USA > California > San Luis Obispo County > A memorial and biographical history of the counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura, California Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future; with full-page steel portraits of its most eminent men, and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 39
USA > California > Santa Barbara County > A memorial and biographical history of the counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura, California Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future; with full-page steel portraits of its most eminent men, and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 39
USA > California > Ventura County > A memorial and biographical history of the counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura, California Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future; with full-page steel portraits of its most eminent men, and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 39
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Mr. Tognazzini then came to San Luis Obispo County, and bought 700 acres of land, and has since added to it until he owns over 1,000 acres. He bought 150 head of stock and put it upon the ranch, which his nephew conducted, while he continued the business in Marin County. He finally moved ;here and rented 2,000 acres at seventy-five cents an acre for five years. When he rented this land people thought it would prove a failure; but it has since proved a success. In 1881 he bought a ranch in Santa Barbara, consisting of 3,200 acres, which is one of the best dairy ranches in the county. He lias 250 cows and inade 505 boxes of butter in the year 1889. In 1884, with a partner, he purchased 7,000 acres in Santa Barbara County, which was divided into dairies.
Mr. Tognazzini was one of the incorpora- tors of the Commercial Bank of San Luis Obispo and is one of the directors. He has built a very pleasant home on his ranch, one and a half miles northeast of Cayncos, which is surrounded with trees and shrubs. He is
now the owner of 1,800 acres of land in Cayu- ucos, on which he raises a few horses that have frequently taken the premium at the fairs. He also raises cattle and hogs.
Mr. Tognazzini was united in marriage, in 1867, at San Francisco, to Miss Madaline Reghetti, a native of Switzerland. They have had five children, four of whom are living, viz .: Virgilio Valerio, now at college, studying engineering; Americo and Celia. Mr. and Mrs. Tognazzini are members of the Catholic Church. Mr. Tognazzini is a mem- ber of the Odd Fellows Lodge, and is also a Mason. In his political relations he is a Republican, and is an illustration of what an honest man can become in the county of San Luis Obispo.
E. KILSON was born in Iowa, Jan- uary 29, 1857. His parents, Lewis ? and Caroline Kilson, were natives of Bergen, Norway. They emigrated to Am- erica in September, 1838, and went to Cin- cinnati, the journey at that time being a most arduous one. They soon afterward settled in Adams County, Illinois, on a farm they bought and improved. Later, they sold it and moved to Wisconsin, and, after a year spent in that State, removed, in 1855, to Butler County, Iowa. They entered 240 acres of land for a homestead, and this they developed into a fine farm, They built a nice home, and there resided until their deaths, which occurred, the mother's on November 10, 1881, and the father's November 28, 1889.
The subject of this sketch was the fifth of a family of seven children. He was reared in Bristow, Butler County, Iowa, and received his education in the public schools of that town. He assisted his father on the farmn
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until the age of twenty one years. At that time he came to California to carve his own destiny in the land that offers so many induce- ments to the worthy citizen, arriving in the Golden State February 7, 1882. He had already obtained some knowledge of tele- graphy, and his first move was to finish learning that business, at Pino, Placer County. He was afterward "sent to Arizona and at different times had charge of several stations: was three months at Yumna, one year at Dragoon Summit, the highest point on the Southern Pacific Railroad, and was two years at Nelson.
Mr. Kilson was married to Miss Laura F. Williams, December 17, 1886. She is a na- tive of California. From Nelson Mr. Kilson moved to Saticoy on the 20th of November, 1887. Here he has the position of ticket and station agent. He is an active and cap- able business man, and at once became iden- tified with the best interests of Saticoy; has bought property and built a neat and pleas- ant home, where he resides with his family. Mr. and Mrs. Kilson have two children: Lewis, born at Nelson, and Elmer, at Sat- icoy.
In his political views, Mr. Kilson is a Republican. He is a member of the K. of P., Eden Lodge, No. 101, at Nelson, Butte County, California.
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C. McFERSON, one of Cambria's old- time citizens, and one of its most reli- able and influential ranchers, is public- spirited and alive to the interests of the community. Ile is also a California pioneer, having come to this State with the last train that crossed the plains in 1849. There were sixty people in the company, and it was con-
ducted by Turner, Allen & Co. Every pas- senger paid $200 for passage and everything was furnished. They rode in three seated covered carriages, each drawn by fonr mules, and six passengers to a carriage. They ar- rived in Weaverville, one and a half miles south of Placerville, October 15, 1849. There is but one man living that Mr. McFerson knows of that came in that company, who is Lloyd Tevis, now a inan of wealth in San Francisco.
