast counties, also containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present, Volume I > Part 134

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The oldest of a family of ten children, five of whom are now living, Robert R. Christie was born August 23, 1846, in Bagdad, Shelby county, Ky., and from the age of seven years was reared on his father's farm in Missouri. He attended the public schools and remained at home until twenty years old, then engaged in independent farming operations for three years, after which he conducted a general mer- chandise business in Newcastle, then in Pat- tonsburg (both in Missouri), disposing of his business in the latter place in 1876 to engage in the manufacture and sale of black walnut lumber. Removing to Tacoma, Wash .. in 1883 he established himself in the real-estate business there and also became interested in property and mines in British Columbia. The year 1902 found him in San Francisco en- gaged in dealing in real estate, and in August 1904, he came to Long Beach and continued in the same business here. He has platted sev-

eral divisions, among them being the Junc- tion Park tract, and has interests in a number of syndicate corporations and acreage tracts ; is president of the Seaview Land and Water Company, the Farm Lot Improvement Com- pany and the Commercial Land Company. He was an organizer and is treasurer of the Long Beach Asbestos Company, owning asbestos mines on a mountain of four thousand feet ele- vation in Placer county, from which samples of the best asbestos in America have been taken. The location is but a short distance from Towle Station on the Central Pacific Railroad and the company will build a fac- tory in Sacramento at no distant date.

Fraternally Mr. Christie was made a Mason in Pattonsburg Lodge No. 65, F. & A. M., and is now a member of Tacoma Lodge No. 68. While in Missouri he was elected tax collector of his district, serving two terms, and refused a third nomination. He was active in church circles, being president of the board of trus- tees of the Baptist Church, and a teacher in the Sunday-school, and a leader in thie for- warding of all branches of work in his de- nomination. His first marriage occurred in February, 1867, in Daviess county, Mo., unit- ing him with Miss Lucy M. Stewart, who died in Tacoma. By his second marriage, in the latter city, Miss Mary H. Hynds, a native of Nova Scotia, became his wife. A man of liberal ideas, straightforward, conscientious and enterprising, he is held in high esteem by all who have the pleasure of his acquaintance.

MORITZ REIMANN. Ventura county can lay claim to no more enterprising citizen than is found in Mr. Reimann, as all will agree who are familiar with the transformation which his ranch has undergone during the past eleven years. His first purchase of land consisted of seventy-five acres near Oxnard, devoid of any improvement whatever, but the location was an exceptional one and he began its improvement and cultivation with such determination that in a comparatively short time he was ready to in- clude more land in his ranch in order to carry out the plans which he had formulated. This necessity resulted in the purchase of one hun- dred and twenty-five acres of adjoining land, the whole uniting to form one of the finest es- tates in Ventura county. The entire acreage is in cultivation, one hundred and eighty acres being in lima beans, while the remainder is in beets and barley.

A native of Germany, Moritz Reimann was born in Hanover February 24, 1867, a son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Schneider) Reimann, the

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parents also being natives of Hanover. Leaving the Fatherland in 1881 Joseph Reimann was among the passengers who landed in San Fran- cisco 111 May of that year, he haying started for the new world in advance of his family in order to select a location in which to bring up his children. In the latter part of the same year the mother and the children left Germany on a vessel bound for New York City, and were an- chored in the port of the latter city November 19, 1881. They went by rail from New York to Los Angeles, there taking the stage route to the Santa Clara valley, where the father awaited them. Nearly a quarter of a century after his location in the new world his earth life came to a close on his ranch in Ventura county, his death occurring, when he was in his sixty-sev- enth year. His widow is still living at the age of seventy-six, and she now makes her home in the family of Jacob Seckinger, her son-in-law.

Moritz Reimann was a lad of fourteen years when with his mother and the other children he came to the United States. Prior to leav- ing his native land he had received a good edu- cation in the common schools of Hanover, so that upon taking up his residence in this coun- try he was in a position to give his services to his father in the work connected with establish- ing a home in a new country. For ten years he shared the labor and respensibilities of main- taining the homestead, and at the age of twenty- four struck out in the world on his own behalf by renting a ranch of two hundred acres in Ven- tura county. Four years in the capacity of a renter made him ambitious to expend his labors on a ranch of his own, and led to the purchase of the nucleus of his present ranch in Ventura county. As has been stated previously the ranch comprises two hundred acres, which with the well-tilled fields, necessary ranch buildings and modern ten-room house recently erected combine to form one of the most attractive and up-to- date ranches in Ventura county.

