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 72
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On September 16, 1913, at Merced, Mr. Landram was married to Miss Irene Freeman, a daughter of the late J. D. Freeman, a far- mer living south of Merced. Two children have blessed this union, Bernice and Doris. When the City of Livingston was incorporated in 1921, Mr. Landram was among the most active boosters and he is a director of the Livingston Merchants Association and a member of the Boosters' Club; he also belongs to the Hoo Hoo's and is a member of the San Joaquin Valley Lumberman's Club. Fraternally he is a member of Yosemite Lodge No. 99, F. & A. M. at Merced, and Merced Camp No. 352, W. O. W. Mr. and Mrs. Landram be- long to Merced Chapter No. 126, O. E. S. in Merced and are mem- bers of the Central Presbyterian Church of Merced.
THOMAS B. MORTON
The birth of Thomas B. Morton occurred in Ireland on June 30, 1862, and as a babe in arms he was brought to this country, and reared and educated in Akron, Ohio. From May, 1876, to 1882, he was a cowboy in Montana, rode the range and saw many stirring scenes in those early days, and was a member of the Law and Order League. Some of the old brands he worked under were Circle S, 7 Bar 7, T C P, and S & K. C. M. Russell, then known as "Kid Russell," now a resident of Pasadena, the famous painter of western scenes, wild cattle and horses and cowboys, was his partner and friend in his cowboy days in Montana. One of the first pictures he made was while he was a member of the S & K outfit, when he cut a piece of canvas from a tent and with charcoal drew a picture of cow- boy life. This was sent to the S & K outfit and later used as a brand.
Mr. Morton recalls the hanging of a number of cattle thieves; the last to be strung up was Con Murphy, who was hanged near Helena, Montana. When he was a cowboy he wore his hair long and curly, the fashion those days for the men of the plains. Later, he was teaming and freighting to and from Helena from 1884 to 1891. In 1892 he came to San Francisco and worked for the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, digging ditches at $1.75 for a day of twelve hours. In 1896 he went to Chicago and worked on a drain- age canal. Returning to the Pacific Coast in 1897, he became super- intendent of construction for the Great Northern Railway in Wash- ington, in the building and excavating of the Cascade tunnel, which took three years to complete. The tunnel was three miles and 1785 feet long, the longest tunnel in the world at that time. One thou-
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sand men were employed at each end, and all records were broken in its construction. In 1900 he went to San Francisco and entered the employ of the California Construction Co., general contractors. He worked for them in various places, at tunnel construction in Kern County, in San Diego, and in Honolulu, deepening the harbor and building government coal docks.
Coming to Los Banos in 1907, Mr. Morton took up the auto- mobile industry. The only car he owned before coming to Los Ba- nos was a 1903 Reo. In 1912 he engaged in the garage business when there were only two autos in Los Banos. He sold the first Ford car on the West Side of the valley and had the only auto agency from Tracy to Fresno. He has sold the Reo, Studebaker and Haynes cars, and now has the agency of the Oakland. The first auto repair shop in the valley was under a spreading pine tree on the Pacheco Pass road, and was operated by Mace Roberts and Bill Knight; and with the aid of the subject of this sketch many a disabled car was repaired on that spot.
In 1911, Thomas B. Morton was married to Minnie Cavala, born on her father's ranch in Badger Flat, Merced County. Her father was a native of Italy and came to California in the early days. The old Cavala home ranch is still in the possession of the family. Mr. Morton is a member of Mountain Brow Lodge of Odd Fellows of Los Banos.
ELGIN EVANS
No names are more worthy to record on the pages of history than the names of those who are producers of the means of subsist- ence. To that class belongs Elgin Evans who, for thirty-five years, was one of the largest grain producers of Stanislaus and Merced Counties. Strong, active, intelligent and public-spirited, it is to such men as he that California owes the development of her resources.
The fifth in a family of ten children, Elgin Evans was born in Mineral Point, Wis., on May 7, 1866. His father, John Ewell Evans, a native of Ohio, was one of the pioneer California gold miners. He returned to Wisconsin and married there Margaret Jane Davis, a native of Illinois. Her father, Ephraim Davis, a native of Wales, was a trapper who came to southern Wisconsin while Chief Black Hawk held sway. He crossed the plains and was a frontiers- man in California. Grandfather and grandmother Evans were both born in Wales, and the former crossed the plains twice in the early days, but went back to Mineral Point, where he died in 1871, at the age of eighty-seven. His wife followed him at the age of eighty- three. Elgin Evans' father died when the son was six years old, and
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three years later his mother married J. H. Haskell. Then the family came via the Union and Central Pacific Railroads to California and settled first in Alameda County and in 1878 removed to Merced County. From that time on Elgin Evans farmed in Stanislaus and Merced Counties ; the very first year he raised 30,000 sacks of grain, 23,000 of which were oats.