Mr. McFerson is a native of Ohio, born in Brown County, Angust 5, 1824. His father, Samuel McFerson, was a native of Ohio, born in 1789, and died in 1833. The ancestors of the family were from Scotland: his mother, Martha (Culter) McFerson, was a native of Ohio, and of English ancestry. His parents had seven children, of whom he is the youngest of the three now living. He was reared on a farm in Ohio, where he worked in summer and attended the county schools in the winter. He moved to Washington County, Indiana, and attended the Seminary there for two years. He commenced the study of medicine, and after a year's study the great California gold excitement broke out and he, like others, was taken with the fever. He went into the gold diggings in El Dorado County, and remained there until 1857, meeting with good success. For one day's work he received $115, the mnost he ever received; a single pan contained $25; he frequently made $100 per day. Ile was taken with typhoid fever, and was sick at the camp four months; in addition to his other troubles he had scurvy. The first onion he bought cost him $1, and potatoes were $1 a pound. There, after his recovery, he con- tinued mining. He afterward purchased a hotel, which he operated for two years at In- dian Diggings, El Dorado County.
August 6, 1855, Mr. McFerson was mar
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ried to Mrs. Guegnor, a native of Virginia, but resided in Ohio. They continued the hotel business for two years, when they sold out, in 1857, and removed to Mariposa County. He engaged in cutting cord-wood at 85 per cord for General John C. Fremont. There he made $10 per day, and followed the business for eighteen months. He then re- moved to Tulare County, and purchased eighty acres of land and engaged in farming. He built a house and fenced the property, and remained there until 1865, when he sold it and came to San Luis Obispo County, and settled on his present ranch, then unsurveyed Government land. Mrs. McFerson came in a spring wagon, driven by her son, Joseph Barrickman, and Mr. McFerson, with two others, drove the stock. She arrived first, and stopped at the house of George E. Long; Mr. McFerson was ten days on the road. They first lived in a little 10 x 12 log cabin. Mr. Long showed them the land, and they took 370 acres, which he still retains, and is conducting a stock-raising and dairy busi- ness. He built a nice house in 1868, and has planted an orchard for home use, with a large variety of fruit. The train with which Mrs. McFerson came to California was com- manded by Senator Hearst, who was a warm friend of the family, and with whom Mr. Mc- Ferson had been on many trips, when they had to sleep on the ground many nights to- gether. Mr. and Mrs. McFerson have helped to organize the Presbyterial Church at Cam- bria, in 1871, of which they have been faith- ful members since. He held Sunday-school in the little log school-house before the church was organized, and has been Sunday - school superintendent ever since. He is a trustee and elder of the Church. He is a member of the Odd Fellows Lodge, of which he has passed through all the chairs, and in 1889 was district deputy grand master of the
order. In his political views he has always been a Democrat.
- HOMAS HOSMER, a resident of Mon- tecito, was born in Freedom, Maine, in 1833. His father was a mechanic and a manufacturer of edged tools, and after leaving Freedom moved to Springfield, Mass- achusetts, where he carried on a large es- tablishinent. Thomas learned his trade of machinist at Belfast, Maine, in the shop of Messrs. White & Kimball, who did general country machine work, but especially work for shingle and saw mills. He remained with them four years, and in the spring of 1858 came to California, first settling at Sacra- mento, where he followed his trade for five years. In 1863 he became interested in a silver mine at Sonora, Mexico, went there and put up a quartz mill, and after a year of hard labor and much expense he gave it up as an unprofitable investment, and returned to San Francisco to follow his trade, working about three years for the Government at Mare Island, and the rest of the time in San Fran- cisco until the fall of 1871. In January, 1872, he came to the Montecito Valley and purchased nineteen acres of land where he now resides. He began with the almond cul- ture, but after two years of heavy bearing the crop failed. He then grafted the trees with plums and prunes, but, not meeting with success, the trees were taken out and oranges were put in their places, which are now doing well. He has about 700 orange and lemon trees.
