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 II, Part 116

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1234

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OSCEOLA C. ABBOTT. Since the firm of Abbott & Stacy opened their doors for bus- iness in San Pedro in 1899 they have estab- lished a reputation for reliable commercial transactions and have acquired a business sec- ond to none of its class in the town. They started in a very modest, unpretentious way, but month by month and year by year they have added to their real-estate holdings until today they handle property in all of the additions in San Pedro. While it may be said that they make a specialty of buying and selling and ex-

changing real-estate, yet that by no means repre- sents the scope of their undertakings, for they write considerable insurance with many of the old-line companies, among them the Fire As- sociation of Philadelphia, Philadelphia Under- writers, Germania, the Casualty, Etna and Northern. They have also built a number of residences in San Pedro.

Descending from a long line of southern an- tecedents, O. C. Abbott was born in Kouts, Por- ter county, Ind., September 5, 1851, a son of Edwin C. and Mary Ann (Wright) Abbott. From old Virginia, where he was born and where he spent his early years, the father first removed to Porter county, Ind., and soon after the birth of his youngest child removed to Fay- ette county, Iowa, locating not far from Fair- bank. By occupation he was a farmer, and followed that vocation in the various states in which he made his home. He died in Fayette county when his son, Osceola, was a child of five years. His wife was also of southern par- entage, and was born in Kentucky. She sur- vived her husband about thirty-two years and died in Delaware county, Iowa, whither she had removed from Fayette county after the death of her husband. The parental family originally comprised five children, four sons and one daughter, but two of the sons are now de- ceased. One of the sons, John W., gave up his life in the cause of his country, dying two weeks after his return home, from disease contracted in the army while a member of the Thirty-fifth Iowa Volunteer Infantry.

As he was the youngest child in his parents' family O. C. Abbott was a small child when the family removed to Iowa, and he therefore has little or no recollection of his native sur- roundings in Indiana. He was reared on his father's farm in Favette county, and attended the schools in that locality until the latter's death, when his mother located in Delaware county, and he completed his education in the latter lo- cality. When twenty years of age he was in- terested in a mercantile business in Hopkin- ton, Delaware county, and eleven years later, in 1882, removed to Albion, Boone county, Neb .. and established a grocery. During the eight years in which he resided in Nebraska he took an active interest in public affairs and for three years of this time filled the office of city treas- urer of Albion. Since coming to San Pedro in 1890 his qualifications as a public official have become recognized by his fellow-citizens and for four years he has served them as city clerk and two years as custom house inspector, besides serving as city assessor and deputy county as- sessor for several years.

Near Dixon, Lee county, Ill., Mr. Abbott was united in marriage with Miss Emma E. Carna-

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

han in 1875. She was a native of Malugin Grove, Lee county, that state, in which vicinity she taught school five years prior to her mar- riage, taking her first school when only seven- teen years of age. All of the five children born to Mr. and Mrs. Abbott are living, as follows : Edwin S., a butcher in San Pedro; Claire C. and Osceola C., Jr., both residents of San Pe- dro, the latter foreman of the machinists in the S. P. planing mill at Los Angeles; Lula E. and John D., who are attending college in Los An- geles. All of the family are well liked by their many friends and acquaintances, and at their home on Tenth street they dispense a gracious hospitality. Fraternally Mr. Abbott is a Ma- son, being initiated into the order in Malugin Grove, Ill., and he was made a Master Mason in Hopkinton, Ia. Upon his removal to Albion. Neb., he transferred his membership thither, and later to San Pedro. He is also identified with the Foresters of America, in which he served as master of his lodge; and his wife is a member of the Order of the Eastern Star. At one time he was an officer in the Royal Arcanum, an in- surance order with which he is identified, and he is also a member of the Chamber of Com- merce and now vice-president of that body. His political affiliations ally him with the Repub- lican party, in which he takes an active inter- est, to the extent that he has been a member of the county central committee. The family find their church home in the Methodist Epis- copal Church, in which Mr. Abbott is now serv- ing as president of the board of trustees. Few residents of San Pedro have achieved a suc- cess more noteworthy than that which has re- warded the efforts of Mr. Abbott and to none has success come more deservedly than to him. Re- cently he has been elected as free holder of the city of San Pedro, to draft the city charter for a fifth class city, and is now engaged in the duties of his office.

