USA > California > Merced County > A history of Merced County, California : with a biographical review of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 46
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85
483
HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY
WILLIAM MILTON PHILLIPS
Among those brave and hardy men who came to California in the early fifties mention is here made of William Milton Phillips, worthy pioneer and esteemed citizen of Merced County, who closed his eyes to things on earth in March, 1910. He was born in New- town, Hamilton County, Ohio, July 30, 1829, and ten years later went with the family to Polk County, Iowa, where his father bought a farm near Des Moines. It was the paternal grandfather, James Phillips, who settled in Ohio when that was a frontier state. He had come from Germany and had served in the War of 1812, and he lived to the age of 110 years. His son, also James Phillips, father of W. M., was born in Ohio, eventually going to Montgomery County, Ind., and from there to Paulding County, Ohio, thence in 1839 to Iowa, where he spent his last days. He was fairly well-to-do and raised a family of seven children.
William Milton Phillips acquired a good education for his day and he had the training of the youth brought up to farming pursuits. The old log schoolhouse was fitted with slab benches, hewed flat on one side, and he wrote with a quill pen. Until he started out on his own responsibility he had an uneventful life. In 1851 he went to New Orleans and was employed on Mississippi River boats until the spring of 1852, when he was found a member of an emigrant train bound for the Golden State. He was a fine marksman and owned a fine horse, so he was chosen hunter for the train and he kept it supplied with fresh meat during the entire trip. In his journeyings away from the train he met many Indians with whom he was very friendly, having gleaned the knowledge of how to keep them on friendly terms through his contact with them both in Ohio and Iowa. He arrived in Hang- town in August, 1852. After mining in Eldorado County two years, Mr. Phillips went to a ranch in Contra Costa County, later locating in Lake County, and in 1872 he came to Merced County and took up the ranch that was to be his home for so many years. He raised grain and stock, maintained a dairy, and made every improvement to be seen on his place.
On September 30, 1869, he was united in marriage with Sarah Jane Phillips, born in Ray County, Mo., the daughter of a farmer, William P. Phillips, who crossed the plains in 1852, and engaged in farming and stock-raising in Oregon until removing to Antioch, Cal., in 1865. Later he went to Hollister and still later to, Fresno, where he met a tragic death in 1889, when the Dexter stables were destroyed by fire. He had married Elizabeth Hartman, also a native of Mis- souri, and she died one week after their arrival in Oregon from moun- tain fever contracted en route to the West. Her daughter was a babe
484
HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY
of six months and she was reared and educated in California. She bore her husband seven children: Lenora E., wife of T. L. Baldwin; Florence, who became the wife of C. O. Freeman; Oscar Ephraim; Elmer ; Ivy Eleanor, Mrs. Lockhart; William and Vivian, deceased. Mr. Phillips and his wife were consistent Christians, doing their part to assist in maintaining the standard of morals to a high degree. Politically he was a Republican.
WILLIAM MASON ROBERTS
A very well-known and successful man, one of the pioneers of the town of Los Banos and a rancher of the West Side, where he has been engaged in the blacksmithing business for many years, and also a man who has served in official capacity in both town and county, is William Mason Roberts, who was born in Smith County, Tenn., on April 10, 1866, the son of Oliver W. and Lucy A. (Whitley) Roberts, the former born in Virginia and taken to Tennessee when he was eight years old and there reared and lived his entire life as a planter. On the maternal side the forebears were of English descent. Grand- father Roberts came from Scotland and made settlement in Virginia. Oliver and Lucy Roberts had the following children: Elizabeth, deceased; Wiley, of Tennessee; Tempa, deceased; William Mason ; and Donie, James, Melonee, and Robert S., all in Tennessee; and Inus, of Long Beach, Cal. William M. was educated in the grammar school of his native State, and in 1889, at the age of twenty-three, started out to work for himself, doing odd jobs, blacksmithing chiefly, until 1890, when he came to California and first stopped in Madera County, being employed in various places doing work on ranches, later worked for wages at blacksmithing and running a harvester each season for the large grain farmers in Merced and Madera Counties, continuing some ten or twelve years, finally settling in Los Banos, when the town was first started. He started in the draying business, but sold out after a short time; then, in company with H. C. M. Reuter, he opened a blacksmith shop. When the people were looking for a reliable man for constable of Township No. 3, they selected Mr. Roberts, who was already serving as a deputy sheriff of the county; he was elected and served for sixteen years, up to 1917. His partner carried on the blacksmithing while Mr. Roberts looked after official duties. As he began to be a man of substance he pur- chased fifteen acres just outside the city limits of Los Banos and lived there until 1923, then he purchased the old Charles Aker place of eighty acres five miles from Los Banos and moved there. This ranch is devoted to alfalfa and will come under the new canal.
