USA > California > A history of the new California, its resources and people; Vol II > Part 11
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Dr. Keys has always been more or less interested in public affairs, in educational and political matters, and his influence has ever been felt for good in the different towns in which he has lived. Politically a Republican, he has served as delegate to both the county and state conventions of his party. From 1899 to 1903 he was a member of the board of education of Alameda. He has fraternal relations with the I. O. O. F., the B. P. O. E., and the Ma- sonic order, having taken all the degrees of the last named.
In 1878 Dr. Keys married Miss Jennie R. Carter, a native of Earlville, Iowa, and a daughter of John and Harriet Carter. They have two children, Fannie and Harold.
CHARLES HERBERT WEVER.
Charles Herbert Wever, the pioneer undertaker of Alameda, Califor- nia, has been engaged in business here fourteen years.
He was born in 1850, in Rhode Island, son of Daniel R. and Betsey A. (Austin) Wever, both natives of Rhode Island and representatives of old American families. Daniel R. Wever passed nearly the whole of his life on
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a Rhode Island farm. In his old age he came to California and died the week following his arrival here. That was in 1893.
Charles H. Wever received his education in the public schools of Con- necticut and Rhode Island. By the time he was seventeen he had acquired sufficient knowledge to enable him to teach school and he taught one year. Teaching, however, was not especially to his liking, and his next venture was in a mercantile business in Connecticut. From 1876 to 1879 he was secre- tary and treasurer of the Bay State Wheel Company, a large manufacturing corporation of Lynn, Massachusetts. He came to California in 1880, locat- ing in San Luis Obispo, where he was first engaged in a contracting busi- ness and later in undertaking. In 1890 he moved to Alameda, where he has since successfully conducted an undertaking business.
Mr. Wever married, in 1881, Miss Etta F. Fowler, a native of Hartford, Connecticut, and their union has been blessed in the birth of one child, Carl R.
Mr. Wever is a popular member of numerous fraternal organizations. He has been initiated into all of the various branches of Masonry, from blue lodge to the shrine, and has been honored by official position in them. He is past grand patriarch of the I. O. O. F., at this writing is colonel of the Sec- ond Regiment of Patriarchs Militant of the I. O. O. F., and he is grand repre- sentative of the Grand Encampment of California to the Sovereign Grand Lodge which convened at Baltimore in 1903. Also he is a member of the K. of P., I. O. R. M., A. O. U. W., Maccabees and Order of Pendo. Po- litically he gives his support to the Republican party.
W. H. H. HART.
W. H. H. Hart, the prominent lawyer of San Francisco, is best known to the people of the state of California for his able administration of the office of attorney general from January, 1891, to January, 1895. His most important and famous achievement, however, was his success, as the leading counsel, in prosecuting the claims of the heiress to the great Thomas H. Blythe estate, involving suits and pleadings all the way from the local common courts to the supreme court of the state and finally to the supreme court of the United States. This part of his career concerns the later, and mature period of his worthy life, but before this happy culmination there is a most edifying his- tory of early struggles and sacrifices in order to obtain an education and a lever with which to wield his powers and also a bright page of martial deeds during the Civil war.
Mr. Hart was born in Yorkshire, England, January 25, 1848. It seems odd enough that an Englishman should turn to a president of the United States to furnish a name for his child, but the W. H. H. are the initials for the great Whig president William Henry Harrison. Mr. Hart's father brought the family to America in May, 1852, settling first in Illinois. In April, 1856, when eight years old, the lad William Henry was stolen from home by the Indians, and for some months was kept with the band and accustomed to the rough routine of savage life. He was returned in the following Octo-
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ber. The family moved to Iowa in the spring of 1857, where a year later his mother died, followed by his father in April, 1859.
