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 14

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

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life-long residents of Wales, where the father was a well-known carpenter and contractor. They were people of stanch integrity, highly esteemed for their many excellent qualities of mind and heart, and were faithful members of the Inde- pendent Congregational Church. They reared a family of five children, all of whom left their native country when ready to settle in life, locat- ing in America. One son, David F. Watkins, was for thirty-three years a missionary in Mexico and later was similarly engaged in South Amer- ica. Another son, Rev. Thomas R. Watkins, was a leader of the Labor Union in Pennsylvania.

Immigrating to the United States in 1865. Morgan R. Watkins spent a short time in New York City, and then went to Pennsylvania, where he followed the trade he had learned in Wales, working in the mines as an underground carpenter. From there, having in the mean time visited his old home and friends in Wales, Mr. Watkins came to the Pacific coast, arriving in San Francisco in 1868. Resuming his former work, he was a foreman in the mines for a num- ber of years, being thus employed in Plumas, Butte and Nevada and Placer counties. His health failing he went first to Mendocino, then to San Diego, and thence to Mexico, where for about a year he had charge of a mine. Returning to San Diego county he purchased his present ranch which is advantageously y located near Mesa Grande, and has since been actively and suc- cessfully engaged in general farming, including stock raising. He pays some attention to the raising of fruit, having a productive apple or- chard, which yields him excellent harvests. He has met with good success in his agricultural labors, and as a man and a citizen is held in high respect throughout the community, his integri- ty and other sterling qualities being everywhere recognized.

In 1872 Mr. Watkins married Mary Brier, who was born in Santa Cruz, Cal. One year prior to her marriage she taught school and for twelve years afterwards she taught an Indian school. Her father, Rev. James Brier, was born October 14. 1814, in Dayton, Ohio, of Scotch and French ancestry. In 1839 he married Juliet Wells, a woman of great strength of character and much force of will. Several years later Mr. Brier accompanied by his wife and three small child- ren, started across the plains, Mrs. Brier being the only woman in the company of Jay Hawkers. After spending six weeks in Salt Lake City the party were forced to push onward to California under Mormon guides, who deserted them upon arriving at Death Valley. They suffered untold privations, and twenty-eight of the band died of starvation. The survivors burned their wagons for fuel and in the weeks that followed their only food consisted of the hides of cattle. Lo-

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cating in Los Angeles Mr. Brier became active in his ministerial labors, and founded the first Methodist Episcopal Church established in that town. During his later years he removed to San Joaquin county and made his home there until his death, in 1897. He was very active in political affairs, and as a stanch supporter of the Republican party stumped the state for Lincoln, Grant, Garfield, Blaine and Harrison, acquiring a wide reputation as a gifted orator, and being aptly called "The Old Man Eloquent." His wife survived him, and is still living, being an active woman of ninety-three years. She bore him six children, four of whom survive.

Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Watkins two children have been born, namely: Arthur S., who has a fine ranch of five hundred acres ad- joining his father's farm, and Juliet. Politically Mr. Watkins is a Socialist. Religiously he is a Congregationalist, and Mrs. Watkins is an Epis- copalian.

GASTON JEAN GILLY. As a general mer- chant Gaston J. Gilly is located in Puente and carrying on a business enterprise in partnership with J. Faure, the firm name being Gilly & Faure. Mr. Gilly is a native Californian, his birth having occurred in San Francisco January 20, 1867. His father, Joseph Gilly, was a native of Haute- Marne, France, and a tailor by trade. He came to America in 1866, crossing the Isthmus of Panama, thence by steamer to San Francisco, where he engaged as a merchant tailor. In 1883 he located in Los Angeles, where he followed his trade until his death, which occurred January 12, 1905, at the age of sixty-three years. His wife died in San Francisco in 1873. The parent- al family comprise four children, all of whom are living, the eldest being Gaston Jean Gilly. He was taken to France in 1877 and there edu- cated in the public schools, after which, in 1883, he returned to San Francisco and engaged as a compositor on the Courier, a French publica- tion. Six months after his father's removal to Los Angeles he also went there and immediately took up the study of bookkeeping in a night school. In the meantime he continued in a job printing office, working for a Mr. McBride, later was employed on the old Los Angeles Evening Express, then on the Herald, and finally on the Los Angeles Progress, a French publication. He remained with this last named paper for three years, a part of the time as its manager. He then quit the newspaper business and entered the employ of G. L. Mesnager & Co., as traveling salesman, his territory being Southern Califor- nia. Four years later he gave up this work and engaged as a clerk in Los Angeles and vicinity. until September, 1898, when, in partnership with