In 1890 Elgin Evans was married to Miss Wilhelmina Rosen- quist, a native of Sweden, a dutiful wife and loyal helpmate who has borne her husband four children, as follows: Edwin Chester, who lives in Merced, married Miss Mercedes McNamara, a native of Merced County, and they have one child, Maryle Renett; Clara Ethyel became the wife of Frank Pelton Montgomery, has one child, Norine, and lives in Hollywood, Cal; Herby Elgin married Mamie Souza of Merced and has one son, Herby Elgin, Jr., and resides in Long Beach, Cal .; Gladys Elvira is a student in the Livingston High School. Fraternally, Mr. Evans is a member of the Masons, the Odd Fellows and the Elks lodges of Merced. In politics he is a pro- gressive Republican. He is a Methodist, while Mrs. Evans adheres to the Lutheran faith in which she was reared. Mr. Evans quit grain farming in 1923, after he had raised 23,000 sacks of barley the previous year. He lost two harvesters and a caterpillar tractor by fire; and the price of farm machinery having increased while the price of grain had decreased, he thought it was a good time to retire.
FRITZ E. OLSON
A thorough-going business man and the owner and proprietor of a paying grocery business in Livingston is Fritz E. Olson, who started in business in 1913 in the Wilson Building, then located south of the railroad tracks; in 1923 Mr. Olson moved his stock into the Walter B. Ward building, which is centrally located, and the business is gradually increasing in volume each month. Mr. Olson was born in Sweden, March 11, 1887, and was a babe in arms when he accom- panied his parents to the United States. The family located at Riley, Kan., where the father managed the large creamery interests for the Continental Creamery Company of Topeka, Kan .; later he estab- lished a separator and ice business in connection, which was his own private property. Six children were born in this family, but only three reached maturity: Fritz E. our subject; Ales H., a rancher at Livingston; and Arnold A. The father passed away in Kansas January 4, 1907, aged fifty-two years.
Fritz E. Olson was attending the Grand Island Normal College, where he was pursuing the commercial course when his father passed
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away; he left school and returned home to take charge of the cream- ery and ice business. In 1908 the business was sold and the family removed to Merced County, Cal., where they bought forty acres of land on the Cressey Road which is now within the city limits of Liv- ingston. Mr. Olson and his brothers engaged in dairying and farm- ing for the next five years, but our subject secured a position as book- keeper and cashier with the Star Meat Company in Turlock, after his first year on the farm. He was next connected with the Fresno Republican until he started his present business in 1913.
At Livingston in 1910, Mr. Olson was married to Miss Hazel Grinstead, born in Kansas, a daughter of Newton P. Grinstead, who was well known in Livingston and who passed away in January, 1925, aged sixty-four. They have a son, Harold Olson. Mr. Olson ranks with the citizens to whom much credit is due for the influence they exert for the moral welfare of the community.
DAVID BENNETT
Among the active and able officials of Livingston is David Bennett, city marshal of Livingston and constable of the Fifth township of Merced County; he also acts as deputy sheriff under T. A. Mack. He is a fearless officer who performs his duties promptly, according to law, asking no favors and granting none. His birth occurred in Jackson County, Oregon, July 2, 1873. His father, G. W. Bennett, was born in New York State and came to Oregon and then to Cali- fornia, where he mined in Amador County, and where he was mar- ried the first time, by which union there was one daughter, who is now deceased. He later located at Cressey, which was renamed Liv- ingston. His second marriage, at Snelling, united him with Miss Elizabeth Cheidester, daughter of David Cheidester, born in Vir- ginia, from an early family. David Cheidester removed from Vir- ginia to Iowa and from Iowa he crossed the plains to California in 1850 and became a farmer at Snelling. There were thirteen children born of this union, eleven of whom are now living: Dora, David, Daniel, Mabel, Susie, Myra, Sylvia, Wesley, George, Lizzie, and May. Two children died in infancy.
