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 16

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

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By his marriage in Yuma, Ariz., in July, 1898, Mr. Richardville was united with Maggie Suey, a native of California, and they have one child, Myrtle May. Fraternally Mr. Rich- ardville is a member of Redlands Lodge No. 343, I. O. O. F., and of Redlands Lodge No. 583, B. P. O. E. Politically he is a Republi- can. His home ranch comprises seven hun- dred acres of land which is devoted to the rais- ing of barley and the indications are that this (1906) year's crop will yield ten sacks per acre. Besides owning all of the machinery necessary to operate the ranch he also has fourteen head of stock horses.

CORNELIUS R. SHORT. Prominent among the pioneer ranchers of Southern Cali- fornia is Cornelius Short, now a resident of Los Angeles county and engaged in ranching near Norwalk. He has witnessed the develop- ment of the state and participated in its up- building, enduring the hardships and priva- tions incident to pioneer life and now in the evening of his days he is privileged to enjoy the phenomenal progress of the western com- monwealth. His boyhood home was on the Atlantic coast, his birth having occurred De-

cember 5, 1830, in Lewiston, Delaware. His parents, Stanley B. and Eliza (Clifton) Short, were natives respectively of Baltimore, Md., and Lewiston, Del., the maternal grandfather being a patriot in the war of 1812. The par- ents were farmers throughout their entire lives, removing to Missouri, where the mother died at the age of fifty-five years, and to Ore- gon in 1864, where the father died at seventy- eight. One of their sons served in the Mexican war under General Scott and was advanced to the rank of captain; he died about two years after the war. The other three children are still surviving, a daughter living in Oregon at the age of seventy-eight, a son in Washington at eighty-four, and Cornelius R. in California nearly seventy-seven.

Cornelius R. Short received his education in the schools of Delaware county, Ohio, where the parents located in his childhood, and there he remained until nearly fifteen, when, in 1845, his parents removed to Missouri. He com- pleted his education in that state, after which he learned the trade of brick mason and worked at it for a time, finally engaging with Russell, Majors and Waddell, who were em- ployed by the government in the delivery of freight to all frontier forts as far as Salt Lake City. In 1858 Mr. Short came as far west as Salt Lake City and there spent the winter at Camp Floyd, returning then to Missouri and the following year crossing the plains to Placerville, Cal. From there he went on to Oregon, arriving January 6, 1860, and became occupied in furnishing miners' supplies, and also conducted some personal mining enter- prises, and engaged in the butcher business. In 1869 he returned to California and near the present site of Santa Ana, Orange county, en- gaged in ranching and also had charge of a lumber yard. Later he engaged in the stock business and for seven years shipped stock from Arizona to Los Angeles; finally selling out he came to his present place as manager of a ranch of one hundred and five acres of the Glassell estate, thirty-five acres being in bear- ing fruit, the balance in grain land. He has lived on this ranch for nineteen years and has made it a profitable investment for its owner. In 1875 Mr. Short married Floretta Houghton, a native of Texas, and their home is located at No. 528 South Eastlake avenue, Los Angeles, where he owns property. They have two chil- dren, Edna, wife of Fred Davis, of New York City; and Claude, who married Cora Hath- away, of Arizona. Mr. Short is identified fra- ternally with the Odd Fellows, and is a mem- ber of the Pioneer Society of Los Angeles county ; in political affiliations he is a stanch

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adherent of Democratic principles and while a resident of Oregon was chosen by his party to the office of sheriff of Josephine county, hav- ing previously served for two terms as deputy sheriff.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN MAXSON. An inheritance of sterling traits of character, have made the members of the Maxson family able to take a place among the representative citizens of whatever section they have made their home. New England ancestry gave to their de- scendants name and character, later members locating in New York, where in Allegheny county, Abel Maxson, a native of Rhode IsI- and, engaged as a farmer. Following the ex- ample of his Revolutionary sires he served in the war of 1812, participating in several im- portant engagements, among them Sacket's Harbor. Some time after the close of the war he removed to Dane county, Wis., where he made his home until his death, which oc- curred in his eightieth year. He married Abigail Lull, a native of New York, in which state her death occurred. They had six sons, namely : Mathew, a miner, located in El Mon- te, and the only son living; Schuyler and Ed- mund, who were killed during service in a New York regiment during the Civil war; William, who served as captain in a New York regiment in the Civil war; George, who served as major in a Georgia regiment, in the Confederate army; and Benjamin Franklin, the father of the subject of this review.