J. Faure, he established the Puente store, where they now carry a full line of general merchandise while they also are large shippers of produce. The building which they occupy was put up by them in 1898. Mr. Gilly is a member of the French Benevolent Society of Los Angeles, and politically is a stanch advocate of Republican principles.

ULRIC T. COOK. The future of Califor- nia, as of any commonwealth, is based upon its young men, to whose enterprise, judgment and intelligence the prosperity of the country during the present century will be due, and from whose activity of mind and body will re- sult movements of inestimable value to the people. There are in San Diego county a large number of young men of unusual capa- bility, resourcefulness and discrimination, and among them mention may be made of Ulric T. Cook, who is engaged in the raising of grain and stock in the Sutherland valley and on Smith mountain and also owns an apiary of fifty colonies of bees. Not a little of his pros- perons outlook is due to the fact that he has the encouragement and active co-operation of his father, a practical farmer of long experi- ence, and still identified with the agricultural development of this county, where he and his son are farming upon an extensive scale.

Los Angeles county is Mr. Cook's native lo- cality and May 22, 1879, the date of his birth. His parents, George and Hannah (Strong) Cook, were natives respectively of Texas and Arkansas, and during the year 1868 became residents of Los Angeles county, Cal., having previously met and married in San Diego county. The family settled on Smith moun- tain when Ulric was yet a small child and he attended the common schools in that district. Upon starting out to earn his livelihood he formed a partnership with his father and they now own three hundred and twenty acres in Sutherland valley. The old homestead on Smith mountain has been sold, but the father now rents the place and continues to reside there, giving his attention to its management and the care of his stock, while the son is liv- ing on their farm in the Sutherland valley. Both are stanch Democrats in political views. At this writing the father holds office as dep- uty sheriff and the son is serving with efficien- cy in the position of school trustee. Before removing from Smith mountain Mr. Cook there married, February 7, 1899, Miss Annie L. Frye, a native of California, having been born near Santa Ana, and by the union they have four children, Ella May, Ethel Edith, Marian Ray and Lucile.

H.T. Sloane

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

CAPT. HAMPTON P. SLOANE. The founder of the Sloane family in America came to this country from the north of Ireland and descended from ancestors driven from Scot- land at the time of the religious persecutions. The original immigrant, John Sloane, married Mary Scarborough and settled in Maryland, where their son, James, was born November 18, 1793. Two years later the family crossed the mountains into Kentucky and settled in the primitive wilds of Bourbon county. From there in the spring of 1810 they removed to Ohio and settled in Highland county, twenty- five miles north of the river of the same name, in the midst of a dense forest, where the most arduous application was necessary in order to clear and improve a farm. The family consist- ed of Lydia, Jane, James, Rachel, Abigail, Martha and John. The eldest son was a young man when the call came for recruits to serve in the war of 1812 and he enlisted in Captain Wisby's Company, attached to Colonel Keyes' Regiment. The raw recruits shouldered their flint-lock guns and marched on foot to San- dusky, Ohio, where they arrived about the time of the surrender of the British troops. Their services being no longer needed they were honorably discharged and returned home.

The first marriage of James Sloane was sol- emnized in 1819 and united him with Miss Lacy Bell, who was a daughter of John and Mary Bell of Brown county. Two children were born of their union, namely : Eliza, April 28, 1820; and John, who was born June 10, 1821, and died August 20, 1822, the death of the wife and mother occurring October 18, 1822. The second marriage of Mr. Sloane took place in August. 1823, and united him with Miss Nancy J. Pangborn, who was born in Kentucky August 10, 1803, and removed to Brown county, Ohio, at the age of sixteen years, accompanying her parents, Hampton and Margaret Pangborn. She was a twin sis- ter of John L. Pangborn, and these two with their older brother, Samuel, formed the fam- ily. Always an apt scholar, she developed a reasoning brain and bright mind, and was al- ways eager to help forward movements for the upbuilding of the race. In the early days of the temperance movement, when it was un- popular with many, she espoused the cause, as she did also the anti-slavery movement. At the opening of the Civil war she gave her sons her benediction as they entered the Union army. For more than sixty years she was an earnest Christian and during the last twen- ty-five years of her life she held membership with the Congregational Church. Her hus- band, also, after having been long a Methodist,