November 19, 1891, was the date of the mar- riage of Moritz Reimann and Anna Scholle, a sister of John Scholle, in whose sketch, found elsewhere in this volume, an account of the fam- ily history is given. Two children have blessed the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Reimann, Anna and Emma, to whom the parents are giving ev- ery advantage within their means to bestow. The family are communicants of the Catholic Church, and politically Mr. Reimann is a Demo- crat.

STEPHEN DECATUR THURMAN. No resident of El Monte is better known than Mr. Thurman, and this fact is but the natural se- quence to his close connection with various im-

portant local enterprises and organizations. Since he came here in childhood this place has been his home with the exception of eleven years spent in Tehachapi in the cattle business, and in his years of manhood he has proven himself an important factor in the development of the rich resources of this region. His father, Jolın Thurman, was the pioneer; the elder man was a native of Scotland, whence he immigrated to America and became a farmer in Tennessee. He also engaged in a mercantile enterprise in Pike- ville, Bledsoe county, in connection with his farming and stock raising. Removing to Ar- kansas in 1849 he was located near Little Rock for three years, when, in 1852, he crossed the plains with ox-teams and after seven months and ten days arrived in California. Their jour- ney was fraught with trouble, Mr. Thurman's wife dying at Copper Mines, on the Verde river, while they had several skirmishes with the In- dians, one at Oatman Flat, where the party, (which included various men prominent today in Los Angeles, among them Dr. Mayes, Jack King and others), discovered the charred re- mains of the Oatman family which had been burned by the Apaches. On the 15th of Septem- ber, 1852, Mr. Thurman's party arrived at the Puente ranch, where he sold his cattle, and from this location they went to Tuolumne county, Cal., where Mr. Thurman worked in the mines. While there the entire family suffered with the small- pox. Finally returning to Los Angeles county, Mr. Thurman bought a squatter's right to one hundred and sixty acres of land for $175, and this he farmed for one year then sold for $3.500. Purchasing land on the San Bernardino road just across from the present site of the creamery, he remained in that location until 1868, when he bought the Willow Grove ranch and improved it. expending about $15,000 for the fifty-eight acres, the building of a hotel known as the Willow Grove hotel, the equipment of an overland stage route, etc. His death occurred in 1876, at the age of sixty-eight years. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, a prominent man in all public affairs, and a citizen who sought zealously to uphold the common weal of the community. His wife was formerly Miss Lettie Lamb, a native of Tennessee. They be- came the parents of six sons and two daughters : Nellie, Mrs. Hicks, who died in Fresno; Mar- garet, Mrs. Swagert, who died in El Monte in 1864: Frank, who died in El Monte; Ephraim, who died in Tuolumne county in 1852: Monroe, a resident of Pomona : Stephen D. ; Alexander. a resident of Burnett, Los Angeles county, and John, a resident of Downey, same county.

Stephen Decatur Thurman was born in Bled- soe county, Tenn., December 25, 1843, was taken by his parents in childhood to Arkansas, thence

Ben Davies

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

in 1852 crossing the plains to California, during most of which trip he walked. They were three days and nights crossing the desert, a portion of their journey which Mr. Thurman will never forget because of its hardships. Following their arrival in Los Angeles county was the trip to Tuolumne county, where the father mined, while there they were all ill with smallpox, and a visit from a physician just across the street cost them $50. After their return to El Monte Mr. Thur- man attended the public schools and alternated this with his home studies as the son of a farmer. His first employment in young manhood was on the old Briggs ranch, where he put in twenty-one years, engaged in general farming and dairying, receiving a commission on his work during the entire time he was thus employed. With his em- ployer he planted the first orchard ever set out in El Monte, one tree of which is still standing. In 1868 he purchased a ranch of eighty acres for $500 just south of El Monte, farmed it for one year when he sold it for $1,500, with which he bought one hundred and fifty fine cows, and then went to Tehachapi to engage in the cattle busi- ness. He continued this occupation for eleven years, but not meeting with the success antici- pated he finally gave it up and returning to El Monte in 1876 bought forty acres of land near town for $1,500, which property he has since con- ducted satisfactorily. It is set out in walnuts and alfalfa.