Benjamin F. Maxson, Sr., also served in the Civil war, enlisting in Company K, Thir- teenth Wisconsin Infantry, and participated in many important engagements, principally in the middle west. His hearing was serious- ly impaired at the battle of Nashville by the concussion of a shell, which injury in after years resulted in deafness and caused his death; while crossing the Southern Pacific tracks at Shorb he failed to hear the oncom- ing train and was struck and killed in May, 1899. After the war he remained in Wiscon- sin until 1867, when he came to Colusa coun- ty, Cal., and engaged in farming for about eight years. Coming to Southern California in 1875 he located in Tustin and purchased a ranch, which he improved with an orange, lemon and walnut grove. In 1889, having sold his Tustin ranch, he came to El Monte, where with P. F. Cogswell he purchased a tract of land and set out one of the first wal- nut groves in the Mountain View district. He improved about two hundred acres of land, and owned at the time of his death about one hundred and seventy acres, which

was considered one of the best improved prop- erties in this section. He was not only active in his personal affairs, but maintained a cred- itable interest in all matters of public import, being particularly associated with education- al and religious work, and was instrumental in the building of schools and churches. He was a liberal and public-spirited man in ev- ery avenue of life and one who could always be counted upon to uphold public honor, either personally or by his vote. He was a Republican politically, while in religion he belonged to the Presbyterian Church. He had been associated for many years with the Grand Army of the Republic. His wife, for- merly Olive Merwin, was born near Genesee Falls, N. Y., a daughter of James Merwin, a farmer, who also removed to Wisconsin. Her mother was a Miss Babcock, the lineage of whose family can be traced back to John Al- den, of Pilgrim fame. Mrs. Maxson died in February, 1900, leaving a family of six chil- dren, of whom five are now living: Myra, wife of A. C. Drake. of El Monte: Annie, wife of Thomas R. McMichael, of El Monte; Benjamin Franklin Jr., of this review; Fay, Mrs. Neely, of Manila, Philippine Islands ; and Olive, of El Monte.

Born in Tustin, Orange county, Cal., May 15, 1879, Benjamin Franklin Maxson, Jr., was reared on the paternal farm and educated in the public schools in youth: entering Pomona College, which course was interrupted by the death of his father. Returning home he gave his attention to the management of the home ranch, conducting its interests for two years, when he located in a twenty-acre tract and engaged in the management of a walnut grove. In 1906 he sold out, and in the mean- time, having purchased other property which he had set out in walnuts and upon which in 1905 he had installed a pumping plant for its irrigation, he immediately located upon this ranch and began the raising of walnuts and alfalfa. This ranch of forty acres is lo- cated in the Bassett district and is well im- `proved, 1907 witnessing the erection of a handsome and comfortable residence.

In El Monte Mr. Maxson was united in marriage with Miss Mary Alexander, a native of this place, and born of their union are the following children: Frances, Marjorie, Ben- jamin Franklin, Jr., Stanley and Alice. Mr. Maxson supports the Baptist Church in its charities, his wife being a member of that de- nomination. Mr. Maxson is a Republican in his political convictions. He belongs to the Mountain View Walnut Growers' Associa- tion and seeks to advance the interests of the section in which he makes his home. Mrs.

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

Maxson is the daughter of pioneer parents, her father, John Henry Alexander, a native of the Pickett district, of South Carolina, having come to California when twenty years old, crossing the plains with ox-team and on his arrival engaging in the mines of the state. He became foreman of a mine in Drytown, Ama- dor county, and later engaged in mining in Calaveras county. Disposing of his interests in 1880, he came to El Monte, where he made his home until his death, which occurred in 1882, at the age of fifty-three years. He was married in Drytown, Cal., in 1863, to Miss Marie Publetis, a native of Chili, whose fath- er, Jose, was born in that country, of Spanish ancestry. She came to San Francisco with an aunt in 1849, then a city of tents, and after the death of her relative at Spanish Flat she made her own way in the world. She came to El Monte with her husband and children in 1880, and two years later was left a widow with seven children, whom she reared with all the advantages children could have, and con- tinued to improve and add to the value of her five acres of walnuts. She has six children living, namely: John H., of Nebraska; Al- bert A., in Nevada; Andrew J., a carpenter of El Monte; James S., an engineer of Bassett ; Rosa, Mrs. Reynolds, of Puente ; and Mary J., wife of B. F. Maxson. Mrs. Alexander still survives and is prominent socially in El Monte, supporting the interests of the Baptist Church, to which she belongs.

