An illustrated history of Southern California : embracing the counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the peninsula of Lower California, from the earliest period of occupancy to the present time; together with glimpses of their prospects; also, full-page portraits of some of their eminent men, and biographical mention of many of their pioneers and of prominent citizens of to-day, Part 20

Author: Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1038

USA > California > Los Angeles County > An illustrated history of Southern California : embracing the counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the peninsula of Lower California, from the earliest period of occupancy to the present time; together with glimpses of their prospects; also, full-page portraits of some of their eminent men, and biographical mention of many of their pioneers and of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 20
USA > California > San Diego County > An illustrated history of Southern California : embracing the counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the peninsula of Lower California, from the earliest period of occupancy to the present time; together with glimpses of their prospects; also, full-page portraits of some of their eminent men, and biographical mention of many of their pioneers and of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 20
USA > California > Orange County > An illustrated history of Southern California : embracing the counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the peninsula of Lower California, from the earliest period of occupancy to the present time; together with glimpses of their prospects; also, full-page portraits of some of their eminent men, and biographical mention of many of their pioneers and of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 20
USA > California > San Bernardino County > An illustrated history of Southern California : embracing the counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the peninsula of Lower California, from the earliest period of occupancy to the present time; together with glimpses of their prospects; also, full-page portraits of some of their eminent men, and biographical mention of many of their pioneers and of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 20

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was sold to an English syndicate and the com- pany is now known as the San Diego Water Company, Mr. Babcock still acting as president. The directors are: E. S. Babcock, Jr., Captain B. Scott, manager of the International Company; G. H. Puterbaugh, judge of the superior court; W. W. Whitney, director of the First National Bank; J. H. Barbour, cashier Consolidated Na- tional Bank; Joseph A. Flint, secretary and treasurer.

Mr. Flint was married at Smartsville, Yuba County, California, December 16, 1869, to Miss Sarah A. Taylor, a native of New Hampshire. They have three children, of whom only two daughters survive, Alice May, born in 1870, and Gertrude Durose, born in 1873. Both are at home and attending school in San Diego. Under the new charter Mr. Flint was elected a mem- ber of the board of education in 1889. On February 19, 1890, he was appointed receiver of the street car company of this city. His residence is at 126 Grand avenue, Reed and Hubbell's Addition.

M ARTIN TRIMMER, farmer and stock- raiser on the Japatul ranch, was born in Vemvied on the Rhine, kingdom of Prussia, Angust 28, 1826, and emigrated with his father's parents and his annt Philipina Wei- land, to the United States in April, 1838, em. barking on the ship New Scotland at Havre de Grace, France, and landing at Baltimore about the last of May. His father had emigrated to this country five years previously and settled on a farm in Tazewell County, Illinois, two and a half miles from Washington and ten miles from Peoria, and was joined by this party July 15, 1838. At the age of twenty-one years Mr. Trimmer left home and worked in a harness shop in St. Louis until the last day of January, 1949, when he enlisted in the First Regiment of Mounted Rifles as bugler, and was assigned at Jefferson barracks near that city to Company F, commanded by Captain and Brevet Lieuten-

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ant-Colonel Andrew J. Porter. As the Asiatic cholera was raging fearfully among the troops, they were transferred in March to Fort Leaven- worth, and were stationed at Camp Sumner there until May 1, 1849. The troops began their long journey across the plains to Oregon Territory and reached their destination, Oregon City, in October. The next spring they went to Vancouver, belonging to the Hudson Bay Company and built the barracks there named Fort Vancouver.

The next year the troops were ordered back to the States. Leaving Vancouver May 10, 1851, on the United States transport propeller Massachusetts, they arrived May 15 at Benicia, where six companies were transferred to the dragoons and infantry under the command of Major Phil Kearny. After crossing the isthinus they were transported on the mail steamer Fal- con to Cuba, arriving there July 1. This island they left on the 3d, on the mail steamer Chero- kee for New Orleans, and after spending a week at the barracks there they finally returned to Jefferson barracks near St. Louis.