485
HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY
William M. Roberts was married in Merced, on October 9, 1897, to Miss Drusilla Mills, born in Santa Cruz County, but reared on a ranch near Soledad, Monterey County, the daughter of John Board- man and Louisa Christina (Bickmore) Mills, natives of Maine, among the pioneers who braved the dangers of the water and over- land routes to locate in the West. Mrs. Mills crossed the plains in 1849, and Mr. Mills came about the same time. Mrs. Roberts is a second cousin to the late D. O. Mills, pioneer banker of Sacramento, and she is one in a family of twelve children: William, deceased; Sylvina, of Gonzales; Rose, of Salinas; Oliver, deceased; Clara, of Chico; Drusilla, Mrs. Roberts; Emma, of Corvallis, Ore .; Edgar, deceased; Mary, of San Jose ; George, of Oakland; Phoebe, Mrs. O. E. Phillips, of Los Banos; and Rachael, of Long Beach. Mrs. Rob- erts' father was a carpenter and farmer and died when he was fifty- eight; her mother died at the age of fifty-four. Mr. and Mrs. Roberts have two sons, William Mason, Jr., and Marvin Mason. Politically Mr. Roberts is a Democrat. Fraternally, he is a member of Merced Lodge No. 1240, B. P. O. E .; Los Banos Lodge No. 312, F. & A. M .; Mountain Brow Lodge No. 82, I. O. O. F., of which he is a Past Grand; and he belongs to the Woodmen of the World in Los Banos.
CHARLES SHEFFIELD ROGERS
The descendant of one of California's earliest pioneers, and him- self born here when California history was in the making, Charles S. Rogers has had a most interesting and eventful career. Starting among pioneer surroundings, and continuing through life as a hunts- man, he has viewed the beauties of nature in her most rugged form as few men have had the opportunity to do; from the Big Trees, and mountain heights, to the plains, he has traveled afoot, camping out by some wayside stream and enjoying life to the full, as only a nature- lover can. Born near Linden, in San Joaquin County, June 27, 1863, he is the youngest of two sons born to the late Nathaniel Sheffield and Jennie ( Russum) Rogers, the former a native of New York, and the latter of Pennsylvania. Nathaniel S. Rogers came to California via Cape Horn in 1849, as a gold seeker, and worked that winter on Sullivan Bar, Tuolumne County. He was an expert marksman and spent considerable time as a hunter, bringing in game which he sold to the miners for their meat supply, and receiving in return one dollar per pound for venison. By profession he was a school teacher, and had taught some in the public schools of Michigan in the late forties. At Sonora, Cal., he established himself as a storekeeper, supplying the miners, and had splendid results from this business
486
HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY
venture for several years. Later, he sold out and moved to the San Joaquin Valley, where he entered the grain and stock business, farm- ing on Mormon Slough, near Linden, and there he remained through the fifties and sixties, raising good crops, and selling wheat as high as five cents a pound.
In 1868 this fine old pioneer moved to Merced County and took up a homestead on Bear Creek, one and one-half miles from the present town of Merced, which at that time was not known. The old Rogers home was erected in 1868, just a mile and a half from where the Central Pacific Railway built their station in 1872, and founded Merced. A full and unique life was given to Nathaniel S. Rogers; and he often recalled his experiences in interesting reminiscence to his large circle of friends in his later years. He sent stock to the mountains in 1877 for feed on account of the worst drought in the his- tory of that section and succeeded in saving his herds. Bear and other wild animals were numerous when he first settled on the plains, and his expert marksmanship often stood him in good stead! A well- educated man of fine caliber, he was active in political circles, and he was one of the most active and oldest members of the Odd Fel -- lows, a Past Grand in Merced Lodge, No. 208. He remained quite active past his eightieth year, and his death occurred July 23, 1905, while the wife and mother passed on June 28, 1908, at the old family home, aged sixty-two.