In Kern county, Cal., Mr. Thurman was united in marriage with Miss Nancy M. Beck, January I, 1866. She was born in Willows Creek, Collin county, Texas, a daughter of John Beck, who brought his family across the plains in 1854 and engaged in farming, now living retired in San Jose, at the advanced age of eighty-three years. She died in 1891, leaving the following children : Allie, Mrs. Crowder, of Fresno; John R., a miner of Searchlight. Nev .; Annie, wife of Alexander Elliott, of El Monte; Ephraim, of Searchlight, Nev .: Jefferson, at home; Neal and William, of San Diego; Katie, of Los Angeles; Mattie, of El Monte; Lettie, Mrs. McCoy, of El Monte, and Stephen, of San Diego. Mr. Thurman's second union occurred in Pomona September 15, 1896, and united him with Miss Electa Dickinson, a native of Virginia, and the descendant of an old colonial family of that sec- tion. She is a member of the United Daugh- ters of the Confederacy, and the F. F. V. She is also descended from Revolutionary stock.

Mr. Thurman is a strong Democrat politi- cally and seeks to advance the principles he en- dorses. He is prominent on all matters of public import, was elected in 1894 school trustee of Fl Monte, and has been re-elected every year since with the exception of one term. Fraternally he is identified with the Ancient Order of United

Workmen, of which he is past master ; by reason of his early residence in the state he is prom- inent in the Society of Los Angeles County Pioneers.

BEN DAVIES was known throughout the Pacific coast country as a man of superior judgment in the breeding and care of horses, which occupation, combined with ranching, claimed his attention for a number of years. Born in Utah, March 3, 1853, he was brought to California when six months old, and there- after made his home in this state, with the ex- ception of two years while interested in a trad- ing post in Arizona. The parents, William and Mary (Rabol) Davies, both natives of England, came to America, and for a number of years made their home in Utah, coming to California in 1853 with the customary ox- teams. With his father Ben Davies built the first flour mill in San Bernardino, the former finally giving up the business to serve as sher- iff of San Bernardino county, and thereafter the son conducted the business for thirty years. The father's death in 1901 removed from the community a man of forceful character, energetic in private and public life, and active in the maintenance and upbuilding of the coun- try's best interests. He served in the Indian war while a resident of Utah. His wife passed away some years prior to his death at the age of fifty-six years.

One of a family of five children, Ben Davies was reared to young manhood in San Bernar- dino county, receiving his education in public and private schools, after which, in young man- hood, he engaged with his father in the flour mill. Removing to Arizona, he was for two years associated with the interests of a trading post at both Phoenix and Camp McDowell, and while in that state he also conducted a hotel. Returning to California he engaged in a grocery business in San Bernardino for two years, when he disposed of these interests and for the ensuing ten years was occupied as a clerk in a like concern. In the meantime, and even before going to Arizona, he had become interested in the breeding of fine horses. Upon withdrawing from mercantile pursuits he lo- cated upon a ranch of fifty-six acres, given over entirely to hay and pasture land, and thereafter devoted his attention to the raising of horses. He owned some magnificent samples of equine flesh, having refused $5,000 for his stud, Zolock, who has a record of 2:0514, while he also owned the filly. Delilah, who has a record of a quarter mile in twenty-eight sec- onds in harness, in 1904 holding the fastest record as a two-year-old in the world. Besides

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Exchange and Izalco, four and three years old, he also owned four fine mares. Mr. Davies ac- quired a high reputation for his unerring judg- ment in the matter of an animal's fine points, and was regarded as a leader in this line of work.

Mr. Davies established domestic ties through his marriage in 1873 with Miss Arabelle Whit- low, a native of Louisville, Ky., and they be- came the parents of five children, two of whom died in infancy. Those now living are : Mabel, Mrs. N. A. Richardson, and Lelah, Mrs. Will- iam Whitlow, both daughters residing in San Bernardino; and Violet, at home. Mr. Davies was associated fraternally with the Foresters of San Bernardino, and politically adhered to the principles of the Democratic party, as did his father also. The charities of the Christian Church are supported by the family, of which denomination Mrs. Davies is a member. Mr. Davies passed away at his home near San Bernardino January II, 1907.

