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 66
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served under Fremont. Asa Wallace Finley became a farmer and raised wheat two miles south of Santa Clara. Capt. William Camp- bell, together with Asa Wallace Finley, built the first sawmill in Santa Clara County. It was built near what is now Saratoga, back in the mountains, and was operated by them. They manufactured fir and redwood lumber, which at that time was worth $300 per thousand. Capt. William Campbell then built the first American store building in San Jose and was San Jose's first American merchant. There the Finley children grew up. The parents had seven children, of whom our subject is the second, and the youngest born in Missouri. The mother died in Kern County, when forty-five years of age. The father married a second time, to Miss Jane Steele, who also died, leaving one child. He was married a third time in Missouri to Mrs. Bessie Loper. He died at Stevinson on February 4, 1910, and was the first person buried in the Stevinson Cemetery.
Asa William Finley was educated in the early public schools of Santa Clara and San Jose and grew up on his father's farm. He was married the first time in Watsonville, Cal., in 1866, to Miss Frances Whisman, born in California. The Whismans and Moodys were members of the Campbell train crossing the plains. She died within three years after the marriage, leaving no children. He was married a second time at Hollister, San Benito County, on October 9, 1872, to Miss Elmira Hastings, a daughter of John Hastings, who died in Missouri. Elmira Hastings came out to California in 1871 with her mother and stepfather and settled that year at Hollister. By this union there were seven children. The first two children, Rufus and Charles, both died in infancy. The others are: Lelia, the wife of G. H. Blount, of Stevinson; Edgar, who died at the age of twenty- three years; LeRoy, who married Mrs. Carrie (Eular) Pascoe, and is employed by the Standard Oil Company at Richmond; Ella, the wife of William James of Kernville, Kern County, an extensive stock- man; and Nannie L., who passed away at the age of ten years. The wife and mother died on July 30, 1915.
Mr. Finley was engaged in farming and stock-raising for the greater part of his life. He bought twenty acres in the Stevinson Colony in 1907, and in 1912 he traded his land for the Hotel Stevin- son property. This property he sold to his daughter, Mrs. G. H. Blount, in May, 1925, and she is now conducting the hotel. Mr. Finley is still in the real estate business, having been a licensed realtor for the past five years, and is considered an expert on land values. He has been a consistent and lifelong Democrat and is one of the best-preserved men of his years in California. He helped to organize and build the Christian Church at Stevinson, and was called the "father of the Christian Church in Stevinson."
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ROY P. THORPE
A man who is closely identified with the business life of Merced, Cal., is Roy P. Thorpe, the well-known fire insurance broker, who since 1914 has been county sealer of weights and measures in Mer- ced County. He was born on his father's farm in Ross County, near Washington Court House, Ohio, on January 15, 1882, a son of Daniel and Hannah (Robinson) Thorpe. When our subject was six years old, the family removed to Kansas, where the father engaged in farming; he passed away when Roy was a lad of nine years.
Roy P. Thorpe received a grammar and high school education in the schools of Kansas, taking his high school course at Garden City. He came to California in 1902 and spent two years at Stanford Uni- versity; then he was engaged in the automobile business in Palo Alto until 1908, when he sold out and removed to Merced, where he en- tered the employ of the Cooperative Land & Trust Company, remain- ing with them until 1910. That year, in partnership with Walter Casad, he established a real estate and insurance business, the partner- ship continuing until 1912, when he became a partner of G. A. Howell. Since 1913 Mr. Thorpe has successfully operated the business alone. Mr. Thorpe also owns and operates a ranch adjacent to Merced.
The marriage of Mr. Thorpe united him with Miss Isabel Bird, a native daughter of California, daughter of Isaac Bird, now living retired in Palo Alto. Mr. and Mrs. Thorpe have one son, Harold. Fraternally, Mr. Thorpe is a Mason and an Elk, being a past exalted ruler of the Lodge in Merced. In politics he adheres to the principles of the Republican party.