The following October the regiment was again reorganized and they went by way of New Or- leans to Indianola, Texas, and thence to Fort Merrill on the Nueces river, where Lieutenant Stockton was relieved, with a detail of twelve men. In 1852 they built Fort Ewell, on the Nueces river, and Fort Judge on the Lyon river. From this post two companies were out in ac- tive service against the hostile Apaches, who had made depredations in Texas from the Mex- ican side. Of this scouting party Mr. Trimmer was the bugler. In September, while they were in camp at Redman's ranch on the Rio Grande, they were informed by the Mexicans that about 100 Indians had crossed from Mexico to the Texas side to steal horses. The company under the command of the celebrated Captain Gordon Granger (afterward General in the last war), started at once in pursuit, and on the third day, early in the morning, they overtook the mna- randers at their crossing place about twenty miles above Redman's ranch, where they had all

their plunder already done up in raw hides to take across the river. They had already got twenty-five horses across. The Indians imine- diately plunged into the Rio Grande and were all dispatched to the " happy hunting grounds:" not one was left to tell the tale. Two brothers from the company, named John and William Wright, swam the river and recovered the horses.

Mr. Trimmer was discharged from military service in San 'Antonio, Texas, February 1, 1854, and was employed by Major Belger at the Alamo for three months, when, in company with Dr. Edwards (formerly surgeon in the army) and Colonel Charles Pyron, of Texas Ranger fame, he left for California, May 1. Taking the southern route they arrived at Tue- son in June, and at Fort Yuma in July, where Mr. Trimmer worked a few months for Captain Rowley and George F. Hooper. In September he left Yuma with the intention of going to Oregon; but on arriving at Carisa he met Will- iam Bettiger, who persuaded him to go on the Lientenant Derby survey, under Charles H. Poole, deputy, to divide the great American desert into townships. In this work he was en- gaged in 1855; and the next two years he was on the Dr. Madison survey, under Robert W. Troom, deputy, sectionizing the great desert. Mr. Trimmer therefore has traveled over that vast area from one end to the other.

From 1857 to 1863 he was engaged in differ- ent occupations, and then was maliciously taken as a political prisoner to Fort Alcatraz, where he was confined about ten days, under Captain William A. Winder, being released December 15, 1863. Returning then to San Diego, with Captain Morton, on the brig Boston, he arrived abont December 28. For three or four years he was with E. W. Morse in his store in Old Town; and in 1868 he kept the American Hotel in Old San Diego, in company with Benjamin F. Jones, until 1870. He then rented the Gabino Aguilar place near Guetay, called San Gertrudes, and followed farming there until November, 1873. Then he purchased the pos-

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HISTORY OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY.

sessory right of Mrs. Perfecta Ames to the Japatul ranch, where he still resides engaged in farming and stock-raising.

Mr. Trimmer was married in July, 1864, in San Diego, to Miss Martha Murillo, grand- daughter of Thomas Warner, from Lower Cali- fornia. Their four sons and four daughters are all living.

W. HENDRICK, attorney at law, San Diego, was born at Bowling Green, Pike County, Missouri, March 6, 1847. His father was formerly a merchant, but in later life took to farming, and purchased about 400 acres in Pike County. The subject of this sketch re- mained at home until fourteen years of age, at- tending the common schools. He then started for the west, first driving a horse teain to Denver, then an ox-team to Oregon, and later on to Cali- fornia, where he passed one year at the Napa Col- lege Institute. Returning in 1864 to the east, he attended Brown's University at Providence, Rhode Island, and after seven years of study grad- uated in 1871; he then went to Europe and spent fourteen months in travel and study, visiting the principal cities and countries. On his re- turn he again came to California, and entered the law office of Daingerfield & Olney, promi- nent attorneys of San Francisco, and after eighteen montlis of study he was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court at Sacramento in April, 1874. He then visited San Diego, and having great faith in the future of the town de- cided to establish here his permanent residence, and immediately opened an office and began the practice of general law. In 1880 he was elect- ed to the Legislature, and was recognized as one of the most able speakers in the House. In 1884 he was elected District Attorney of San Diego.

He was one of the original stockholders and promoters of the San Diego Iron and Nail Manufactory, and is now president of the Loma Manufacturing Company at Roseville. He was

one of the founders of the public library, which was established in 1881, and is still one of the trustees. He is, in fact, an active, enterprising promotor of San Diego's interests.