The boy then supported himself by herding sheep, and during two win- ters attended school with a young man fifteen years his elder, named Hinck- ley. When the Civil war came on Mr. Hart was thirteen years old, but hardy and strong and an expert in the use of firearms. During the winter of 1861-2 he went to Cairo, Illinois, where Grant was then stationed. His friend Hinck- ley was also there, in command of a company of private scouts, and because of important service rendered was in the confidence of the afterward great general. Young Hart joined the company of scouts, and beginning with January, 1862, took part in the campaigns centering about Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg and Chattanooga. At the battle of Missionary Ridge he was in command of Hinckley's company, and while the bearer of a dispatch from General Grant to Sherman, across the country from Chico creek to Sherman's right wing, a distance of two and a half miles and over territory held by Confederate forces, he was three times wounded. After recovering from his wounds he returned home in March, 1864, and began study in the public schools, but in the following May enlisted in the Forty-fourth Iowa Infantry as a private. He was mustered out in the following September and during that fall acted as scout for General Thomas at and around Nashville, taking part in the great battle fought there, in December, 1864. In February, 1865, he enlisted in the One Hundred and Forty-seventh Illinois, was wounded in April, 1865, at Pullam's Ferry, and was finally mustered out in February, 1866.
His ambition was already fully directed to the law as a profession. In the summer of 1865, when seventeen years old and while doing provost duty at Dawson, Provost county, Georgia, an ex-judge there presented him with a copy of Blackstone, advising him to read it diligently and comprehend withal. He did so during all his spare time until he was mustered out, and for two years afterward alternated between the public schools during the day and legal study at night. He was admitted to practice in the county courts of Iowa in September, 1868, and, four months before he was of age, was ad- mitted to the district court practice. In April, 1870, he was admitted to the practice in the supreme court of Iowa. He was elected and served as city attorney of DeWitt, Iowa, where he gained considerable distinction as a criminal lawyer. He came to California in 1873 and soon advanced to a. foremost position at the bar of San Francisco, also taking a prominent part in politics. In 1886 he was the Republican candidate for attorney general, receiving 7,400 votes more than his running mate for the office of governor, but nearly the entire Republican ticket suffered defeat that year. In 1890 he was again the nominee for the attorney generalship, and was elected and proved an able and industrious incumbent of that impor- tant state office. Since the expiration of his term in 1895 he has not en- tered public life to any considerable extent, the demands of a very heavy practice drawing upon all his time and resources. He has been particularly successful in probate practice, and among the large estates by which he
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has been employed may be mentioned that of Thomas H. Blythe and that of Louis P. Drexler, who was an old resident and left two million dollars.
Thomas H. Blythe was the assumed name of Thomas H. Williams, an obscure Englishman who came to California in 1849, and became pos- sessed of real estate in the heart of San Francisco and elsewhere valued at three million dollars. He died suddenly on April 4, 1883. No will was ever found. His attorney, Mr. Hart, had made a rough draft of a will. in which, among other items, was a legacy to Mr. Hart of ten thousand dollars, but this document could not be found after his death. Mr. Hart had learned from Blythe of the existence of a child in England, and he ar- ranged to bring Florence Blythe to San Francisco, where she was to be the central figure of a long legal drama. Many other claimants to the mil- lions appeared from all parts of the world. The trial began in July, 1889. On July 31, 1890, the case was decided in favor of Florence Blythe by Judge Coffey, but there followed at once some thirty appeals to the state supreme court, and four of these later went to the United States supreme court, and the case was not finally adjudicated until April, 1901. This long-drawn-out contention, worthy of a noted place in chancery history, taxed the resources and great ability of both mind and body of Mr. Hart, who was compelled to meet the most subtle arguments and skillfully drawn appeals after the case had been won in the lower courts. The reward of his arduous efforts came when the state supreme court affirmed the decision of Judge Coffey on November 30, 1892, and then after years of delay the highest tribunal of the land, at Washington, in May, 1897, gave its first decision in favor of Mrs. Florence Blythe Hinckley-who had married in the meantime-a clear title to the Blythe millions.
Mr. Hart has large interests in mining and in the recent oil discoveries of central California. He is well versed in metallurgy, and has had wide experience in mining litigation, now devoting his entire time to mining cor- poration and probate law. He is the attorney for several large corporations.
Mr. Hart was married in DeWitt, Iowa, to Miss Loretta B. Hedden, and they have one son, Lowell J., now sixteen years of age.
GEORGE W. STILWELL.