Charles S. Rogers was brought up on the home ranch, and received his education in the McSwain district school, which his father organ- ized and taught for the first two terms. He recalls the building oper- ations and the construction and completion of the railway through Merced, and the locating of the station so near his home. He worked for his parents on the ranch, and at the early age of seven, showed remarkable ability for holding and handling firearms; wild animals and birds of all kinds were plentiful on the plains and along the creeks, and he hunted in his spare time until he was fifteen years old, becoming an expert marksman. His first firearm was a No. 8, muzzle- loading shot gun, which he used to carry and rest on a tripod; then he had an old Kentucky muzzle-loader. As the lighter arms were brought into use he became the proud owner of these, and entered the market hunting business, which he has followed each season for fifty years, shipping his game to the San Francisco hotels and markets, where he found a ready sale for all he could supply. Geese, ducks, rabbits and deer were among his game supplies, and his hunting expeditions have taken him over the rugged mountains on the east and west slopes of the Sierra Nevadas, in Nevada and California, from Modoc County, where he acquired many Indian relics, through the Golden State to Lake Tulare and the rich duck feeding grounds of the San Joaquin. His trips have occupied much of his life, and to
France If. Forrar,
489
HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY
be properly chronicled would mean the filling of many pages. A close student of nature, and the life of the unexplored corners of mountain and swamp regions not often traveled by man, he has a most unusual and very valuable collection of pioneer relics, hunting knives, firearms, ammunition, deer horns, stuffed birds and animals, Indian curios, arrowheads, baskets, beads, etc., which he has gathered and put on display in a specially built room at his home ; it is perhaps the largest display of its kind in the West, and among the pieces he has entrusted to his care are the private hunting weapons of such hunters and well- known pioneers as Joe Heacox, George Kibby, Jack Kennedy, Dr. Joshua Griffith, Ben Jolley, and others, who have handed material, arms, etc., to the care of Mr. Rogers. Two relics of special interest are the old gold scales and old Kentucky rifle of H. Hultz, the former used in early days when gold was the medium of exchange. In addi- tion to his hunting activities, Mr. Rogers is the owner of sixty acres of rich bottom land on Bear Creek, which he farms to grain, and where he makes his home.
His marriage, at the family homestead, united Mr. Rogers with Mary Ivers, born in Merced, the third of six children born to Rich- ard A. Ivers, a venerable pioneer of Merced County, and prominent citizen during its early history. Like her husband, Mrs. Rogers was reared and educated in the McSwain District.
FRANK H. FARRAR
A native of Mississippi, Frank H. Farrar was born at New Pros- pect, Winston County, on May 27, 1848. His father, Rev. William H. Farrar, moved from Winston County to Jackson County in 1858, and assumed the editorship of the Mississippi Baptist, the official organ of the Baptist Church for the State of Mississippi, and con- tinued to edit it until 1862, when he moved to Clinton, that State, where their son Frank entered Mississippi College. He prosecuted his studies in college until he had completed his freshman year, when, on account of General Grant's raid through Mississippi, the family moved back to Winston County. In the year 1866, Frank Farrar en- tered the office of the Macon Beacon, at Macon, Miss., and there learned the printer's trade. In 1869 he came to California and lo- cated in Merced County, and for three years was in partnership with M. D. Wood in ranching operations. Finding that ranching was not suited to his inclination, he went to Snelling and for a few months worked as a printer in the office of the San Joaquin Valley Argus. after which he was employed as a clerk in the leading hotel in Snel- ling. In the spring of 1872 he entered the law office of Hon. P. D. Wigginton, afterwards Congressman from the Sixth California Dis-
490
HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY
trict, as a law student and continued his studies for three years at Snelling and at Merced. In the latter place he was admitted to prac- tice in 1874. Soon after being admitted to the bar, he purchased the Merced Tribune, changed the name of the paper to the Merced Ex- press, and for two years edited and published it as a Democratic organ. He then sold out and entered into a co-partnership with Hon. P. D. Wigginton in the practice of law.