ILLIAM X. GARDNER, San Diego .- Among the earliest pioneers to this coast was the subject of this sketch, who was born in Oneida County, New York, November 29, 1814. The first sixteen years of his life was passed upon the farm. He was then apprenticed to a large carriage manufactory at Skaneateles, New York, where after five years of continued service he learned the trade, which he followed until 1844. Then being desirons of travel he started westward, visiting what were then the territories of Wis- consin, Minnesota, Iowa, and settling at Chicago, where he remained until the 17th of July, 1848. He then took the steamer America for Buffalo, visiting Niagara, where he witnessed the stretch- ing of the first cable of the suspension bridge, then by rail, lake steamers and canal boats, he reached New York city. In October, 1848, he took the steamship California, which was built at Novelty Iron Works on East river, New York city, and without even testing the steamer by a trial trip they embarked from the works direct to the Pacific coast, Mr. Gardner being the only passenger for San Francisco. This was in the early days of steamboating, and though the machinery was very imperfect and the making of ports was frequently necessary to take in coal, the trip was made with but one accident, in the straits of Magellan, arriving in San Francisco February, 1849, which was then a small adobe town; but owing to the gold ex- citement of that year and the rapid immigration, it soon became a thickly settled city. For the next seventeen years the subject of this sketch lived in and abont San Francisco, working at carpentering, mining and ranching, and always subject to the vicissitudes of those unsettled days. In 1861, soon after the commencement of the civil war, he entered the service of the

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HISTORY OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY.

United States as a volunteer in Company B, Fifth California Infantry, and was discharged the 12th of December, 1864, at Franklin, Texas, and at once returned to California and entered the service of the Central Pacific Railroad Com- pany, where he continued until 1867. Then, after leaving their employment, le journeyed south by stage, visiting at Santa Bárbara, Los Angeles and settling at San Diego. He first worked at his trade in and about Old Town, and as the city extended became interested in its several enterprises. Purchasing forty acres of land adjoining Horton's addition to San Diego, he surveyed and laid off into town lots Gard- ner's addition to San Diego. He was one of the original incorporators of what is now the Sontlı Division Water Company; they began the piping of the town and inade their own pipe from sheet iron. Their water supply camne from a well 170 feet deep and twelve feet in diameter. Mr. Gardner has been engaged in several enterprises, and among others that of sulphur mining at the head of the gulf in Lower California, but is now living on a ten- acre tract at South San Diego, which he is set- ting to fruit.

Mr. Gardner, though seventy-six years of age, is erect and vigorous and apparently in the full enjoyment of life and most excellent health.

H. DODSON, an carly pioneer of Califor- nia, and an attorney at San Diego, was born on the frontier of lowa, Van Buren County, December 31, 1839. His parents were natives of Pennsylvania, but emigrated to Iowa in 1836, and procured large tracts of land border- ing on the Des Moines river. His father died in 1840, but the family lived upon the homestead until 1857, when the property was sold. The sub- ject of this sketch, with his mother, sister and brother, emigrated to California, coming across the plains with ox teams through Salt Lake City, and arrived safely in the Sacramento val- ley. They bought a ranch of 320 acres, thirty

miles south of Sacramento, where they lived about ten years and cultivated a fine fruit or- chard. Mr. Dodson's early education was re- ceived in Iowa; he then finished at Taylor & Bell's private institute at Sacramento. He en- tered the law office of Presley Dunlap in Sac- ramento and passed before the Supreme Bench in December, 1868. He then began practice, but on account of ill health he came to San Diego in 1869, where he lias lived continuously, with the exception of eight years spent at Poway, where he owned a ranch and kept a wayside inn. He went to Poway on account of his health, as he needed the more bracing air of the interior. He returned to San Diego in 1887, and is now devoting himself to a general practice.

Mr. Dodson has been twice married, and has one son, a boy of seventeen years. Mr. Dodson is a member of the society of San Diego Pio- neers.