united with the Congregational Church after the close of the Civil war and continued in that denomination as long as he lived. Of their union the following children were born: Hampton P., whose name introduces this nar- rative and who was born in Highland coun- ty, Ohio, May 10, 1824: Marinda B., October 24, 1825; Margaret, July 4, 1827; Samuel P., July 17, 1829; Joseph, born April 23, 1832, and deceased in infancy; Jane, born May 7, 1833; Sarah Annie, March 22, 1835; Lacy Lucky, May 12, 1838; Martha Elizabeth, Jan- 11ary 26, 1841 ; and Quincy Adams, September 17, 1843. All of the children were born and reared on the Highland county farm and it was the privilege of their parents to see them all (excepting Joseph) educated and settled in life, all honoring their parents by lives of virtue and uprightness.

After a continuous residence of forty years in Ohio James Sloane removed to Illinois and settled in Rockford, where his eldest son had gone the preceding year. In 1864 he removed io Cedar Falls, Iowa, but the rigorous winters of that latitude caused him in 1868 to remove to Missouri, where he settled at Windsor, Henry county. In 1877 he went to Sedalia to be nearer his children, several of whom lived in or near that city. August 21, 1873, he and his wife celebrated their golden wedding and on that auspicious occasion they were the re- cipients of the congratulations of their chil- dren and their many friends. In life they were companions for sixty-two years ; in death they were not long divided. His death occurred at Sedalia, Mo .. October 24. 1885, and she passed away April 19, 1886. The funeral serv- ices of both were conducted by Rev. J. G. Bailey, an old friend of the family, and the bodies of both rest side by side in the beau- tiful cemetery adjoining Sedalia.

The eldest son of this honored couple was Hampton P. Sloane. justice of the peace and an influential citizen of Ramona, San Diego county. Cal. Educated in the common schools and Hillsboro Academy in Ohio, he took up agriculture as his chosen occupation and re- mained in Ohio until 1850, when he spent a short time in St. Paul and Minneapolis dur- ing the period that Governor Ramsey was the executive head of the then territory. Later he removed to Illinois, which then had only forty miles of railroad in the entire state. Settling near Rockford he engaged in farm pursuits and acted as assistant editor of the farmer's de- partment of the Rockford Register, also took a prominent part in establishing the Winne- bago County Agricultural Society, one of the first organizations of the kind in the state. Of this he served as president for two years. Au-

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gust 18, 1862, he assisted in raising Company C, Seventy-fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, of which he was chosen captain and with which he proceeded from Camp Fuller to Lou- isville, Ky. After taking part in the battles of Perryville and Stone river he fell ill with typhoid fever while the army was at winter quarters on the Stone river, and his illness was of a nature so serions as to oblige him to resign his commission. Returning home he spent some months in regaining his health and in 1864 removed to Cedar Falls, Iowa, where he engaged in agricultural and horticultural pursuits. During the year 1867 he removed to the vicinity of Sedalia, Mo., and bought a tract of land in Johnson county. The Civil war had left the locality in a disrupted state and there was much need of conservative citi- zenship in order to bring order out of chaos. School had been closed and school districts disbanded, and the county court appointed him school director with the difficult task of re- establishing the schools and restoring them to usefulness. In this work he was signally successful.