Mr. Hosmer was elected Supervisor in 1884 and re-elected in 1888, proving an able and efficient officer. He was married in San Francisco in 1863, to Miss Frances Dinsinore, a native of Anson, Maine, who came to Cali-
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fornia with her parents in 1861, making the journey by steamer. IIer father came to Montecito in 1868, bought what is now known as San Ysidro ranch, and planted the first orange grove in the valley, containing 1,500 trees. The ranch has since been sold to J. Harleighi Jolinston, who has brought the fruit to a high state of perfection. Mr. and Mrs. Hosmer have four children, three danghters at home, and one son, who is a member of the firm of Hunt, Hosmer & Co., of Santa Barbara.
EOPOLD FRANKL, the founder of San Simeon, is a '49er, and a prominent business man of San Luis Obispo County ; he was born in Vienna, Austria, April 7, 1818, the son of Adolph Frankl, a native of Austria, and a merchant all through his life. His grandfather, on the maternal side, was Alios Leathern, a mail-carrier in Austria for years, and lived to the great age of 110 years. Mr. Frankl's mother, Catherine (Leathern) Frankl, was a native of Austria. They had six children, of whom three are living, the eldest, the middle one and the second. The eldest is now eighty-five years of age, the youngest, the subject of this sketch, is seventy- two years. He was educated in Austria, and learned engineering, and worked in the mines in California as a mining engineer. From 1856 to 1860 he was with General John C. Fremont in his inining enterprises in . Mari- posa. He built the railroad and 100-stamp inill at the Benton Mines, namned by Fre- mont after Jessie Benton, his wife's naine before marriage. He afterward worked in the mines, and had 250 men at work. When Fremont went to Europe, in 1860, Mr. Frankl rented the inill, and sent the gold to Kra- hangen & Cruse, and to Davison, agent
of Rothschild's Bank, in San Francisco, General Fremont went to England to raise money, and the arrangements were about consummated when the civil war broke out, and the unsettled condition of the country prevented the closing of the business. In 1865 Mr. Frankl sold the mines to T. W. Parks, by order of General Fremont. He then was engaged in the mines at Mexico, for Tillinghast, agent of a London mining com- pany, for fifteen months. He became sick and came to San Simeon, and for years was wharfinger and agent for the Pacific Stean- ship Company. In 1875 Mr. Frankl opened a general merchandise store in San Simeon, and has conducted it until the present time, enjoying a great portion of the business for miles around. He received the appointment of Postmaster in 1874, and has held the po- sition ever since. He sold seven leagues of land to Senator Hearst for $85,000, and has done most of the building in San Simeon. He also owns very valuable property, and for the past few years has been reducing his real estate; he has made lately two sales of $10,000 each. He has a large mercantile business, conducted by his nephews in Lake View, Oregon. He was raised to the Hebrew religion, and in his political views is a Re- publican.
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NDREW MARTIN, one of California's early pioneers, was born in LaFayette County, Missouri, in 1824; his father was a pioneer to that State. In 1837 they moved to Platte Purchase, and took up 160 acres of heavily timbered land. Andrew pre- pared to leave home at the age of twenty-one years, but owing to his father's illness he re- mained at home and looked after his interests. June 15, 1856, he entered the Government
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service at Fort Leavenworth, under Colonel Price, as teamster during the Mexican war, driving the ammunition wagon. At Taos, in January, 1847, he volunteered under Lieu- tenant Dyer, of the artillery, and fought all day through that engagement. A few fights subdued the Mexicans, and he then returned to Santa Fé, and later to Fort Leavenworth, where he was mustered out in June 22, 1847. The following year he worked at home, ex- cept four months, engaged in driving freight teams to Santa Fé. In July, 1848, he was married in Clay County, Missouri, to Miss Mary L. Bradbury. After spending the win- ter in Kansas, in May, 1850, they started across the plains for California, driving an ox team of five yoke, and one horse for his wife to ride. They joined a train commanded by John Morris, and after many hardships with the Indians, sickness among the company, cholera and short supplies, they arrived in California by the Carson route, having been four months on the road. Mr. Martin first inined in Amador County one winter, then in 1851 he went to Cold Springs, where his camp was burned and all his effects were lost. In October, 1852, they came to Santa Clara County, and in 1853 went to Half Moon Bay, San Mateo County, and there remained eight years. They took up what was supposed to be Government land, but which proved part of a grant, and they were finally put off, thus losing eight years of labor during the best part of his life. In the spring of 1866 he took up land at Pescadero, San Mateo County, and remained there until 1873, raising hay and teaming in the Redwoods, and also mak- ing pickets and shingles. Mr. Martin then passed one year in Oregon, and in 1874 came to Carpenteria Valley, purchasing fifty-five acres of valley land, which was covered with live-oak timber, with the exception of five acres. He then began clearing and planting,
and now has a beautiful ranch, under a high state of cultivation. He has set out about seventy walnut trees, and has about 2,000 trees in nursery. He also plants about forty acres in beans.