OSCAR C. WILLIS. Conspicuous among the attractive country homes of Ventura county is the ranch near Moorpark which is owned and occupied by Oscar C. Willis and utilized by him in the raising of harley and the pasturage of stock. Every ranchman has his specialty and that of Mr. Willis is the raising of horses, in which department of agriculture he has been re- markably successful. As a judge of horses he has few superiors, and his opinion concerning an animal is usually accepted as authoritative. At this writing he acts as manager of the Moor- park Horse Company, owners of the Percheron stallion Sampson, No. 22104, which won the first prize at the Illinois State Fair in 1904 and has a reputation as the finest animal of its class

in Ventura county. Besides having charge of this horse, Mr. Willis owns the trotting stal- lion Buster, and has engaged in the raising of standard-bred trotting horses. One of his mares, Tempest, has raised ten colts, six of which he sold for $1,160, and the remaining four he yet owns, one of them being a very promising colt by Zolock. The ranch which he owns com- prises five hundred acres and in addition he leases three thousand acres for the pasturage of his stock.

Born in Dallas county, Iowa, December 28, 1862, Mr. Willis is a son of Jonathan and Lu- cinda (Beeson) Willis, natives of Indiana, but after 1857 residents of Iowa, where the moth- er died during October of 1865. For years the father was one of the most extensive stock- raisers of Dallas county and was one of the first to bring in Percheron horses to Iowa. At one time he served as a member of the board of su- pervisors of Dallas county. During 1893 he removed from Iowa to California, bringing with him three of the finest horses ever brought to the coast. Two years later he returned to Iowa and established his home at Perry, where he died July 27, 1903, at the age of seventy-six years.

Educated in the public schools of Perry, Ia., Oscar C. Willis left school to take up ranch pur- suits. On starting out for himself he came to California in the spring of 1882 and settled at Vacaville, Solano county, where he engaged in the fruit and tobacco business for three years. After a visit of three months among old friends in Iowa he came back to the Pacific coast and settled in Ventura county, where he began to operate a ranch near Saticoy, although it was not until 1889 that he began ranching independ- ently. In 1891 he removed from his Saticoy ranch to the Los Posas estate, where he had two hundred acres under cultivation to beans. The Los Posas rancho stood along the route of the old pioneer stage line from Los Angeles to San Buena Ventura and Santa Barbara, and formed a portion of the old Spanish grant of that name. A number of years he remained on that place, but in the fall of 1903 he traded property in Los Angeles county for his present ranch near Moor- park, which is improved with a comfortable ranch house, substantial barns and the other equipment essential to a model estate of the twentieth century. The pleasant home is pre- sided over by Mrs. Willis, formerly Anna Du- val, who was born and reared at Saticoy, and was there married November 9, 1889. Five chil- dren brighten the home and the hearts of their parents, namely: Marie, Louise, Lester, Law- rence and Gertrude. In religious views Mrs. Willis is identified with the Advent Church and her children are being trained in that faith.

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

Politically Mr. Willis gives his support to the Republican party in local and national elections, and fraternally he affiliates with the Independ- ent Order of Foresters. Though averse to fill- ing positions of a public nature, his interest in educational work led him to accept the office of school trustee at Moorpark, and during his serv- ice he has favored measures for the benefit of the school and the welfare of the students.

O. J. SOLARI. The establishment of the Solari, family in Ventura county dates back to the pioneer period of the American occupancy of California, and its first representative in this country, Augustin Solari, came from his native land of Italy ere yet he had formed domestic ties or drifted into the settled routine of business affairs. The superior qualities coming to him as an inheritance from a long line of cultured Italian ancestors soon made him a conspicuous figure among the ranchmen of the then sparse- ly settled regions along the coast. Eventually he became the owner of one-fourth interest in the Santa Clara Del Norte rancho, containing fourteen thousand acres, and conceded to be one of the finest estates of Ventura county. The other owners of the rancho were Don Antonio, who had one-half interest, and Leopoldo Schi- appa Pietra, who owned the remaining one- fourth interest.