At the age of eighteen David Bennett left the family home and came to Livingston and at first worked on various farms throughout Merced County ; then he leased land and farmed for fourteen years. when he purchased his present home place of ten acres just outside the city limits of Livingston, which is devoted to raising alfalfa.
On January 11, 1894, Mr. Bennett was married to Miss Amanda Willhoit, a daughter of Benjamin Willhoit, a farmer now deceased.
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Mr. and Mrs. Bennett are the parents of five children; Myrtle is the wife of B. F. Johnson residing in Yakima, Wash; Violet is the wife of R. G. Rhodes of Livingston; Elsie is now Mrs. C. L. Benoni re- siding at Tia Juana, Mexico; Floyd; and one boy is now deceased. Mr. Bennett is a Democrat in politics and at the regular election in 1922 was elected marshal of Livingston. Mrs. Bennett is a regular attendant at the Episcopal Mission Church in Livingston.
CHARLES PHILIP SMITH
A worthy representative of the second generation of citizens of Merced County is found in Charles P. Smith, dairyman, and road overseer of the Fifth district on the West Side. A native of the county, he was born at Central Point, September 6, 1874, the fifth child of Samuel A. and Nancy (Dollarhide ) Smith, one of the oldest families on the West Side in Merced County.
Samuel A. Smith was born near Rock Island, Ill., February 14, 1839. At the age of two he was taken by his parents to Winnebago County, Ill., where he attended public school. In 1856 his parents became pioneers of Fayette County, Iowa, and here he helped his father improve a homestead, remaining with him until 1862. That memorable year the young man took the long journey across the plains to California, hoping in this congenial climate to obtain a liv- ing from the soil. He looked over various parts of the State looking for a suitable location and spent his first year here in Yolo County, then he spent several seasons in Solano County and finally reached Merced County, locating on the West Side in October, 1868. He preempted 160 acres of land on section 23, the north line of his ranch being only one-half a mile from the present limits of Los Banos. To this he added 160 acres, and later thirty-six acres more, all of which he operated with good results. He gave each of his sons forty acres of the property, retaining 196 acres for his own use. He kept over 200 head of stock and raised alfalfa, made many permanent improvements on the ranch until it was all under irrigation and sup- plied with a substantial set of farm buildings. Here he continued suc- cessfully as a dairyman for many years, taking an active interest in all projects for the upbuilding of this part of the county, serving as a justice of the peace and taking an active interest in Democratic politics. He was a member of the first school board of the first district and helped to build the first school house on the West Side. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and a chairman of the board of trustees. He had married in Iowa, in 1860, Nancy
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Dollarhide, who was born in Indiana, the daughter of John Dollar- hide, who had come to California in the pioneer days, settling on the Sacramento River. Mrs. Smith passed away in 1879, leaving seven children : Oscar E .; Jasper, of Soquel; Grant, now deceased; Frank, of Los Banos; Charles P. of Los Banos; Alice and Amanthus. Three children died prior to Mrs. Smith's decease. The sons became suc- cessful ranchers of Merced County.
Charles P. Smith attended the Los Banos school and remained at home with his father on the ranch, learning what he could of the methods of agriculture as carried on at that period. He embarked in the dairy business on part of the home acres and had 190 acres in alfalfa and 100 head of cattle. In 1908 he sold the dairy business and engaged in teaming at Richmond, Cal., and then purchased a dray business in Los Banos and carried on the business for three years, since which time he has operated fifty acres of the old home place. He is serving as the road overseer of the Fifth district of Merced County, besides doing a general farming.
Charles P. Smith and Fannie B. Brown were united in marriage in San Francisco, on October 24, 1915. She was born in Illinois, a daughter of William and Anna Christina (Hauk) Brown, and was in the railway postal service. In 1908 she came to California. They have one son, Charles P. Jr. Mr. Smith is a Democrat. He belongs to the Odd Fellows of Los Banos.
J. W. RIGGINS
Located three miles east of Merced on Bear Creek is the twenty- four-acre fruit and almond ranch owned by J. W. Riggins, who pur- chased the land in 1908 and since that date has been developing the property, and since 1921 has lived on it. A native of Tennessee, he was born in Normandy, Bedford County, on April 26, 1867, a son of the late W. L. Riggins, a railroad man. During the Civil War he had charge of building bridges. He died in 1873, after which his widow married M. P. Huffman. She died in Tennessee in 1907 at the age of seventy-seven years.