George W. Stilwell, a veteran of the Mexican war, inscribed his name deeply upon the pioneer annals of the state of California and figured promi- nently in public life and business circles, thus contributing to the material up- building and substantial progress of the state. His recognition and utiliza- tion of opportunity were salient features in his career and his laudable ambi- tion and unfaltering determination led him out of humble surroundings to large worldly successes. At the same time he manifested a public-spirited in- terest in the welfare of the state that made him the champion of many meas- ures of direct benefit to the commonwealth and thus his death was largely re- garded as a public calamity in California.
George Washington Stilwell was born in Montgomery county, Pennsyl- vania. December 9. 1823, and he arrived at young manhood with a good edu-
GEORGE W. STILWELL
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cation, a strong physique, a high character and a patriotic and adventurous spirit. At the time of the outbreak of the Mexican war, his patriotic spirit aroused, he responded to the call of his country for troops and went to Texas where he was drilled for the stern realities of the battle-field under General Zachary Taylor. Under that intrepid commander he crossed the Rio Grande river into Mexico and served throughout the war. He took part in a brilliant campaign and not many soldiers had a more difficult, eventful and picturesque experience than did First Sergeant Stilwell of the Texas Rangers Spy Com- pany.
When the war was over Mr. Stilwell returned to Pennsylvania, but started westward soon after the discovery of gold joining the Gordon expedi- tion which reached California after a long and arduous journey of nine months. The party had trouble with the ship but reached Nicaragua on the route planned, endured many privations while crossing to the Pacific coast, but at length re-embarked at Realejo, on the brig Laura Ann. Seven- ty-seven days had passed ere the voyage on the Pacific was terminated and during that time the supply of food and water was largely exhausted, and it was with a feeling of intense relief and gladness that the passengers landed at San Francisco, on the 5th of October, 1849.
Like the other settlers from the east Mr. Stilwell went to the mines, but not meeting with the success he had anticipated in his search for gold he turned his attention to merchandising, forming the firm of Stilwell, Prentiss and Evans at Stockton, California. As opportunity offered and his financial resources increased, he also extended his efforts to other fields of business activity and in addition to merchandising he engaged in banking and assay- ing at Alleghany, California where his business interests proved very profit- able, making him one of the most prosperous men of that section of the state. His methods, too, commended him to the confidence of all, for while progres- sive and energetic he was ever strictly honorable and reliable in all trade transactions and based his success upon close application, unfaltering energy and capable management. Having accumulated a very desirable competence, he retired from active business life and returned to San Francisco, where he erected a fine residence at the corner of Eleventh and Folsom streets, but fail- ing health caused him to leave that city and in 1867 he took up his abode in San Rafael, where he remained until 1884, when he again went to San Fran- cisco, spending his remaining days there and in Oakland.
While living in Marin county Mr. Stilwell was prominent, influential and active in public affairs affecting the welfare of the community. He served in several municipal positions in San Rafael and was also supervisor of the county, in which office he discharged his duties so acceptably that upon his retirement he was presented with a set of congratulatory resolutions from a large body of appreciative constituents and friends. In 1852 he was a mem- ber of the Sansome Hook and Ladder Company, the first organization of the kind in San Francisco, and he was also a member of the Society of Califor- nia Pioneers and of the Veterans of the Mexican war.
Soon after entering upon his mercantile career in Stockton, California. Mr. Stilwell was united in marriage to Miss Louisa Boyter Aitkin, whom he
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wedded in the east and then returned to his California home with his bride. His wife died, and in his later years he lived with his children, a daughter and two sons, the latter now representatives of the business interests of San Francisco.
Mr. Stilwell's death occurred in Oakland, November 17, 1899, and came as a bereavement to his many friends throughout the state. From the pio- neer epoch in the history of the commonwealth he has figured in its develop- ment, in the utilization of the natural resources of the state and in the promo- tion of the business activity, which is the real basis of the growth and pros- perity of every community. Building an untarnished reputation and charac- ter, he was a man whom to know was to respect and honor.
THEODORE ARLINGTON BELL.
Hon. Theodore Arlington Bell, member of the United States house of representatives from the second California district, by election in 1902, is one of the young and prominent lawyers and politicians of the state, and has had a rapid rise to influence since his admission to the bar only a decade ago. He is a native son of the state, and is a member of a well known family that has been established here for forty-five years, so that it is well representative of the best interests of California.