The county court in 1868 appointed Cap- tain Sloane justice of the peace. While fill- ing the office he gave the right of franchise to sixty Confederate soldiers and at the office where they registered three clerks were sta- tioned to aid them in the enforcing of their rights, these clerks being provided with wea- pons. In 1874 he took a four-year contract to convey the United States mail from Lamar to Carthage. Mo., and for this purpose he had a line of stages and six horses, which enabled him to make the round trip daily. At the ex- piration of his contract in 1878 he became re- porter and assistant editor of the Carthage Banner, with which he was connected for four years. In 1884 he removed to Washington county, Ark .. and took up a soldier's home- stead, which he improved and on which he planted an orchard of varied fruits. Selling out the farm in 1890 he came to California and settled in the Sweetwater valley, but five years later he removed to Ramona and bought a ranch near town which he has since sold. Since 1901 he has held office as justice of the peace and also he has been more or less iden- tified with local real-estate transfers. Follow- ing in the example of his parents, he ever has been loyal to the cause of Christianity and has been steadfast in his allegiance to the Con- gregational Church. From the organization of the Republican party to the present time he has been a loyal supporter of its principles and a contributor to its local successes. He cast his first presidential vote for Martin Van

Buren in 1848. Fraternally he holds member- ship with the Grand Army of the Republic at San Diego.

The first marriage of Captain Sloane was solemnized in Ohio in 1848 and united him with Adeline Grandgirard, who was born in France and died in Illinois in 1856 at the age of twenty-six years. Three children were born of their union, namely: John, who died in California in 1889, at the age of forty years ; Charles, who died in infancy ; and William A., member of the law firm of Luce, Sloane & Luce of San Diego and justice of the police court at San Diego. After the death of his first wife Captain Sloane was married in Illi- nois to Delia Gripen, a native of New York state. They became the parents of nine chil- dren of whom seven are living, namely : Charles, who is engaged in the real-estate business in San Diego; Ada, wife of Louis Kunkler of Missouri; Samuel, living at Dehesa, San Diego county, Cal .; Lydia, wife of Jo- seph Stockton, a resident of Ramona; James, whose home is near Prescott, Ariz .; Nannie, Mrs. A. H. Sheldon, of El Cajon ; and Bessie, whose husband, Charles A. Merritt, has charge of the electric light and power plant at Santa Barbara.

ERNEST A. PETTIJOHN. The growth of a city depends upon its leading men. When they are of stable character, energetic in busi- ness, strong principled and clean in private life there need be no fear of the stability. strength. and influence of the municipality. And when a city is so fortunate as to have had a man of this character and one who possessed the true public spirit as its municipal head for a long period of years that city is bound, as time passes, to continue to reflect the qualities borne into it and bequeathed to it by that head. The city of Colton, San Bernardino county, has been thus fortunate in the person of the late Ernest A. Pettijohn, who not only filled its mayor's chair for fourteen years, but at the same time occupied other influential positions in its official circles and was most active in ev- ery movement for the development and prog- ress of the community.

The Pettijohn family was among the oldest pioneers of Illinois and the homestead in Schuyler county which came to them by a grant from President Monroe is still owned by their descendants. It was on this homestead that Ernest A. Pettijohn was born December 3, 1861. When he was but five years of age his parents removed to Missouri, and there the son received his early education and attended Drury College at Springfield. His ambition

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

from early boyhood had been to go west, and accordingly, after his school work was com- pleted he started out, locating first in Mexico, where he engaged in mining, and later contin- uing operations in Arizona, meeting with suc- cess at both places. In 1887 he came with his mother and sister Mary (now Mrs. Frederic W. Wessel to Colton. Mrs. Wessel is now the only surviving member of the Pettijohn family, the mother's death having occurred at Colton about three years ago. The first years while in Colton Mr. Pettijohn was engaged in the shoe business and subsequently until the time of his death was occupied as an orange grower. In 1896 he was married to Miss Ada Robinson, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. DeVillo Robinson, well known residents of Colton. They became the parents of four children, of whom one son and one daughter now survive.

Public affairs and politics always received a large share of Mr. Pettijohn's interests and he was for a number of years president of the lo- cal Republican club, a member of the county central committee, and in 1904 he was the pre- siding officer of the Republican county con- vention. He was a charter member of the Col- ton fire department, served as a member of the board of city trustees for sixteen years, and was president of that body the greater part of the time. His fellow citizens were desirous of heaping further honors upon him, but he re- fused to become a candidate for the state as- sembly at their urging, and also declined to longer occupy a place on the board of trustees. He was devoted to his home and family and an active worker in the Presbyterian Church of Colton. contributing liberally to its support and that of every charitable cause which he be- lieved worthy. Fraternally he was a member of Ashlar Lodge No. 306, F. & A. M., at Colton, and of the Foresters. Personally his character was withont blemish and the motto which gov- erned his life is found in that beautiful admoni- tion in Thanatopsis :

"So live that when thy summons come to join The innumerable caravan which moves

To that mysterious realm where each shall take

His chamber in the silent halls of death,

Thou go not like the quarry slave at night,

Scourged to his dungeon : but, sustained and soothed

By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him and lies down to pleasant dreams."