H. R. LOWELL
A man of broad years of experience who is unusually fitted for his present position in the business world is H. R. Lowell, the capable and efficient general manager of the Yosemite Lumber Company, of Merced Falls. A native son, he was born at Sacramento, on Septem- ber 8, 1876, the youngest of two children, and the only son of R. C. Lowell, a native of Portland, Maine. R. C. Lowell came with his parents across the plains in 1852 with a large train of covered wag- ons, and his father located in Sacramento, where he founded a tan- nery on Front Street and engaged in the hide and leather business for many years. He was succeeded by his son, R. C., the father of our subject, who married Miss Nettie Simpson. She was born in Marys- ville, the daughter of the late John Simpson, a Forty-niner, who built the first toll bridge over the Yuba River on the Grass Valley road, where formerly he owned and operated a ferry boat. R. C. Lowell
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was a prominent Mason, and died in Arizona in 1903, survived by his widow and children. His home was later located at N, O and Eighteenth Streets, the old home being pulled down for business buildings, since it was in the heart of Sacramento. The tannery busi- ness founded by his father in the fifties is still in existence, a son-in- law, W. B. Sumner, having become the worthy successor. He is the present head of W. B. Sumner & Company, located at Third and Townsend Streets, San Francisco.
After taking advantage of the educational opportunities offered in the public schools of Sacramento, H. R. Lowell entered the employ of his uncle, W. B. Sumner, at Benicia, where for four years he was an apprentice to the tannery trade. The following two years he was foreman in the tanning department, and was then sent to the forests of Mendocino County in search of a supply of tan-bark. He never returned to the tannery, for after his experience in the woods he be- came enthused over the prospects of becoming a logger, and, in addi. tion to his newly-awakened ambitions, impaired health, due to the confining work in the tannery, made it imperative to give up his trade. Consequently he entered the employ of the C. N. W. Lum- ber Company, Ed. Middleton being the superintendent, and went into the woods and logging camp for one season. In 1900 he went to Scotia in the dense redwood forests, working as a logger; and then he was employed for three years by the California Timber Com- pany as foreman at Boulder Creek, Santa Cruz County. He was given the position of logger superintendent for the McCloud Lum- ber Company at Siskiyou, and for the following six years had charge of the camps, employing as many as 600 men. The next six years he officiated as general superintendent of the Standard Lumber Com- pany mills in Tuolumne County, and after three years as woods superintendent for the Yosemite Lumber Company he was made gen- eral manager of the company, taking up the responsibility of office in June, 1922, and has since resided at Merced Falls. Mr. Lowell is a pioneer in modern methods of lumbering, having gone forward steadily since his twenty-fifth year, when he decided to make lumbering his business. He installed the initial incline railway for the handling of logs in the mountains from timber to mill, a new departure in the logging business which is destined to become the future method of the lumber trade in many of the present inaccessible places where virgin timber stands.
The company which Mr. Lowell serves is worthy of mention. The Yosemite Lumber Company, Inc., was founded in 1910, and opened the same year with a two-band mill and resaw at Merced with two ten-hour shifts and a capacity of 300,000 feet of lumber per day. Since that time the business has prospered, and more especially
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since Mr. Lowell was put in complete charge. Many improvements have followed, with the reinstallation of manufacturing machinery, the enlargement of all departments, and the employment of 1000 men. The general manager has a corps of assistants made up of able and experienced men, including a superintendent of mill and shipping, who also acts as assistant manager, one woods superintend- ent, three woods foremen, and so on, down to the track walker on their seventy-five-mile railway with two inclines. Thus, cooperation among the heads of all departments has been one of the most valu- able assets with which the subject has built up this organization. The company, besides their own lands, buy timber from the federal government to the extent of eighty per cent of the standing timber, leaving twenty per cent of seed-bearing trees for reforestation. The ground cut over is cleaned up and left in as good condition as possible. Sugar pine, white pine, white and red fir and cedar are the varieties cut, and these timbers are found in the mountains at an elevation of from 4500 to 7000 feet, in Mariposa and Tuolumne Counties. This mill owns standing timber conservatively estimated to be in excess of the amount of two billion feet, or, in other words, a supply of logs to run the mill over four decades. This is more timber than the required amount they cut, but the development of the modern sawmill and lumber yard is steadily advancing. Among the improve- ments in the sawmill will be the working of the carriages by elec- tricity, making a saving of $1000 per month in hauling the saws. It is also planned to install new furnaces that will develop 1500 horse- power, using slabs for fuel. The present dry yards and kilns cover forty acres on the north side of the town of Merced Falls, which the company own, the 120 acres embracing the townsite. Six new kilns or dry houses will be built and a shed eighty feet wide and 800 feet long will be used for the storing of dry lumber. The storage capacity of the present plant is 40,000,000 feet, and it is frequently filled. The stored lumber supplies the retail yards in California from Sacramento City to Los Angeles, and forty such yards are operated. This business is subsidiary to the Charles Nelson Company, of San Francisco. A great deal of lumber leaves the Yosemite mills for export at tidewater and is reloaded from the railway cars to the Nelson boats at San Francisco, and from there sent to Australia, China, Japan and South Africa. The social side of life at Merced Falls is augmented by a company clubhouse, and the company expends $180,000 annually for provisions to feed the workmen, the best qual- ity of foods being used.