Mr. and Mrs. Martin have five children, four sons and one daughter. Their present spacious residence was built in 1888, nnder the assistance and direction of the sons, who are all at home. Mr. Martin located a home- stead on Mount Hor in 1887, consisting of 120 acres, eighty acres of which is tillable land, and fifty acres are now under cultiva- tion.
K. STEVENS, proprietor of the Palm and Citrus Nursery, in the west end of Montecito, makes a specialty of palms (of which he has forty different varieties), and tropical fruit trees, many very delicate and sensitive, but his locality is rarely visited by frost. Banana fruit ripens on the plants; orange, lemon, lime, and the olive also do well. The ranch is well supplied by water, and of the 260 acres the greater part is under cultivation.
S. WHITAKER came to California in 1853, and ranks among the pioneers of the State. He was born in Indiana, February 18, 1832, and is the son of John M. Whitaker. His father, who was born in 1802, and who is still living, was a member of the Legislature of Iowa for twenty years off and on, and had the honor of selecting the State University lands. He married Mrs. Jane Phillips, a native of Ohio, and daughter of William Phillips. They
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had six children, tive sons and one daughter, all of whom are now living.
The subject of this sketch was reared and educated in Van Buren County, Iowa, and lived on a farm until twenty-one years of age, when he came to California. He first engaged in mining at Dry Town, Calaveras County, and prospected without any success there; he then went to Grizzly Flats, El Dorado County, where he worked two years and saved $2,000. He was one of four men who took out twenty-six ounces of gold, worth $468, in one day. It was nothing unusual to take out from six to twelve ounces per day. This luck came to him the last winter spent in the mines. The first winter he spent in the mountains, six miles above Grizzly Flats, he prospected without any success, and dur- ing that time he suffered a great deal, the snow being three feet deep. He became afflicted with the scurvy, and walked out through the snow three feet deep to Grizzly Flats, where he could get a vegetable diet. In the summer of 1856 he and his partner thought they had about exhausted their claim, and, receiving a good offer for it, sold out. Mr. Whitaker received $600 for his in- terest. The parties who bought it afterward took ont large quantities of gold.
Mr. Whitaker returned to Iowa with his money, arriving June 17, 1856; he engaged in the mercantile business until 1863, in which year he went back to California. He settled in Marin County, remained there dur- ing the winter, went to Nevada, mined and prospected six months, and October 7, 1863, came to San Luis Obispo County. He pur- chased a ranch, on which he lived during the winter, and in the spring helped organize the firm of Grant, Lull & Co. Mr. Lull went to San Francisco after goods, and while he was away Mr. Whitaker moved the logs of a log house down the San Simeon Creek and re-
built it near the Coast road for a store. It was ready when the goods arrived, the stock -not a large one-costing $1,800. Mr Whitaker relates many interesting incidents which happened during his business experi -. ence at that place. Among the goods was a crate of crockery, and at first they had little hope of disposing of it, but there was no crockery in the country and it proved to be just the thing wanted. Mr. Whitaker kept the cash account. One day they received nothing until nearly night, when a Spaniard came in and bought a drink of whisky and saved the day! One of the partners. Mr. Lull, has kept that coin as a memento of the day's business and their little pioneer store at the month of the San Simeon Creek. One night, while they were at supper, an Indian broke into the store through the window. When they found the store had been entered, they first went to the money drawer, nothing had been taken from it. A drunken Indian fast asleep on the beach was enough to tell the story of the robbery, and, as the tide was coming in, had they not found him when they did, he would doubtless have been drowned. After doing business for six months in this locality, they removed to Cambria. They built the first store at that place and put in $3,000 worth of goods. From that time Cambria began to build up. The first hotel was built by Mr. Rice. Mr. Proctor built his blacksmith shop; and the work of settlement and development has gone on. Mr. Whitaker's firm continned the busi- ness until 1867. He then sold his interest, removed to San Simeon and took charge of the wharf for the Steamship Company and acted as their agent. IIe bonght the hotel and ran it for some time, then prospected and mined, and now has charge of the San Simeon wharf and is agent for the Pacific Coast Steamship Company. During the
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quicksilver excitement of 1875-'76, he had an interest in the mine with Mr. George Van Gordon and others. They a made a contract for a new process of saving the quicksilver; but, after much expense, it proved a failure. The machine did not separate as represented. They lost money, but still retain the mine, expecting ultimately to make it pay.