Upon the death of Augustin Solari, which occurred in Ventura county March 18, 1888, twenty-six years after his arrival in California, his portion of the rancho was divided among his heirs, comprising wife and children. His wife was Mercia Cota, a native of Santa Barbara county and a member of an old Spanish fam- ily. Their marriage was solemnized in Ventura county, where she yet makes her home. Ten children comprised their family, namely: Iso- dro, who died in 1885; Elvira, wife of E. M. Wagner, of Ventura county; Amalia, deceased ; Ermina, wife of T. C. Lutneskey, of Los An- geles; O. J., a farmer near Oxnard; Emma, who married O. C. Dempsey and lives at Re- dondo; Lena, Mrs. E. F. Kohlar, of Pasadena ; Elizabeth, wife of J. J. Judd, of Los Angeles ; Della, who married George Phillips and resides in Santa Barbara; and Eva, wife of A. L. Chaf- fee, of Ventura.

A lifelong resident of Ventura county, O. J. Solari was born here April 26, 1868, and re- ceived his education in the public schools of the county. In 1895 he settled upon land formerly owned by his father and here he has since fol- lowed farm pursuits, having a tract of one hun- dred and seventy acres, of which seventy-five acres are under cultivation to lima beans, and the balance is in barley. The neat residence is

presided over by his wife, whom he married in Ventura December 5, 1895, and who was Petra Ruiz, a native of California. Both Mr. and Mrs. Solari are devout believers in the doc- trines of the Roman Catholic Church and in that religion they are training their two sons, Angus- tin and Grabil, who at this writing are respect- ively nine and six years of age. In fraternal relations Mr. Solari holds membership with the Native Sons of the Golden West, being an act- ive worker in the Ventura Parlor. In addition he affiliates with the Ancient Order of United Workmen at Ventura and is prominently asso- ciated with Union Latina Americana No. I at Ventura, which has the distinction of being the only lodge of its kind in California. The in- terest which Mr. Solari maintains in the prog- ress of local educational matters led him to ac- cept the position of clerk of the school board in the Del Norte school district, and in this ca- pacity he has given painstaking and efficient service. By his activity as a citizen and his capability as a rancher he has added luster to the honorable reputation established by his fa- ther during the pioneer history of our common- wealth.

JOHN BUNYAN GOODLETT. A promi- nent business man of San Bernardino is John Bunyun Goodlett, who was born in Greenville district, S. C., March 31. 1840, the son of Wil- son N. and Lena Ann (Prince) Goodlett, both of whom were natives of South Carolina. Leav- ing their native state in 1852, they removed to Texas and there remained the rest of their lives. In Texas the father was engaged as a farmer, planter and large cotton grower. The paternal grandfather was William Goodlett, and the maternal grandfather was Harvey Prince, the latter born in Scotland. The first twelve years of the life of John Bunyan Goodlett were spent in South Carolina and from there he went to Texas with the family. There he attended a private school and assisted his father on the large plantation until grown to manhood.

In 1879 Mr. Goodlett came to California and located in San Bernardino county. The follow- ing fifteen years he was engaged in ranching and horticultural pursuits, improving a ranch of forty acres, which he superintended until 1894, when he removed to the city of San Bernardino. On the Democratic ticket he was elected to the office of city recorder in San Bernardino for two terms and gave to the municipality most effi- cient service in that capacity.

Mr. Goodlett's marriage to Miss Julia Mc- Donald of Grimes county, Tex., occurred in that state, and at her death in 1881 she left one child, a daughter, J. Hope. who is now the

1893

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

wife of Arthur Clark. The present Mrs. Goodiett was formerly Miss Anna Maria McGee, of San Bernardino, who although a na- tive of Missouri has spent the most of her life in California, having come here when she was yet a young girl. Mr. Goodlett was for several years connected with the banking interests of this city, and at one time served as a director of the First National Bank of San Bernardino, in which his wife was also a stockholder. They are both active and devoted members of the Baptist Church of San Bernardino, and their present home is on a valuable tract of land lo- cated within the corporate limits of the city. Mr. Goodlett is a typical southern gentleman and his home is noted for that refreshing hospitality for which those born and reared in the south are noted.

CAPT. G. L. F. FALK. In reviewing the career of Captain Falk one is impressed with his indomitable spirit, showing the possession of mettle which has never known the word de- feat. His early life was associated with hap- penings in and around Hallen, Sweden, where he was born October 28, 1843, and in which vi- cinity he was reared until he was fourteen years of age. With the daring of youth he shipped as a sailor before the mast in 1857, lit- tle thinking at that time, perhaps, that so large a part of his life would be spent on the water. As one of the crew on an American vessel, which shipped from London in 1861, he made the long and perilous voyage around the Cape of Good Hope, and finally reached Calcutta. After exchanging cargoes the return trip was undertaken, the ship reaching London just sev- enteen months after leaving port. Subsequently he made the voyage from Liverpool to New York, this being his first trip to America, and later he sailed from Havre to New Orleans. In 1868, on the ship Taylor, he rounded the Horn in making the voyage to San Francisco, the trip consuming one hundred and twenty days. The second day after landing he shipped as second mate on the schooner Eurenta, and be- fore returning to San Francisco, twenty months later, had touched at the ports of Australia, Sandwich Islands and Mexico.