MRS. HELEN B. GRISWOLD. The pos- sessor of a comfortable home situated in Twin Oaks valley seven miles northwest of Escondido, San Diego county, Mrs. Griswold enjoys in the afternoon of her life the pleasures afforded by an equable climate and an attractive environ- ment. Though far removed from the land of her birth and the home of her childhood, she is happily not remote from kindred, but has the companionship of a sister, Mrs. Janet Craig, who resides with her, also of two sisters, Mrs. Jane O'Brien and Mrs. Agnes Andrews, who reside only one mile distant. The four sisters are well known throughout the valley and have won the friendship of their large circle of acquaintances in the county.

Of English birth and Scotch lineage, they are the daughters of David Mccutcheon, who was born at Ayr, Scotland, May 7, 1809, and by occupation followed mercantile pursuits. While still a single man he removed to England and set- tled at Dudley, Worcestershire, and there, in. St. Thomas' Church, March 19, 1832, he was united in marriage with Jane Little, who was born in Scotland June 3, 1809. Ten children

were born of their union, namely: Anthony, who was born in 1834 and died at Davenport, Iowa, at the age of eighteen years; Margaret, who was born in 1836 and died in England at three years of age; Janet, Mrs. Craig, who was born in 1837; David, born in 1839, deceased in 1840 in Eng- land; Jane, Mrs. O'Brien, who was born in 1840; Agnes, Mrs. Andrews, born in 1842; Helen B., Mrs. Griswold, born in 1844; William, who was born in 1846 and in 1862 enlisted in the Twen- tieth Iowa Infantry, marched to the front with the regiment, was taken ill at Mobile and there died; Mary, who was born in 1848 and died in Davenport, Iowa; and Sarah, who was the only member of the family born in the United States, a native of Davenport, Iowa, and there deceased in infancy.

It was during the year 1850 that the family left England to seek a home in the United States, setting sail on the ship Gypsy, from which they debarked at New Orleans. Thence they went up the Mississippi river on the Josiah Lawrence to St. Louis, and on the Archer to Davenport. Misfortune soon befell them. The father was taken ill with cholera and died on the 24th of May. His body was buried at Villa Vista Land- ing and the widow and children proceeded to Davenport, Iowa. In a few more years another bereavement came upon the children, when their mother was taken from them by death, in 1854, at the age of forty-five years. When the only surviving brother died during his service in the Union army, the sisters were left as the sole representatives of the once numerous family. Of the sisters Helen B. became the wife of Cornelius Griswold, their marriage being sol- emnized in Jamestown, S. Dak., whence they proceeded to Mr. Griswold's home at Boulder, Mont., and there he died in April, 1887, at the age of forty-one years. After a brief sojourn in Davenport, Iowa, Mrs. Griswold went to St. Paul, Minn., and there made her home for a number of years. About 1894 she came to Cali- fornia and purchased ten acres two miles south of Carlsbad, San Diego county, erecting thereon a commodious structure which she utilized as a hotel. For four years she lived at that place and it is still in her possession. Returning to Iowa she visited in Davenport for a year and then came back to the coast. After a year she bought thirteen acres seven miles northwest of Escondido and built a substantial residence with modern appointments, where since she has made her home.

Mrs. Craig, who for some years has been with Mrs. Griswold, was married in Davenport, Iowa, in 1861, to William T. Craig, and they resided in Waterloo until his death, in April of 1881, at the age of forty-seven years. Three children blessed their union, namely : Ella M., wife of A.

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

L. Gartside, member of the sash and door manu- facturing firm of Curtis, Gartside & Co., of Oklahoma City, Okla .; Edward Challen, who is employed as draftsman with Curtis, Gartside & Co .; and Winnifred M., wife of John A. Bev- ington, principal of the schools of Santa Fe Springs, Cal. Fraternally Mr. Craig was identi- fied with the Masonic Order. In religious views Mrs. Craig upholds the doctrines of the Baptist denomination and Mrs. Griswold also is in sym- pathy with the teachings of that church.