OBERT C. MILLS, JR. is the Elsinore hardware merchant. Having a stock of shelf hardware, farm implements, carriages and wagons, fully abreast of the needs of the town, he enjoys the patronage of the county for six iniles in every direction. He came from Man- itoba to Elsinore in 1885; he had been in the for- mer płace, in the real-estate business, for two years. Ile was born, raised and educated in the Ottawa valley, Canada, and dates his birth Octo- ber 20, 1854. His father, R.C. Mills, Sr., was also born in Canada, and his mother, nee Miss Anna MeVicar, was born in Scotland. The subject of this sketch was the second of a family of eight surviving children. He was in the lum- ber business seven years before leaving his native place. When he began his hardware business the firm was Mills Brothers, but after- ward he bought his brother ont, and is now running the business alone. In 1876 he was married in Toronto, Canada, to Miss Eliza Ban- nerman, a native of Scotland, and they have

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HISTORY OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY.

four children, three born in Canada, and the youngest born in Elsinore. They are Robert, eleven years of age; Alma, eight years of age; Thomas Murry, five years of age, and Tracy Junor, one and one-half years of age. Mrs. Mills is a Presbyterian, which church Mr. Mills attends. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, is a painstaking obliging business man, and a lover of home. He is well pleased with Elsinore, and is identified with its interests, and has made the United States the country of his adoption.

ENRY L. DAVIS, lumberman, San Diego, was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1860, and was educated in New York city. At the age of twenty-three years he entered the shipping house of his father, Jonas Smith & Co., New York, as cashier, and in two years became a junior partner, of which he still re- mains. The business of the firm, which was established in 1840, is that of trading with foreign countries, confined principally to the East Indies, West Indies, and South America. In 1887 they became interested in San Diego, through the medium of Mr. E. S. Babcock, Jr., who induced Mr. Davis to send the first sailing ship from New York via Cape Horn to the port of San Diego. This vessel, the James A. Borland, with a cargo of 1,200 tons, consisting of coal, iron pipe, plaster, etc., arrived after a passage of 158 days from New York. This in- augurated the opening of a new and economical means of transportation from the East. Sev- eral ships followed, including one steamer at intervals, which is now being continued. In Angust, 1888, Mr. Davis arrived in San Diego to look after the interests of his firm. He at once purchased several cargoes of Inmber at Puget Sound, and dispatched his ships to bring it to San Diego, whereupon he established the Independent Lumber Company, and reduced the price of pine lumber, ranging from $2.00 to $7.00 per thousand feet from the rates that

were being exacted by the combination com- panies. This created strong opposition, but had the effect of forcing the combination companies to reduce prices materially, and which have never been advanced. These operations required facilities that would reduce the cost of trans- portation, and handling of lumber at the min- imum of expense. Land was purchased on the water front, a bulkhead and dock built, in ad- dition to the employment of the firm's ships, which thus provided means by which Inmber could be sold slightly over actual cost and freight.

In November, 1889, Mr. Davis erected a large warehouse upon his property, which com- plete facilities for shipping and receiving by rail and water. This was built for the purpose of warehousing goods shipped by sailing vessels from New York, as occasion might require, and for the storage of grain awaiting shipment by sea from San Diego, as return cargoes to the United Kingdom. Mr. Davis is also one of the owners of the Cedros Island Mining Company, located off the coast of Lower California, where the company have fifty inen now employed and several vessels engaged in transporting gold ore to San Diego for reduction. The operations of this company, of which little is known to the outside world, are becoming so extensive as to require the erection of smelting works for the treatment of ore, and the purchase of a steamer for transportation, at a very early date.

OHN DEWEY is one of Elsinore's straight- forward business men and pioneers. He was born in New York State, August 19, 1845. His father, Levi Dewey, and his mother Jenette (Johnson) Dewey, and grandfather, George Johnson, all had their nativity in the State of New York. Mr. Dewey's maternal grandfather was a distiller of New York, and lived to be ninety-one years of age. He left a large estate; he bequeathed to each of his great- grandchildren $1,000, and to his grandchildren

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HISTORY OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY.

$2,000 each, and the balance of his large prop- erty was divided among his sons and daughters. Mr. Dewey was the youngest of six children. It was his misfortune to lose his mother by death when he was only two years of age. For a time he was cared for by his grandmother, but when his father remarried he made his home with him. He attended school in his native State and helped his father on the farm, and after he became of age he farmed on his own account for six years.