It was after this voyage that Captain Falk determined to embark in business on his own account. Purchasing a scow he engaged in the transportation business on the bay between Stockton and Sacramento, following this until 1870, from then until 1874 giving his attention more especially to the handling of firewood. About this time he built the Pauline Collins, a vessel which he used in the lumber trade until 1877. in that year building the George R. Hig-

gins, in Humboldt county, which plied the coast from San Francisco as far north as Alaska for a number of years. It was about this time, 1880, that he made a trip to Europe, and upon his return he purchased the schooner Bonanza, and for two years carried on a coast- ing trade along the coast from Mexico to Alaska. In 1882 he built the schooner Mary and Ida, in the Dickey shipyards at San Fran- cisco, running this boat as a coaster until 1888. Going again to the Humboldt docks that year he built the Glendale, but after sailing her for two years gave up life on the sea and settled down as a landsinan in San Pedro. It was while master of the George R. Higgins, in 1877, that he had first became acquainted with the town, and so favorable did it impress him as a desir- able place to locate that the thirteen years which had intervened had not effaced the idea from his memory. For three years, from 1890 to 1893, he was interested in the liquor business at the corner of Sixth and Fronts streets, prop- erty which he had previously purchased, but in the year last mentioned, he rented the property and took a trip to Europe. Since 1898 he has not taken any active interest in business aside from looking after his property, and in 1905 he erected a new building in San Pedro, 25x50 feet. Captain Falk has not severed his connec- tion with nautical affairs entirely, and is still interested in the schooner Glendale and the steam schooner Marshfield, both of which are employed in the lumber trade.

In San Pedro, in 1893, Captain Falk was united in marriage with Miss Ida Campbell, a native of Detroit, Mich., and of the children born to them seven are living. Captain Falk is identified with the Master Mariners Associa- tion of San Francisco, and with the Eagles of San Pedro, and in his political sympathies he is a Republican. In retrospect Captain Falk can look back upon a life checkered with high hopes fol- lowed by disappointments and discouragements, for his life on sea was not always the most pleas- ant, nor was it at all times profitable, but he has weathered these breakers and is now living in the comfort which his previous years of hardship and toil have made possible. In his various trips and travels he has acquired a fund of general information, and is as familiar with the famous seaports throughout the world as he is with his home surroundings in San Pedro.

J. J. COLBY, of the Colby Real Estate Com- pany of Long Beach has been a resident of Cal- ifornia since 1900, first locating in Redlands, where he set out an orange orchard. This he sold and in 1903 located permanently in Long Beach, where he has since made his home, taking

1894

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

an active interest in the growth and development of the city, in whose future he has unbounded confidence. Mr. Colby is a native of Vermont, and was born November 6, 1842. His boyhood years were spent in the schools of the Green Mountain state, and upon the completion of his scholastic training he engaged in the manufac- ture of children's carriages, clothes wringers and other small articles, having charge of two hun- dred men in this work. He was very success- ful and remained thus occupied until 1890. In that year he made a trip to California and al- though he returned home and spent the ensuing, ten years he was so pleased with the conditions, climate and opportunities of the Pacific coast that in 1900 he came west for a permanent set- tlement. After spending one summer in Long Beach he decided to locate here, and according- ly purchased a lot on East Ocean Park avenue. where he built a comfortable residence. He en- gaged in the real estate business, buying acreage and subdividing, having put on the market Eagle Park and Signal tracts. He has made a success of his undertakings and has had no cause . to regret coming to California.