HENSON POLAND. No name in the vil- lage of Lompoc is more familiar to its residents and to the people of the surrounding country than that of Henson Poland, who was a member of the company that bought and platted the vil- lage of Lompoc and ever since has held a prom- inent position as public-spirited citizen, popular local official, business man and rancher. In the improving of city real estate he has been active and now owns five town blocks covering twenty- five acres, in addition to which he owns fifty acres of ranch property. The land is leased to parties who engage in raising beans and mus- tard, while the work of caring for his thirty acres of apple trees is also put into the hands of others, although he gives the property his care- ful oversight and capable supervision.

The Poland family is of Virginian ancestry and Henson was born in Randolph county in what is now West Virginia, December 13, 1838, being a son of Henry C. and Ann (Vansky ) Poland, natives of West Virginia. His grand- mother was a Miss Grimes, member of a family that became prominent in the pioneer history of Missouri. During 1844 Henry C. Poland took his family to Missouri, where he followed the same lines of activity as in the Old Dominion, viz .: the raising of tobacco and of stock. His wife passed away when thirty-eight years of age, but he survived her for many years and lived to be seventy-two. They were the parents of ten children, of whom Henson was the third in order of birth. When a small child he was taken to Chariton county, Mo., in 1844, and there passed his boyhood days on the home farm of two hundred and ninety-two acres, on which

were raised tobacco and general farm products. When not assisting in the cultivation of the land he was sent to a subscription school in the neigh- borhood and later he was given special advan- tages at Brunswick Academy and Bluff high school. The latter institution was founded by Thomas M. Crowder, a graduate of the Univer- sity of Virginia.

On the completion of his education Mr. Poland began to teach school in Prairie township at what is now Salisbury, Chariton county, Mo., but the breaking out of the Civil war caused the closing of the school. Stanch in his allegiance to the Union cause, it was his desire to enlist in the northern army, but his parents, who were de- voted southern sympathizers, opposed him in the matter with such earnestness that he relinquished his ambition in deference to their entreaties. However, he paid the way of a substitute whom he sent into the Union army. Not wishing to remain longer in a neighborhood where the war was arousing such bitterness of feeling, he de- parted for New York and there boarded a ves- sel for California via the Isthmus of Panama, arriving in San Francisco April 28, 1863. A brief experience on a ranch in San Joaquin county was followed by four months in the mines at Soledad. Ariz., and in 1864 he returned to California, settling in Santa Cruz county, where for six years he engaged in furnishing lime kilns and the California Powder Company with tim- ber for fuel. The last-named organization em- ployed him as manager in 1870 and on his re- tirement from that position he received the high- est tributes of praise from his employers for his excellent work in their behalf.

After coming to Lompoc in the fall of 1874 Mr. Poland was a member of the syndicate that bought the Lompoc ranch of forty-six thousand five hundred acres, and he was foremost in the founding of the village, whose growth was aided by his influence and liberality. In 1888 he leased two hundred acres of grain land and set out one thousand trees of deciduous fruit, mainly apples, pears and plums. After having served for one year as town clerk, in April of 1889 he was ap- pointed postmaster by President Harrison and entered upon his duties the Ist of July, fitting out an office at his own expense and receiving only $400 in salary. At the expiration of eight- een months the salary was raised to $1,200, and the office was changed from fourth-class to third-class. At the expiration of an efficient service of five years he resigned the office.

Always stanch in his advocacy of Republican principles, Mr. Poland has been a leading local worker in politics, and is now a member of the town trustees. Appointed to fill an unexpired term as member of the board of trustees, he served for two years as president. April 9.

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1906, he was elected to the board and again was chosen to serve as its executive head. For some years he has been a member of the grammar- school board at Lompoc and in addition he has officiated as a trustee of the park and cemetery. During the Lewis and Clark Exposition he rep- resented his district as commissioner at Port- land, and meanwhile was a delegate to the Irri- gation Congress in the same city in that year, while the following year he was chosen to attend the congress at Boise City, Idaho, as a delegate.