His death, which occurred March 29, 1906, removed a faithful public servant, an upright citizen, and a tireless worker for the good of his city.

CHARLES F. ALLEN. As an inventive genius Charles F. Allen, the lighthouse keeper at Point Hueneme, Cal., has to his credit many important inventions which have been of great value in simplifying numerous mechanical pro- cesses in different lines of work. He was born October 7, 1867, near Cleveland, Ohio, of Eng- lish-American parentage. His father, Charles D. Allen, was born in England and located with his parents near Cleveland, Ohio, when eight years of age. For some years he was en- gaged in the lumber and buggy supply business there, later settling near Garrettsville, same state, where he became a farmer, and is still living at the age of seventy-two years. He did military service in the Civil war, serving six months with an Ohio regiment as contract teamster for the war department. The mother, who was Martha D. Bond before her marriage, was a native of Ohio. Her grandfather was one of the founders of Cleveland, he having erected the second log cabin there. Mrs. Allen died when her son Charles F. was a child of eighteen months. There were two children, but he is the only one now living. His boyhood days were spent on his father farm near Garrettsville, where he received his education in the district and high schools. When seventeen years old he went to Akron and apprenticed himself to Webster, Camp & Lane, manufacturers of min- ing, hoisting and pottery machinery, and spent two years and nine months with them learning the machinist's trade.

In 1887 Mr. Allen came to California and lo- cated in San Diego, following his trade there for a time, and later in Los Angeles and Fres- no. In the latter city he was machinist for the Fresno Canal Company for fifteen months, hav- ing charge of the installation of all of their min- ing machinery for the Providence and Rich- mond mine, which they owned. He also con- structed the cells for the Fresno jail, which was then in course of construction. After the com- pletion of this work he went to San Francisco, where he was employed as machinist by the Central Alaska Company, by R. T. Ward at the Horse Fly mines and by the Sutter Street Rail- way Company, remaining with each about one year. In 1892 he entered the United States lighthouse service, his first position being as- sistant keeper at the Humbolt lighthouse, re- maining at that place until 1894, when he was appointed keeper at Point Hueneme. Under his management this lighthouse has been im- proved and now has a flashlight, as well as be- ing fitted with an electrical telltale appliance that times the machinery and tells if it stops. In adopting this invention of Mr. Allen's, which costs only $16, the government is using it to

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

replace one which cost about $250, and in addi- tion to the saving in cost it is considered a mnuch superior attachment. Among other me- chanical improvements which Mr. Allen has invented and patented are a beet plow, a steam turbine, an ore crusher, an amalgamator, a con- centrator, an improved drive well, improve- ments on driving gears, for automobiles, a wa- ter wheel superior to others in use, a new steel- clad pneumatic automobile tire, and improve- iments on bicycles and automobiles, as well as numberless other smaller inventions. He is al- ways at work on some mechanical contrivance to facilitate the running of labor-saving ma- chinery.

In his home life Mr. Allen is fortunate, his marriage uniting him with Miss Anna H. Fran- cis, a native of San Francisco and the daughter of Capt. Samuel Francis. The latter, who came to California in 1849, was for many years in the lighthouse service and was kceper of the Unit- ed States government supply station at Goat Island at the time of his death. Mr. and Mrs. Allen are the parents of two daughters, May and Melba. Fraternally Mr. Allen affiliates with Hueneme Camp, M. W. A., and has served in the capacity of clerk ever since its organiza- tion five years ago. He is also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge at Oxnard. The devotion of Mr. Allen to his official duties and the mechanical work in which he is so intensely interested does not pre- vent him from being an active participant in matters of public interest and he is an influen- tial citizen of the community in which he re- sides, wherein he is held in the highest respect and esteem.

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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 14

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