In Vermont Mr. Colby was united in marriage with Alice Hutchins and they are now the pa- rents of the following children: Bessie J .: Ed- win A., in the National Bank at Redlands : Jesse J., Jr., in the Long Beach Bank; and Mary, wife of K. C. Wells, of Redlands. Mr. Colby is a member of the Royal Arcanum, and in religion is a charter member of the New Plymouth Con- gregational Church, which was organized in 1904 with forty members and now (1905) has one hundred and fifty. Politically he has always been a staunch Republican and a loval supporter of the government at all times. In 1862 he en- listed in the United States navy in the paymas- ter's department, and during his two years' ser- vice participated in the hlockade of the Gulf of Mexico. He was honorably discharged at the expiration of his service. He is associated with the veterans of the Civil war as a member of the Long Beach Post, G. A. R.

PETER H. SCHWARTZ. The life which this narrative sketches began in Columbiana county, Ohio, June 22, 1842, and was brought to a close May 2, 1903. The intervening years were filled with hard work. noble service in the cause of his country, and latterly in making a name and place for himself on the western coast. His father, Jacob Schwartz, was a farmer in Columbiana county, Ohio, and it was there that he rounded out his years, his wife passing away in Kansas.

Of the six children born to his parents, Peter H. Schwartz was next to the youngest. His

earliest recollections were of his father's farm in Ohio, upon which he worked during the summer seasons when not attending the village school. Later training was received in Mount Union College, an institution under the care of the Methodist Episcopal denomination in Mount Union, Ohio, but his studies there were brought to a sudden close by his response to his coun- try's call for volunteers during the first year of the Civil war. After the expiration of his first term of enlistment, which was for three months, he joined Company C, Eighty-sixth Ohio Vol- unteer Infantry, enlisting as corporal; later was sergeant of Company B, Twelfth Ohio Cavalry; and finally, as second lieutenant, joined Company B of the One Hundred and Eighth United States Volunteers. At the time of his discharge from the army, in the fall of 1865, he was a young man of only twenty-three years, but even though young in years the hardships and trials of warfare had opened up experiences to him that men thrice his age might not have met as bravely. He was accidentally wounded while in camp, although the accident was not of such a serious nature as to disable him from further service. Mr. Schwartz took pride in the fact that while he entered the service as a non-com- missioned officer, he was promoted from time to time, and at the time of his discharge was first lieutenant of the Second United States Volun- teers, his commission bearing date of March 24, 1865.

August 1, 1872, Mr. Schwartz was married to Miss Isabella Hoiles, a native of Mahoning county, Ohio, and a daughter of James Hoiles, the latter born in New Jersey. The grandfather, Levi Hoiles, left his home in the east. and be- came one of the early settlers in Mahoning county, both himself and his son becoming farm- ers in that locality. James Hoiles passed away on his Ohio farm, and his wife also died in that state. She was, before her marriage, Barbara Oyster, and was a native of Pennsylvania. Fol- lowing his discharge from the army Mr. Schwartz returned to his old home in Ohio and soon afterward embarked in the wholesale and retail hardware business in Alliance, that state. This proved a profitable and congenial under- taking, judging from the fact that he continued in the business for over twenty years, but he was seized with the western fever about this time and the year 1887 witnessed his arrival in Cali- fornia. For about a year he engaged in the real estate business in Santa Ana, but on coming to San Pedro in 1888 he entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Lumber Company. branch- ing out from this into contracting and building on his own account. During his later years, and at the time of his death, he was engaged in the real estate business, a line of endeavor into which

1895

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

he could and did put his whole soul, for his faith in the future of San Pedro was unbounded and he had the happy faculty of inspiring his patrons with the same hope. For four years he served his fellow-citizens as constable.

Two children blessed the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Schwartz, Clifford D., who is now in Mexico, and Myrtle, who makes her home with her mother. Since the death of her husband Mrs. Schwartz has continued to reside at the old home on Palos Verdes street near Ninth. Politically Mr. Schwartz was a Republican, and in his fraternal associations he belonged to the Masons, having attained the Royal Arch degree ; he also belonged to the Knight of Pythias. As was natural for one who had served long and faithfully in his country's behalf he was also a comrade in the Grand Army of the Republic, and his widow is now a member and active worker in that kindred order, the Woman's Relief Corps. While Mrs. Schwartz is a Lutheran in her re- ligious preferences, she attends the services of the Methodist Episcopal Church, there being no Lutheran congregation in San Pedro. Mr. Schwartz was also of the same belief as his wife, passing away with the Christian's hope and as- surance of a life hereafter. His body lies buried in the cemetery at Wilmington.

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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 II, Part 116

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company Number of Pages: 1234

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1234