Mr. Whitaker and his son do a dairy busi- ness on their ranch at the mouth of the San Simeon Creek-the first land he took up. They own 420 acres of land which joins the San Simeon grant-three leagues of land that could, at one time, have been purchased for $5.000. It is now worth a vast sum of money. The dry season of 1864 caused im- mense loss to the cattle men, and nearly all the early settlers were engaged in that busi- ness. The people were greatly discouraged, and it seemed to them that California was worthless, but it has since proved a wonder- fully productive country, and large sums of money have been made in the dairy and cat- tle business.
Mr. Whitaker has three children, Ira R., Alice and Lotty. The first and second were born in Winchester, Iowa, and the youngest in San Luis Obispo County. Politically Mr. Whitaker is a Democrat.
H. FRANKLIN, one of Cambria's most active business men, being a ° merchant, Postmaster and Justice of the Peace, and President of the Board of Education of the county. He is a son of Colonel Willliam H. Franklin, now of San José, but a native of New Jersey. He served under General Scott, and was also a veteran of the great civil war, and for a time held the position of Provost Marshal of the city of Washington. He was advanced to the rank
of Colonel in his regiment, and was several times wounded while in command of his men on the battle-field. His grandfather was Benjamin Franklin, a native of New Jersey, and his great-grandfather was the world- renowned Benjamin Franklin, the first Post- inaster General of the United States. His mother was Morgiana R. (Hurber) Franklin.
Benjamin H. Franklin, our subject, was born in Philadelphia, September 1, 1856, and was the eldest in a family of nine children, only four of whom survive. He was reared and educated at San José, and is a graduate of the business college, high school and normal school. In 1876 he came direct from school to Cambria, where he taught school for two years. For a time he was engaged in real-estate and money lending, and pur- chased county warrants. He was appointed Postmaster in 1882, but was removed by the administration of President Cleveland and re-installed when Harrison was elected Presi- dent. He has been a member of the Board of Education of the county nearly ever since coming to the county. For five years he clerked for the firm of Grant & Tull, and at the same time was telegraph operator and Postmaster. In 1885 he opened a variety store, which has consequently grown until he now has a large general stock, the largest in town. When the fire broke out he owned 100 feet on Main street, the theatre building, and a building rented for a saloon and his store. The rate of insurance had been raised to nine and a half per cent., and while trying to get the price down the fire caught him without a dollar of insurance. The fire originated in a hotel, a block from him, and he succeeded in saving $2,000 worth of goods, the rest was a total loss, amounting to about $10,000. The next morning after the fire he opened his store in the parlor of a dwelling house, and in five days had a building, 26 x 40 feet, into
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which he moved and conducted the only inercantile business in town. He has sinee added to the building thirty feet, and is carrying a very large line of goods. As a justice of the peace he makes it a point to have all the eases that come to him settled, and this does the litigants a service, saving both them and the county costs. He is a member of the Odd Fellows lodge, and has passed through all the chairs; he is now secretary of the order. Mr. Franklin has a ranch of 500 acres on the Santa Rosa Creek, run for him on shares, seven miles from Cambria; it is nicely improved and has on it about 100 head of eattle; they milk about seventy cows. He has a nice residence in Cambria, and a business bloek in San Luis Obispo, on which he has three stores, rented.
Mr. Franklin was married in 1876, to Miss Mabel Runyon, a native of Colfax, on the Sacramento River, near where Courtland now stands. She is the daughter of Alexander Runyon, a rancher horticulturist. They have four children, three sons and a daughter, all born in Cambria, viz .: Benjamin H., Ray- mond, Alexander and a baby unnamed. Mr. Franklin is a man of business sagacity and integrity. In addition to the other offices which he has held is trustee of the school board. He speaks English, Spanish and German. He furnishes a little music for the people in the Presbyterian church. It is questionable whether the renowned Benjamin Franklin had as much business on his hands as his great-grandson. The following story is told of Benjamin Franklin the first, not narrated in his history. It is said that when his father took him to church, he was annoyed to see his son gazing about and not appar- ently paying much attention to the sermon. He sald to him when they came out, " Benj- amin, you pained mne by the poor attention you seemed to be giving to the sermon; I 18
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