In 1879 Mr. Farrar was elected to the office of district attorney of Merced County, and was reelected in 1883. Four years later he was elected Grand Chancellor of the Knights of Pythias for the State of California, and served for one year. As a lawyer, Mr. Farrar became one of the leaders of his profession in Central Cali- fornia. During his campaign for district attorney he promised that if elected he would have the books of the county officials examined, a thing which had never been done before; this he did, though the job took an expert accountant two years to complete. For a time Fred Ostrander, now a prominent attorney of the Bay Cities, was his law partner. A fluent public speaker and gifted orator, Frank H. Farrar was much in demand at public gatherings. When Grant made a visit to the Yosemite, he had charge of the arrangements, introduced the General at the banquet held at the El Capitan Hotel, and made the occasion a memorable one. A successful and honest man, he gave freely to charity and was a true friend to those in trou- ble; those who came to him for help did not ask in vain. His con- science was always his guide, and his many acts of kindness made him one of the best beloved figures in the public life of Merced County. He was a prominent member of the Presbyterian Church. In fra- ternal circles he was a Knight of Pythias, having served as Grand Chancellor of the Grand Lodge of the State for a year, giving his time to organization work in California, during which his eloquent voice was heard in every principal city in the State. His portrait graces the Grand Chancellor's Lodge, while the Yosemite Lodge, in which he held membership, promptly passed resolutions of con- dolence and respect at the time of his death, on March 22, 1922. During the World War, Judge Farrar served his country in the capa- city of a member of the Legal Advisory Board No. 1, Merced County, his services being highly commended by E. H. Crowder, Provost Marshal General, and Governor W. D. Stephens.
Judge Farrar was a consistent advocate of temperance. He fought the evils of the saloon through his advocacy of high license in the early days, and stanchly supported war-time prohibition and the Eighteenth Amendment during the latter years of his life. He was very active in having the county seat removed from Snelling to Mer- ced, and circulated the first petition for its removal.
491
HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY
Brilliant as was the public career of Judge Farrar, his home life was no less felicitous. At the home of the bride's parents near Le Grand, Merced County, he was united in marriage on May 27, 1873, to Miss Udola Peck, born in Mariposa County, a member of an his- toric pioneer family, being a daughter of Charles L. and Lucy Jane (Dickenson) Peck, and granddaughter of Gallant Duncan Dickenson, first alcalde of Stockton, Cal., who had outfitted at Independence. Mo., in the spring of 1846, for the trip across the plains to California. Mr. Dickenson had a number of wagons of his own and was chosen captain of the train, which at one time traveled with the train con- taining the Donner party. Upon reaching the divide in Utah, a dis- agreement arose as to the route to be taken. Captain Dickenson there promptly decided to take a different route, and with his ten wagons arrived safely in the San Joaquin Valley and thus escaped the fate of the Donners. Mrs. Farrar's mother, after the death of Mr. Peck, married N. B. Stoneroad and lived on a farm near Le Grand for nearly forty years. She was a woman of great beauty, force of char- acter, and versatility. In the St. Louis Globe Democrat of July 12, 1914, is an article based upon an interview with Mrs. Stoneroad, from which we glean these facts of historic interest.
"I was born near Jackson, Mo.," she says. "My father, Gal- lant Duncan Dickenson, was a roamer. He was reared in Virginia, where he was left an orphan while in his teens, and as soon as he was able to shift for himself, returned to Murfreesboro, Tenn., where he was born; and there he married Isabella McCreary, also born in Murfreesboro. But he chafed under the confines of the South in those days, and was always looking towards the West in contemplation of the better opportunities to be found there. He persuaded my mother to journey to northwest Missouri, settled at Independnce, but re- mained only a few years. It was the creative period of the West, and tales of the glorious country beyond the mountains influenced ambiti- ous young men to seek their fortunes on the shores of the Pacific. He joined a great caravansary that made Independence its rendez- vous. We set out on the morning of May 6, 1846, with more than forty wagons of immigrants and provisions. I recall the day so well ; the tearful adieus of our friends and neighbors and the sad look that my mother cast behind. It was indeed like putting out to sea in an open boat without chart or compass.
"It was October 20 before we reached our promised land; and when we finally pulled up at Johnson's ranch at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, we had been three days without food, except what the gun brought down and what roots and food we found in the woods. The winter of 1846 we spent near what is now the city of Santa Clara. San Jose was already established, and it became our
492
HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY
headquarters. My father became connected with several cities in California. He built the first brick house in Monterey, which for a long time was a show place and is still standing. Moving to Stock- ton, my father erected the first hotel in that place with material shipped around the Horn. He also built and gave the Methodist congregation its first church building, and became the alcalde of Stockton. My sister was the second white girl to be married in Stockton. Her name was Margaret Elizabeth Dickenson, and she was married in 1849 to Amos Giles Lawry. My marriage to Charles S. Peck, in 1850, was the third in the immigrant population. My sister's daughter was born in 1850, and she claims the distinction of being the first child of Anglo-Saxon parents born there. She is now Mrs. Hill, of Salinas."