The next to the eldest of the four sisters is Jane, who in October, 1898, married Capt. Will- iam Thomas O'Brien, a native of Rockland, Me., and for thirty years a captain on the high seas. After their marriage they removed to his ranch in Twin Oaks valley, San Diego county, and there he died August 23, 1904, at the age of sixty-five years. The third of the sisters, Agnes, was married at Wapello, Iowa, in 1868 to Ira E. Andrews, who was born in Connecticut, served in the Civil war, and engaged in business for a time at Davenport, but subsequently at Newton, Iowa, where he died in 1886, at the age of forty years. Three children were born of their union. The sons, Ira G. and Warren, are engaged in the grain business in St. Paul, Minn., and the daughter, Lulu, makes her home with them in that city. In religious connections Mrs. Andrews holds membership with the Christian Church, but Mrs. O'Brien, like the other sisters, favors Baptist doctrines. Fraternally Captain O'Brien was a stanch believer in the principles of Masonry and long affiliated with that order. The origin of the O'Brien family in America has in its his- tory something of the element of romance. The captain's great-grandfather, while in England, was taken on board a man-of-war and forced to enter that country's service. Eagerly he awaited a chance to escape and such an opportunity came when the ship was off the coast of Maine, when he swam on the shore and sought a refuge among the Indian tribes then frequenting that coast. To him belonged the distinction of being the first white school-master on the shores of Maine and his descendants long lived and flourished in that state where he had become a settler unexpectedly to himself.

HANS ANDREAS JOHNSON. The presi- dent of the Klamath Falls Land and Live Stock Company, who until recently also was proprietor of the Jolinson Packing Company of San Diego, is of Scandinavian birth and ancestry, and was born in the village of Honefossen, twenty-eight miles from Christiania. His parents, Gilbert and Bertha (Juul) Johnson, natives of the same local- ity, owned and occupied an improved farm named Ostmoen, meaning "Eastern" or "Clearing in

the woods." The mother was the daughter of parents who came from Drammen and who were of old Norwegian families, allied with the Luth- eran denomination from the epoch immediately following the Reformation. When somewhat beyond middle life she came to the United States and later died in Minnesota. All of her four children have established homes in the new world. Hans Andreas, who was second among the four, was born June 26, 1845, and received a fair education in his native tongue. During the spring of 1861 he came to America and set- tled at Winona, Minn., but soon removed to Chicago.

Enlisting in the Union army in the fall of 1862 Mr. Johnson was assigned to the One Hun- dred and Thirty-second Illinois Infantry, but on account of illness did not join his regiment. On his recovery he was placed on detached service as wagonmaster under General Steadman, with whom he served in Alabama, Georgia and Ten- nessee. At the expiration of his time, April 2, 1865, he was honorably discharged from the army. Meanwhile his mother had settled in Allamakee county, Iowa, and there he joined the family, soon after which he embarked in the grain business at Lansing, same county, making shipments from there by river. In addition he owned warehouses and business interests in De- Soto, Wis., and Decorah, Iowa. During 1871 he became interested in the hotel business at Mankato, Minn., but the following year he re- moved to Sioux Rapids, Iowa, and erected the first store building and opened the first store in that town, continuing in the place for some years,

During the spring of 1877 Mr. Johnson re- moved to the Black Hills and bought a ranch on the Box Elder, eighteen miles from Dcad- wood, where he had a large range for his stock. Later he established a second ranch near Hot Springs, S. Dak., and the Diamond J Cattle Com- pany, of which he was the owner, became known throughout the entire northwestern country, where his brands of J within a diamond, and two half circles, together with his horse brand of HA connected, were to be seen on many of the finest cattle and horses of the territory. On selling ont his cattle and ranches in 1899, he canie to San Diego, where he first purchased an interest in the Mixon Packing Company and eventually bought the entire stock of the com- pany, whereupon he changed the title to the Johnson Packing Company. Besides engaging in the wholesale and retail grocery business he made a specialty of manufacturing and packing ·pickles, ketchup, Worcester sauce, etc., all of which bore the Diamond J label. On account of his health he closed out the business in the spring of 1906, since which time he has given his at-

Charles a inestgate

Mary J. Westgate

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

tention to the development of the Klamath Falls Land and Live Stock Company, recently started in the vicinity of Kalamath Falls, Ore. The company is incorporated under the laws of the State of California with a capital stock of $200,- 000, three-fourths of which amount is now ( 1906) in the treasury, and the remainder on sale at fifty cents a share, par value $1 per share, fully paid and non-assessable. The land owned by the company is within the government irrigation project, for which $4,500,000 has been appro- priated; it is also within a short distance of a projected railroad, which will be the main line of the Southern Pacific Railway Company between San Francisco and Portland.