J. W. Riggins attended the schools in the South and at an early age began to learn telegraphy at Estel Springs, Tenn., on the N. C. & St. L. Ry. He has worked in many places since mastering the key, among which are Coahoma, Miss., for fifteen months as an operator ; eighteen months at Dundee, Miss., as operator and station agent and one year at Lake Cormorant. In 1901 he went to work for the St. L. I. M. & S., as relief man; later went to Varner, Ark., where a Captain Rice owned the town and county seat, there being two
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courthouses in the county where court was held alternately. In the spring of 1902 he went to Michigan in the employ of the Wabash Railway; in December of that year he went to Kansas and was work- ing for the M. K. & T. Railway at Bayard at the time of the strike of the Order of Railway Telegraphers in 1904. Mr. Riggins left the railroad service to take up picket work for the Railroad Tele- graphers at Parsons, Kans., and was one of the ten members of the initial board under H. B. Perham, president of the Railroad Tele- graphers Union of America, serving from 1904 to 1908. In 1907 he went to the Pacific Coast from Salt Lake. Incidentally he visited Merced County that same year and made some investments in prop- erty, but continued with his organization work over the western roads. He has worked in every state of the Union except Idaho, Oregon and Washington in the interests of the railroad telegraphers. He quit in 1909 and entered the employ of the Yosemite Valley Rail- road as its agent at Merced Falls, continuing active until 1921, when he left the railroad employ to give his entire time and attention to his ranch interests.
Mr. Riggins is a member of Hornitos Lodge No. 98, F. & A. M., in which he is a Past Master; he is a Past Grand of Willow Lodge No. 121, I. O. O. F., in Snelling; a member and Past Chief Patriarch of Snelling Encampment No. 86, I. O. O. F .; and Past District Deputy Grand Patriarch of the 49th District of California ; he is also a member of the Navarro Lodge of Rebekahs at Snelling and of the Eastern Star Chapter in Merced. Mr. Riggins is very much interested in irrigation movements and was secretary of the com- mittee of the Crocker-Huffman Contract Holders Association, whose affairs were settled amicably, so that it is now a part of the Merced Irrigation District.
A. A. HARRINGTON
Among the recent accessions of the business life of Livingston is A. A. Harrington, the junior partner of the firm of Lentz & Har- rington; the senior partner, C. H. Lentz, has charge of the electrical supply store in Modesto, while Mr. Harrington operates the Livings- ton Telephone Company and conducts the electrical supply store at Livingston. The firm also takes care of electrical contracts throughout Merced County. Mr. Harrington was born at Paxton, Nebr. on May 30, 1888, a son of the late Norman L. and Nettie (Hargis) Har- rington, natives of Missouri and Iowa, respectively. The father, Norman L. Harrington, was a railroad man connected with the signal service of the Western Pacific Railway and made his home in Stock- ton, Cal .; he passed away at the family home there in 1922, aged
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sixty-two years. The mother is still living. There are five sons in the family of children, of whom our subject is the third. A. A. Harring- ton attended public school until he was fourteen years old, then he went to work for the Pacific Telephone Company at Stockton and within two years time he was advanced to a good position with this company.
At Merced, Cal., Mr. Harrington was married to Miss Blanche Wells, a daughter of George Wells, a rancher living at Dos Palos. In March, 1921, Mr. Harrington removed to Livingston and at that time purchased from G. H. Winton and William T. White the Liv- ingston Telephone system, which Mr. Harrington has since operated with increasing success. In the management of the Livingston Elec- trical Supply Store, Mr. Harrington is using thorough business methods that insure permanent success in every undertaking.
E. M. STODDARD
The late E. M. Stoddard, of Merced County, was a man of edu- cation and much native ability, inherited, no doubt, from his Scotch ancestors, who settled in America about 1800, when the progenitor located in New York State, where the descendants of that Stoddard have made names for themselves in their various lines of endeavor. A nephew of our subject, Charles Stoddard, was the publisher of Munsey's Magazine. E. M. Stoddard was born in Delhi, N. Y., on March 6, 1831, and was the youngest of the twelve children in his parents' family. He grew to manhood in New York State, where his father was a landowner in Delaware County.