Charles S. Peck was born and educated in Virginia and came to California via Cape Horn in the early fifties. Mr. and Mrs. Peck became the parents of four children, Mrs. Farrar being the second in order of birth and a twin sister of Mrs. Tallula Harris of San Francisco. They were the first white twin girls born in the State. She was educated at Mills Seminary and is the mother of two living sons, George W. and William D., both holding honorable discharges from service in the World War. Mrs. Farrar is a much-loved per- son. She is still living at the Farrar residence at No. 451 Twenty- second Street, Merced, which as a bride she helped her husband to build in 1873, and has always made it a true home, a center of social activity and domestic felicity ever radiating a broad and wholesome hospitality.
CASPAR H. DETLEFSEN
A successful rancher and dairyman is found in the person of Caspar H. Detlefsen, a native son of California, born in the Pajaro Valley, Santa Cruz County, January 8, 1872. His parents were Andrew and Sena Detlefsen, natives of Denmark, who sought the more prosperous country of America in which to succeed in the battle of life. Andrew Detlefsen came to California in the sixties and engaged in ranching in Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties. He died in 1921, aged seventy-seven years, nine months and nine days; his good wife died when she was sixty-nine. They had seven children: Nis; Annie, Mrs. W. H. Rhodes; Caspar H .; James ; Andrew ; Elsie, Mrs. Ben Cruse; and Lillie, Mrs. George Rohrback.
The third in order of birth in his parents family of children, Caspar was educated in the schools of Santa Cruz County and from boyhood was brought up to work on the home farm. In 1889 he came to the West Side in Merced County and was employed on the
493
HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY
Sturgeon ranch, after which he began for himself by purchasing twenty acres of the Crittenden place, raising alfalfa. The ranch was under the San Joaquin-Kings River ditch ; he sold this place in 1923.
In 1907, in Oakland, Cal., Mr. Detlefsen was married to May L. Sparks, born on the old Sparks ranch near Newman, the daughter of J. S. Sparks, of whom mention is made on another page of this his- tory. After their marriage the young folks rented one section of the Sparks ranch and farmed to grain. In 1917 Mr. Detlefsen purchased 280 acres, part of the Eachus ranch, and farmed successfully. He now leases 200 acres of his land and on the balance conducts a dairy of about thirty head of cows. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, and both himself and wife belong to the Pythian Sisters at Newman. Politically he is a Democrat. In all that he has under- taken, Mr. Detlefsen has been fairly successful and he takes a helpful interest in all matters of public import.
DANIEL HALTERMAN
The oldest permanent settler in point of residence in the Atwater district between Merced and the Merced River and between the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific railroads is Daniel Halterman, residing on his ranch on the Atwater-Winton highway between the two towns. The sixth child in a family of twelve children, he was born a Native Son in Pope Valley, Napa County, on October 30, 1859. His father, Joseph Halterman, was a native of Ohio, in which state he was united in marriage with Abigail Barnett, likewise born in the Buckeye State. They came across the plains to California with ox-teams in 1852 and settled in Pope Valley, Napa County, where Mr. Halterman followed ranching. In 1873 the family moved to Merced County and for a year lived on the G. H. Fancher ranch, after which they located on the Hamlin ranch near Snelling. Besides carrying on farming pursuits, Joseph Halterman did teaming, hauling goods and produce to the mountain towns. It was while engaged in the latter occupation that he was killed when his team ran away and he died on November 22, 1877, at the Frank Lewis ranch. In 1878 Mrs. Halterman and her family moved to Hopeton and she managed the ranching affairs for the next three years; at that time the older sons assumed the care of the family and the mother thereafter made her home with her children. She died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. L. L. Short, in Napa County, when she was eighty-three years old.
Daniel Halterman attended the public schools in the Plainsburg and Eden districts in Merced County. Having been reared on a ranch it was but natural that he should continue that as his life work and
494
HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY
he assisted on the home place until 1880. From 1882 to 1884 he leased the Toal farm; from 1886 to 1888 he was farming part of the George H. Fancher ranch at Tuttle to grain. In 1891 he came to the Reynolds ranch, a part of the J. W. Mitchell holdings, and with J. M. Bell leased 2200 acres and farmed to grain. In 1904 he bought fifteen acres in the Gertrude Colony and soon established his home here. In the meantime he started a vineyard and orchard, and while these were maturing he did considerable contract team work during the building of the Yosemite Valley Railway to a point nine miles from El Portal, since which time he has given his time to the con- duct of his place and has brought it to a high state of productive- ness. He has been active in the community life of Atwater.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.