The military record of Mr. Lowell bespeaks his loyal support to his country in times of war. He was a volunteer of the W. S. A., during the World War, and was qualified on examination by Colonel
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Du Bois, of the 20th United States Engineers, and received his commission as first lieutenant. He held himself in readiness to go with the A. E. F., on first call, but due to the Armistice was not called. He is now a reserve officer on the list of the Engineer Corps, Log- ging and Timber. In civil life Mr. Lowell has served as a deputy United States marshal in 1906, and was active during the emergency of the fire and earthquake at Redwood City, during the administra- tion of Judge Buck. His political views are Democratic in principle. His affiliation with the Blue Lodge of Masons, No. 5, at Benicia, shows his status and character as a man worthy of recognition in the community. He makes his home with his mother, and together they are enjoying the opportunities which their native State, the Golden State, has in store.
C. J. BLOED
The growth and resources of Merced County, and its develop- ment from large ranches and stock ranges to a more intensive kind of agriculture, are matters of first-hand knowledge to C. J. Bloed, for he has been a part of ranch and stock activities here for over thirty years, and has within that space of time seen many changes take place in this section of the State. He was born at Princeton, Mariposa County, May 17, 1869, the son of Franklin Charles and Gertrude (Whipler) Bloed, the former born in Baden, Germany, November 15, 1826, and the latter a native of Carlsruhe, Germany, born March 19, 1827. The father came to California early in 1850, and worked in the mines, at Copperopolis for a short time, and later went to Mt. Bullion. He conducted the hotel at Princeton, Mariposa County, for six years, and from there went to Merced Falls, where he worked in the mill. He had returned east to Pennsylvania, in 1856, and there his marriage occurred, in Philadelphia, and their eldest child, now Mrs. J. Coulston, of Modesto, was born in San Francisco, as the young couple soon came to California to make their home. The father was accidentally drowned in the Tuolumne River, near La Grange, his death occurring February 15, 1881, and the mother lived until February 4, 1893, their last years being spent at Snelling, Cal.
The youngest of nine children born to his parents, three of whom survive, C. J. Bloed received a good education at Merced Falls, and started in life for himself as a plow-boy, doing his first work in 1884, on neighborhood ranches, and continued in steady employ of large ranch and stock ranges until 1919, when he settled at Snelling, and soon after became successor to A. Bertraind's Snelling Pool Hall & Smoke House, where he conducts a first-class establishment.
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The marriage of Mr. Bloed united him with Miss Dora A. Shaw, a native of Oregon and daughter of William H. Shaw, late of Hope- ton, Merced County. One son has blessed their union, Franklin W., now a student at Heald's Business College in Fresno. Mr. Bloed is a member of the Knights of Pythias of Merced, and for three years past he has been a member of the Merced Municipal Band, playing the slide trombone. He is a booster for Merced County, and especi- ally the Merced River district, one of the most fertile in the State, and even now just at the beginning of its real development.
JOSEPH A. OLIVEIRA
Numbered among the prominent and progressive agriculturists and business men of Gustine is Jospeh A. Oliveira, who owns a 100- acre ranch three miles south of Gustine; he also owns two other large dairies in partnership with others and he is also part-owner of a butcher shop which occupies the ground floor of his own building in Gustine. A self-made man in every sense implied by the term, he is everywhere respected, and his honesty and straightforward business methods have gained for him the confidence of the community in which he resides. He was born July 2, 1875, on St. George of the Azores, where his parents, Joseph A. and Mary ( Bontello) Oliveira were also born and reared. His father came to California when a young man, in 1855, and worked a few years for J. D. Patterson, the West Side pioneer. He was then married at Mission San Jose and lived for a time in California, where their first child, a girl, was born. Then the family returned to the Azores, where the rest of the children were born and where the father died. His widow returned to California and died in Haywards at the age of seventy-two years. There were five children in the family, namely: Mary A., deceased; Manuel A; Josephine, Mrs. Frank Lopes ; Joseph A., our subject ; and Antone A., manager of the Jersey Milk Butter Company of Oakland, Cal.