E. M. Stoddard received a good education in the schools of his day, and remained a resident of New York until 1872, when he came to Merced County and embarked in the dairy business; and it is worthy of note that the dairy he established is still in existence. He took an active part in the development of the new city of Merced and was a stockholder in the first newspaper published in the town. He was active also in Republican politics, though not an aspirant for office. He served as a school trustee for several years and was inter- ested in elevating the educational standard of the schools of his time ; for he realized the value of good schools, which he knew were neces- sary for the coming generations to prepare them for their life work. He was right-of-way man for the Central Pacific Railroad and did much to bring the steam line, now the Southern Pacific, through this part of the San Joaquin Valley. A good mixer, he made and retained loyal friends.
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On November 22, 1857, E. M. Stoddard was united in marriage with Cynthia M. Benton, who was born on March 22, 1832, at Canajoharie, N. Y .; and she gave birth to the following children : Dower K., of Merced; Mrs. J. H. Simonson, of Merced; Clara M., of Merced; W. H., of Berkeley; Mrs. Nellie Outcalt, deceased; H. B., of Merced; and Mrs. R. L. King, also of Merced. Mrs. Stoddard came to Merced County in 1855 and was a teacher in the public school at Tuttletown, near Sonora, Cal. She died in Merced at the age of eighty years. E. M. Stoddard passed away in 1909. He was a Mason and a Knight Templar, and was a charter member of the Yosemite Lodge of the Knights of Pythias. He had been brought up in the Scotch Presbyterian Church and was a consistent Christian.
DOWER KEITH STODDARD
Perhaps the best-known man in California, in stage transporta- tion circles in the early days of the Yosemtie Valley travel out from Merced, is Dower Keith Stoddard, of that city. A son of the late E. M. Stoddard, who is mentioned on another page in this history, he was born on a dairy and stock ranch in Calaveras County, on September 29, 1858. His schooling was obtained in public and pri- vate schools in Calaveras, Merced and San Joaquin Counties ; and when he was sixteen years old his parents moved to Merced County, where his father engaged in the dairy and stock business with success. Our subject was interested with his father from the time they located here in Merced County, and he grew up in the handling of stock and running a dairy. He owns the original ranch purchased by his father, two miles from Merced, and is still conducting a dairy business there.
In 1886, Mr. Stoddard bought the McClanathan livery and stage business from the administrators of the estate of Mr. McClanathan and at once entered into the development of an enterprise that was destined to yield a good profit and at the same time build up a repu- tation for himself, not alone in the confines of California, but even at the national capital at Washington, D. C., where it is of record in the Postoffice Department that the stages run by D. K. Stoddard never varied a minute in arriving in Merced with the United States mail for a period of eleven months. It was always 11:15 a.m., rain or shine, and the experienced drivers he employed considered their honor was in question if any one spoke of their being late. So marked was the regularity in the local postmaster's reports, that the government authorities in the nation's capital could not credit their
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accuracy until they had sent out several inspectors, who, however, always reported the time as 11:15 a. m., as per schedule. Along with the mail contract, and the most particular part of the business, Mr. Stoddard made a specialty of carrying passengers to and from Yosem- ite Valley; and during the years from 1886 to 1911, the Stoddard stages were known far and wide and handled without accident tens of thousands of passengers going to and from Yosemite Valley. One year he handled 20,000 tourists. Since 1911, Mr. Stoddard has been looking after his dairy interests, though residing in Merced.
On March 10, 1886, D. K. Stoddard was united in marriage with Miss Mary Comins, a native of Maine, where she grew up. She was educated in Boston and later came out to California. The following children have been born of this union: Mildred, who married G. H. Winton and resides in Livingston; Minette (a twin of Mildred), who is at home; Jean, who married Roscoe Roduner and lives in Merced; and Dower Kenneth, the youngest, who is an employe of the Merced Irrigation District. There are five grandchildren to brighten the homes of the Stoddards.
Mr. Stoddard has been a stanch Republican all his life and cast his first vote in the city of Merced, and has never voted elsewhere. He served as a city trustee for several terms. He is a charter mem- ber of Yosemite Parlor No. 24, N. S. G. W., in which he is a Past President and takes an active interest; and he has a wide acquaintance throughout the State through his restoration work for the Native Sons. He has been a member of the Knights of Pythias since 1882, and has been Grand Trustee of the State of California in that order. If Mr. Stoddard has a hobby, it is in preserving historic records and landmarks and relics of early days in California, in order that the coming generations may have visible evidence suited to inculcate in their minds a veneration for the pioneers who have been responsible for the firm foundation of a commonwealth where they and their posterity can live in peace and happiness.
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