The first wife of Mr. Johnson was Miss Mary Hanson, who was born in Norway and died at Sioux Rapids, Iowa, leaving three children, namely : George, living in Wyoming; Mrs. Clara Austed, of Buford, N. Dak., and Mrs. Hattie Revendal, who lives near Deadwood, S. Dak. In Fayette county, Iowa, Mr. Johnson was united in marriage with Miss Carrie Clement, who was born in Norway. Two children were born of their union. The daughter, Mrs. Gina Lowman, lives in San Diego. The son, Carbonate O., is now secretary of the Klamath Falls Land and Live Stock Company and secretary and treas- urer of the Native Gem Mining Company. Mr. Johnson belongs to the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, in politics votes with the Republican party, fraternally was made a Mason in Storm Lake Lodge No. 309, A. F. & A. M., at Storm Lake, Iowa, and on the organization of the Scandinavian Society of San Diego became one of its charter members, later holding the office of vice-president for a time.

CHARLES A. WESTGATE. Prominent among the venerable and highly respected resi- dents of Long Beach is Charles A. Westgate, a man of sterling worth and character, who, though having outlived the allotted span of man's life, bears with grace and dignity his burden of years. Thrown upon his own resources in boyhood, he labored untiringly, and by dint of perseverance, self-reliance and thrift won success in his under- takings, and now, living retired from active pur- suits, is enjoying in comfort and leisure the visi- ble fruits of his many years of toil. A son of Levi Westgate, he was born April 10, 1824, in Chenango county, N. Y., coming from New Eng- land ancestry.

A native of New York state, Levi Westgate spent his early years there, following the shoe- maker's trade. In 1847 he removed to Kendall county, Ill., locating in Little Rock township, where he resided until his death, August 30, 1857, aged sixty-five years. While young he served

as a soldier in the war of 1812, participating in several engagements. He married Hannah B. Hall, who was born in Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, and died in Plano, Little Rock township, Ill., August 1, 1862 aged sixty-five years. She was descended from a family of prominence in colonial days, having been a great-granddaughter of Charles Bunker, who owned the hill in Charles- .town, Mass., on which the battle of Bunker Hill was fought, and who was killed in that memor- able engagement.

At the age of nine years Charles A. Westgate was bound out, and thereafter received such an education as he could obtain in the winter terms of the district school. Beginning for himself when eighteen years old, he worked by the month for a number of years. In 1845 he migrated to Illi- nois, locating in Kendall county, where he rented land and for many years was prosperously em- ployed as a tiller of the soil. August 8, 1862, he enlisted in Company F, One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Illinois Infantry, under com- mand of Capt. Charles Schriver, and served until the close of the war. He took part in many im- portant engagements, including among others the engagements at Yazoo, Arkansas Post, the siege of Vicksburg, Missionary Ridge and Atlanta, and marched with Sherman to the Sea, driving a six-mule team from Atlanta to Washington, D. C., where, on June II, 1865, he took part in the Grand Review.

After receiving his discharge Mr. Westgate returned to Kendall county, Ill., remaining there until 1867, when he located in Will county and started a nursery, which he conducted for about a quarter of a century, meeting with good suc- cess in that industry. He was also prominently identified with the agricultural advancement of that part of the state, more especially with that branch relating to the breeding of stock, be- coming a pioneer raiser of registered Hereford cattle, and one of the organizers of the American Hereford Breeders' Association, of which he is still a stockholder. Disposing of his farm and stock in 1890, he came to California on account of ill health, locating at Orange in December of that year. Purchasing a fruit ranch, he operated it for five years, when he sold out. Coming to Long Beach in 1896 he invested in city property and also bought land northeast of town, buying a farm of one hundred and sixty acres which he sold in July, 1904, He then bought the house and lot where he now resides, and is living re- tired from the activities of business. While liv- ing in Illinois he was very prominent in public affairs, both in Kendall and Will counties, in the former helping to organize the town of Plano, and in the latter the town of Peotone, serving for a while as trustee of each place, and for six years was a member of the local school board.

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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 16

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