Mr. Bell is a son of Charles E. and Catherine J. (Mills) Bell. His father, a native of Connecticut, is now living retired in St. Helena, Califor- nia, being seventy-seven years old. He was one of the first county clerks in the state of Iowa, and in 1859 brought his family across the plains to Cali- tornia, where he engaged in mining for the first three years. He then be- came foreman shipwright for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company at San Francisco, and from there went into the employ of the government as quar- terman shipwright in the Mare Island navy yard, which position he held from 1865 to 1898,-a creditable and most efficient record of service. He and his wife had six sons: Charles Humboldt Bell, now forty-five years old, was born while the family was crossing the plains, and while at the Humboldt river in Nevada; he is now living at St. Helena. Edward Stanton Bell, born in Trinity county, California, August 26, 1862, received his early schooling in the old capitol building at Benicia-the second capitol of the state, having succeeded Monterey, and later having been turned into a school,-and later studied law with his brother Theodore; he was married at San Francisco, July 26, 1899, to ·Miss Jessie L. Dresser, a native of California and a daugh- ter of early residents of the state; fraternally he has been a member of the Native Sons of the Golden West for the past nineteen years, and is an active Democrat in politics.
Theodore A. Bell was born at Vallejo, California, July 5, 1872, and re- ceived his early schooling at Crystal Spring school near St. Helena. At the age of eighteen he was granted a certificate to teach, and for some time taught the Tucker school district in northern Napa county. He was engaged in that occupation for a year and a half and at the same time carried on his studies in law, after which he came to Napa and entered the office of William Gwinn,
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district attorney, where he studied law until he was twenty-one years old. He was admitted to the bar on his birthday, July 25, 1893, and for the follow- ing year engaged in practice. He was then elected district attorney, and at the end of his four-year term was re-elected. At the expiration of his sec- ond term he was elected to Congress on the Democratic ticket, and has been one of the young and progressive men during the fifty-eighth session.
Congressman Bell was married in Napa, April 23, 1899, to Miss Annie M. Muller, of Napa, and they have one daughter, Maurine. Mr. Bell affiliates with the Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, being elected Grand Warden of that order May, 1904, the Independent Order of Foresters, the N. S. G. W., the Eagles, the Druids, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, etc.
GILMAN WILLIAM BACON.
Gilman William Bacon, county auditor of Alameda county, California, is a native of the Green Mountain state. He was born in Orange county, Vermont, October 22, 1864, son of J. F. and Aucelia (Perrin) Bacon, both natives of that state.
Mr. Bacon's education was begun in the public schools of his native county. When he was ten years of age he accompanied his mother to Col- orado, where they lived for several years, and where, in the public schools and the Denver Business College, his studies were pursued until he was eighteen. When he was twenty-one he and his mother came to California. That was in 1885. They located in Oakland, and here his mother passed the closing years of her life, and died in 1899. For two years after coming to Oakland, Mr. Bacon was in the employ of the California & Nevada Railway Company, as conductor. In 1888 he entered the service of the Oakland Street Railway Company, as conductor, and was thus occupied until 1902, when he was elected to the office of county auditor of Alameda county, for a term of four years, being the choice of the Union labor ticket.
Mr. Bacon is connected with numerous fraternal organizations. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Free and Accepted Masons, the Car-men's Benevolent Society, Car-men's Union and the Oak- land Press Club. He is a member of the Oakland board of trade. In 1887 Mr. Bacon married Miss Hester E. Woods, a native of Massachusetts.
GEORGE S. PIERCE.
George S. Pierce, chief deputy in the office of county clerk of Alameda county, California, is one of the popular and rising young men of Oakland.
Mr. Pierce was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, September 8, 1874, son of William W. and Helen J. (Haynes) Pierce. The Pierce family to which our subject belongs is descended from one of the Mayflower passengers, and Will- iam W. Pierce was a native of New York state. The latter emigrated to California with his family of three sons and one daughter. in 1883, and set- tled in Oakland. At the time of their removal to this state George S. was a
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boy of nine years. He attended the common and high schools in Oakland un- til he was eighteen, the next five years was secretary. of the Builders' Asso- ciation in Oakland, and in 1898 he was appointed deputy under Frank C. Jordan, clerk of Alameda county. He served one year as judgment clerk un- der Mr. Jordan and three years as clerk in Judge Hall's court. In 1902 he was appointed to his present position, that of chief deputy under John P. Cook.