The first marriage of Mr. Poland was solem- nized at Santa Cruz August 4, 1868, and united him with Mrs. D. W. Scoville, who was born in New York and crossed the plains in 1863, set- tling in California, where she continued to re- side until her death, April 6, 1893. The second wife of Mr. Poland, with whom he was united February 10, 1895, was Miss M. B. Heacock, a native of this state, and a daughter of E. H. Heacock, who served for fourteen years in the state senate, also held the offices of United States court commissioner and master in chan- cery. Mrs. Poland passed away March 4, 1905. The present wife of Mr. Poland, with whom he was united December 16, 1906, was Sarah O. Hudson, who was born in Maine and has made her home in California since 1874. Active in Masonry, Mr. Poland has been chosen master of Lompoc Lodge No. 262, F. & A. M., eight separate times. During 1867, when the Grand Lodge had charge of the laying of the corner- stone of the Mercantile Library at San Fran- cisco, he attended as representative of Santa Cruz Lodge No. 38, F. & A. M. On the or- ganization of San Luis Obispo Chapter No. 62. R. A. M., he became one of its charter members and still retains his association with that chap- ter. His Masonic relations are further extended by membership in St. Omer Commandery No. 30, K. T., at Santa Barbara. On the founding of a lodge of Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Lompoc he became interested in the new fra- ternity and enrolled his name as a charter mem- ber, since which time he has been a leader in its work and for two terms has officiated as its presiding officer. In 1867 he joined the Odd Fellows Lodge at Santa Cruz. In religious as- sociations he belongs to the Episcopal Church at Lompoc and officiates as a warden in the con- gregation. With a mind too liberal and a spirit too broad to allow him the restrictions of nar- row denominationalism, he exhibits an interest in all Christian work and in the early days his home was an abiding place for ministers of any denomination who might wish to remain in the vicinity for the purpose of preaching. Every movement, whether religious, educational or commercial, that has for its purpose the upbuild- ing of Lompoc, receives his warm sympathy and

practical assistance, and when a history of the town shall have been written his name will be given a permanent place of honor in recognition of his beneficial labors and ideal citizenship.

JOHN S. DUNN. So intimately is the life of Mr. Dunn associated with the San Pedro Salt Company that the history of one would be impossible without an account of the other. The plant is located at the head of San Pedro bay, where the company controls fourteen hun- dred and seventy-three acres of land. During high tide the water pours in upon the land through an automatic headgate, which closes when the tide changes and the water begins to reccde. There are about thirteen ponds in the tract, varying in size from thirty-five acres to two hundred and eighty acres, and in these ponds the water is allowed to remain until it shows twenty-five per cent salt, when it is pumped into crystallizing vats partitioned off by dykes. Some idea of the pumping capacity of the plant can be gathered from the fact that sixteen thousand gallons of water per minute can be transferred from the ponds to the vats, using a stream fourteen inches in diameter. When scraped from the basins the salt is in the form of large crystals, and constitutes the rock salt of commerce. The preparation of the commodity for table use is as varied as it is complicated. From the basins just men- tioned the salt is carried to the mill and placed in an immense bin, where it is washed and thoroughly purified. In the drying machine, to which it is next carried, it is subjected to a temperature of three hundred and sixty-five degrees and thus put in proper condition for grinding. The entire process of evaporation, milling and packing requires ninety days, dur- ing which time the crystals have not come in contact with human hands. It is estimated that the company will ship about thirty thousand tons of table and rock salt during the present year. The chief factor in the suc- cess of the salt-making industry in this sec- tion is the clay foundation, which prevents any possibility of seepage.

John S. Dunn was horn in Pennsville, Mor- gan county, Ohio, March 2, 1842, a son of Tohn H. and Rebecca (Harry) Dunn. Dur- ing young manhood he entered the service of his country, on June 18, 1861, being mustered in Company H. Twenty-fifth Ohio Infantry. as a private, and on June 22, 1866, he was mustered out of the same regiment as adju- tant. Thereafter he returned to his home in Pennsville, Ohio, where the greater part of his life was passed, and where for four years he

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A history of California and an extended history of its southern coast counties, also containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present, Volume I, Part 134

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company Number of Pages: 1184

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1184