At seventeen years of age Joseph A. Oliveira began to make his own living. After arriving in the United States he worked eleven years for one man in Rhode Island. Then he came to California and located in Oakland, where he worked in a paint shop for six months. Going then to Dutton Landing on the Sacramento River, he went into the dairy business and had succeeded in building up a fine dairy herd when the flood of 1906 wiped out the accumulations of years of hard work. He then removed to Newman and by borrowing money was able to establish a dairy business in this place, and did well. After seven months he bought the dairy business on the John Azevedo ranch, which he conducted for five years. By industry and economy he was
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able to lay up sufficient money to purchase forty acres of land six miles southwest of Gustine, upon which he conducted a dairy of about 130 head of cattle. Later he sold a half-interest in his dairy business and, having decided to try another section of California, removed to San Jose; but after nineteen months spent there he was convinced that Gustine was the locality most promising for his line of work. Returning to Gustine, he accordingly rented 137 acres and started another dairy, which occupied him for four years, after which for four years he shipped cattle to the San Francisco markets. He then went into partnership in the grocery and meat business in Gustine, later selling out the grocery department and with his partner, Frank Car- bello, continuing the meat business, in which they employ four persons. He carries on a dairy on 100 acres he owns, the old Kruger place, three miles southwest of Gustine. Under the firm name of Oliveira and Mello he operates a second dairy on fifty-seven acres of the Isabel Bunker place, two and one-half miles southwest of town, where he runs forty-five cows ; and he and John Mattos conduct a dairy ranch of 137 acres on the William Bunker place.
At Fall River, Mass., in 1904, Mr. Oliveira was married to Miss Mary Avala, a native of Little Compton, R. I., and a daughter of Manuel and Rosie (Bettencourt) Avala, both natives of St. George, Azores Islands. Mr. and Mrs. Oliveira are the parents of five chil- dren : Joseph A., George, Frank, Dorothy, and Henry. Mr. Oliveira is a Republican in politics ; and fraternally he belongs to the I. D. E. S. of Gustine. The family reside in the new home bought by Mr. Oliveira.
DWIGHT K. BARNELL
An experienced rancher, who has met with success in his own enterprises, and who also successfully served his community as presi- dent of the Farm Bureau for Merced County, Dwight K. Barnell is well known in the San Joaquin Valley. Born in Benton County, Iowa, on March 15, 1877, he is the fifth of six children born to his parents, Aaron J. and Elizabeth (Youel) Barnell, both natives of Indiana. Aaron J. Barnell settled in Iowa in the early fifties, and served as justice of the peace for his township in that State. During the Civil War he had served three years with the 20th Iowa Volun- teers, receiving his honorable discharge as a sergeant, and after many years spent in Iowa, he settled in Los Angeles, in 1906, and there his death occurred.
Dwight K. Barnell and his brothers were reared and educated in Iowa and farmed the home place. He received a good education, graduating from the Benton High School, and then taking a course
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at the Cedar Rapids Business College. In 1914 he went to Barnes County, N. D., and there was superintendent of the farm lands of the Dennstedt Land Company. Preceded by his father and brothers, he came to California in 1917, and joined with his brother in operat- ing the land left by their father, the Barnell-Merced Tract, which that farseeing rancher had purchased in 1912.
The marriage of Mr. Barnell, on June 14, 1905, united him with Miss Estella McGranahan, a native of Newhall, Iowa. She is a graduate of the Academy of Music in Cedar Rapids and was well known in musical circles in that city. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Barnell: Charles G., in the class of 1925, Merced High School; Helen, also in that class; Robert and Elizabeth, both in the Tuttle Grammar School.
A man of strong public spirit, Mr. Barnell was elected a director in the Merced Irrigation District, from District No. 5. And as president of the Merced Farm Bureau, elected for 1923-1924, he efficiently carried on the work and directed this fast-growing organi- zation in sixteen local centers.