Mr. Pierce, like other members of the family to which he belongs, is an ardent Republican and takes a pride in keeping himself posted on all the political issues of the day. He was secretary of the Republican county cen- tral committee for four years. And in this connection we state that George S. Pierce is a cousin of Charles D. Pierce, who was elected mayor of Oak- land at the age of twenty-six years.
In Masonic circles the subject of our sketch has been honored by hav- ing confered upon him the thirtieth degree of the Scottish Rite.
JOSEPH H. HUNT.
This is an age of mammoth industries, of important enterprises and ex- tensive business concerns of diversified character, and at the head of such in- terests stand men of marked energy, keen discernment and strong executive force. Of such a class is Joseph H. Hunt a representative, and his career excites the admiration and awakens the regard of his contemporaries and those who know aught of his history, for he started out in life empty-handed, and without the aid of adventitious circumstances or the assistance of in- fluential friends he has steadily worked his way upward, advancing from humble surroundings to large worldly successes through the opportunity which is the pride of our American life. His ambition has enabled him to find in each forward step broader scope for his labors and a wider outlook for future possibilities and to-day he stands at the head of an institution which has contributed more than any other to the development, growth and general prosperity of Haywards, for the canning business conducted under the name of the Hunt Brothers Company has been the most important fac- tor in the industrial and commercial life of the town in which it is located.
Mr. Hunt was born in Nevada county, California, September 25, 1864. His father, W. J. Hunt, is a representative of an old American family and was born in Missouri. He came to California in 1860 and is now engaged in fruit raising at Sebastapol, California. He married Miss Lucy Jackson, who died in 1872.
The early boyhood days of Joseph H. Hunt were fraught with many hardships, difficulties and trials. His mother died when he was eight years old and the family was in limited financial circumstances. Because of this he left home to work upon a farm, and at the same time, through the in- ducement of his father, he attended school. When he was a boy of nearly seventeen years of age his father planted for a Santa Rosa company a large acreage of blackberries, but when the fruit reached a bearing condition the company failed and the father had to do something with the crop in order
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to get a return for his labors. He utilized the berries by converting them into wine and cordials, and for two years Joseph Hunt traveled about the country in a wagon loaded with the product, which he sold to local dealers. In 1884 he became a student in Pacific Methodist College, where he re- mained for two years, but was obliged to discontinue his studies on account of ill health. Throughout the greater part of his business career he has been connected in one capacity or another with the production of fruit or its kin- dred industries in California. During the year following his college course he purchased green fruit for the J. Lusk Company, of Oakland, and the fol- lowing year he began drying fruit in Santa Rosa. After the close of that season he was given charge of the orange packing department at Riverside of W. R. Strong & Company. of Sacramento, and thus from time to time he was promoted and gained a broader and more comprehensive knowledge of the business in which he was destined to rise to leadership. In 1887 he went east, spending the winter in Missouri. In 1888, however, he returned to California and again entered the employ of Strong & Company, shipping oranges in the winter for that firm, while conducting his own dryer in Santa Rosa during the summer months.
It was in the summer of 1888 that Mr. Hunt embarked in the canning business on a small scale on his father's ranch near Sebastapol. Although the enterprise was a very primitive affair he packed fifteen hundred cases of fruit in that season. His brother, W. C. Hunt, who has recently departed this life, joined him in business at that time. In 1889 he built a small can- nery in Sebastapol, which the following year was removed to Santa Rosa, and at that date the Hunt Brothers Fruit Packing Company was organized and succeeded to the business of the former canning company and also to that of the fruit-drying company. In 1896, however, this business was sold out and the Hunt Brothers Company was then incorporated and established a new enterprise by the erection of a cannery in Haywards. It was a com- paratively small institution that began packing, but the men back of it were progressive, understood the market and the public demand and carried for- ward the work of improvement in various lines until a very large enterprise was that which represented the canning industry of Haywards. After the death of his brother, J. H. Hunt assumed the active management of the busi- ness and has since been at its head.
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