FRANK PEBLEY
Since 1915 Frank Pebley has been active as a member of the board of supervisors in the upbuilding and development of Merced County and more especially of the town of Atwater. He is now serving his third term on the board, his first election being in 1915. He was born in Salem, Ore., on November 25, 1871, a son of Robert and Marcella (Gum) Pebley. The father, Robert Pebley, crossed the plains to the Pacific Coast from Missouri in 1854 and located in California, where he remained until 1866, when he went overland to Salem, Ore. Remaining there until 1879, he went by team to Walla Walla, Wash., one year after the Indian War; in 1880 the family moved to Olympia, Wash., where they remained for eight years. They then came to California and located in the Buhach Colony of Merced County. The Pebley family were among the first to settle in this locality and they became successful farmers, and here the father passed away in 1911. Mrs. Pebley died in 1873.
Frank Pebley received his education in the public schools of Washington and Oregon. He came to California in 1888 and stayed on the home farm with his parents near Buhach until 1914 when he removed to Atwater, which has since been his residence.
The marriage of Mr. Pebley on December 10, 1899 united him with Miss Ora Carter, one of California's native daughters; her father, J. E. Carter, is a pioneer of Merced County, locating there in the late fifties. Mr. and Mrs. Pebley are the parents of one son,
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Clinton W., who is married and has one boy, Harlan Eugene, and resides in Los Angeles. In political matters, Mr. Pebley prefers to vote independently of party lines. Fraternally, he is identified with the Modern Woodmen of America, the Woodmen of the World, and the U. P. E. C. of Merced. Mr. Pebley is a man who takes a keen interest in the prosperity and advancement of his community, being ever on the alert to advance its best interests.
LEONARD F. JOHNSTON
One of the substantial ranch owners and a highly respected citi- zen of the Hilmar Colony, Leonard F. Johnston is a man of whom it may well be said "His word is as good as his bond and his bond is of the very best." In many ways he has proved a valuable citizen of Merced County, contributing to its growth, fostering its enter- prises and promoting its welfare. He has much in common with his brother, A. O. Johnston, the well-known merchant and rancher at Irwin, who was a partner of his at Waverly, Nebr.
Leonard F. Johnston was born in Sweden, January 26, 1873. When nineteen years of age he set out for America and arrived at Waverly, Lancaster County, Nebr., where he found work as a farm hand at twenty dollars a month. After working around for a few years he had saved enough money to go in with his brother, A. O. Johnston, in the purchase of an eighty-acre home place near Waverly; to this they added 160 acres, and also cut hay on shares on 400 or 500 acres of upland by which they cleared about twenty-five dollars a day. Their parents were Johannes and Anna Charlotta (Samuel- son) Johnson. It is a peculiarity of the Scandinavian names to add "son" to the Christian name of the father. The father's name being Johannes, the surname of the son should have been Johanneson, or shorter, Johnson. But on account of the confusion of names in the mails the sons found it convenient to change the name to Johnston.
While the boys were growing up in Sweden they learned black- smithing and carpentering in the shop of their father, who was a mechanical genius. So the boys became expert machinists, an accom- plishment which has been of great service to them in America. They first bought a Nicholas Shepard thresher, made in Battle Creek, Mich., and afterwards an Avery, made in Peoria, Ill. They were operated by a steam traction engine for power. Their corn sheller had a capacity of 1000 bushels per hour. Being expert machinists, by replacing worn parts at night, they were able to run a whole season without losing more than three hours for a breakdown. By frugality and good management they had accumulated considerable
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capital when they came to California. A. O. Johnston was the first to come to California. Leonard has forty acres one mile southwest of Irwin and another ten acres under a high state of cultivation one mile north of the home forty acres.
Leonard Johnston was married in 1917 to Mrs. Alette Dignes, widow of Jens Dignes of Randsfonden, Norway, and daughter of Borger and Bertie Marie (Anderson) Gulbrandson of Hadeland, Norway. She had one son by Dignes, Borger, now a farmer in the Hilmar Colony. Mr. and Mrs. Johnston have adopted John Vernon Nordstrom a bright lad and the youngest child of Mrs. Johnston's deceased sister. Though successful as a whole, Mr. Johnston met with a heavy financial loss by becoming bondsman to the amount of $10,000 with A. T. Anderson for O. C. Holt, builder, in the erection of the high school gymnasium building at Tracy, Cal. Mr. Holt died before the building was completed; so the bondsmen had to make good and Mr. Johnston is out over $11,000 cash.
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