In 1867 he was married to Miss Celia Stark- ey, a daughter of George Starkey of New York. By this union he had one daughter, Berdella, born in Delaware, who is now the wife of Mr. Carl Merryfield, and resides in Los Angeles. Mrs. Dewey died in 1873, six years after their marriage, and Mr. Dewey was bereft of the wite of his choice, and the little daughter, Berdella, was left without a most affectionate mother. This change in his hopes and prospects was hard to bear. He broke up house-keeping and went to Leadville during the great mining ex- citement, and for two years devoted himself to making money. Hard work and exposure im- paired his health to such an extent that he had to desist. During his stay at Leadville he was enabled to send money to take good care of his daughter. He at last decided to come to Cali- fornia, and he settled at Pasadena. Rest and the change of climate restored his health con- siderably, and he obtained a situation at $50 per month and board, which position he held for four years. While in Pasadena he bought and dealt in property, and was very successful in his venture. About this time Mr. Heald discovered Elsinore, and started the town by the beautiful lake, and excitement ran high. Mr. Dewey, with others, came to the new town site of Elsi- nore, and invested in 200 acres of land, all of which, except six acres, he sold at a great ad- vance over cost. He then turned his attention to town lots and house building, and built seven good dwelling houses, for which he received rents at the rate of $90 per month. This con- tinued for about a year and a half. He has the

credit of building the first house that was paint- ed in the town, thus taking the lead in the con- struction of the many tasty and attractive places that now adorn the place. He came when there was but one small house, and in the space of five short years (one of them without the help of the railroad) he has seen hundreds of pleasant homes constructed, dotting the valley in every direction. Mr. Dewey's political views are Re- publican, and his religious opinions favor the Universalists' creed. He has been conservative in his business transactions, buying only what he conld pay for, and while he has not made as much money as some he has kept his business well in hand, and is able to smile at adversity. His neighbors speak well of him, and call him a one-hundred-cents-on-the-dollar man.

H. McDONALD, as the name indicates, is of Scotchi descent, and of Presbyterian parentage. His father, James McDon- ald, of Pictou, Nova Scotia, was born in 1802, was raised there and still lives there, at the age of eighty-eight, hale and hearty.

Mr. McDonald's inother, nee Miss Catherine Gourley, was born in the same place. There were thirteen children in the family, of which the subject of this sketeh was the youngest but one. He was educated at the Pictou Academy, in his native town, and went to learn the car- penters' trade at the age of eighteen, and has made it the business of his life since. He came to Southern California in 1881, and, with the exception of a few months spent in San Diego and Real del Castro, Baja California, lived in Los Angeles until 1885, about which time, his health failing him, he reluctantly left the city of his choice; going inland about 100 miles to San Jacinto, he found, after a few months' rest, together with enjoying the benefits of the hot springs at this place, that he became strong and hearty again. Business now calling him to Idaho and Montana, he remained north about eighteen months, and then returned to San Ja-

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HISTORY OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY.

cinto, bought property, built a neat house, and made other improvements. He is a conscien- tions man and an active, responsible house- builder and contractor.

HOMAS E. ELLIS, the pioneer doctor and druggist of Elsinore, was born in Wayne County, Indiana, Marclı 20, 1839. His father, Thomas Ellis, was a native of Vir- ginia, and his mother, Lydia (Thornburrough) Ellis, was from Tennessee. The whole family on both sides were American from the settle ment of the country, but were of Scotch extrac- tion. He was educated in the public schools of Indiana, and at the Bloomingdale Academy, and graduated at the Indiana State Medical College, and for twenty years practiced his pro- fession in Plainfield, Hendricks County, In- diana. For two years he held a Government position in Arizona with the Indians, and after this, in 1885, he came to Elsinore at its com- mencement, and was the first doctor and drug- gist in the place. He lived in a tent the first year, as it was nearly impossible to get Inmber, and there were no honses to rent. There were no drugs in the place, so he kept his own sup- ply, which formed the nucleus of his present pioneer drug store of Elsinore. He has pur- chased property and built a good home, owns a herd of cattle, and is one of the stock holders of the Exchange Bank of Elsinore. He still continues the practice of his profession, and keeps such a stock of drugs and goods as are usually kept in such towns.

He was married in 1865, to Miss Emma C. Talbert, of Union County, Indiana, by whom he has two children, both living: Mary C. married Mr. Arthur Jones, and they reside at Riverside. Lineaus resides with his father in Elsinore. Mrs. Ellis died in 1880, and in 1883 he was again united in wedlock, to Miss Lizzie Tomlin- son, a native of Plainfield, Indiana, and they have two children-a boy and a girl-also both born in Elsinore: Lydia Rosa and Thomas Earl.

Dr. Ellis is a man who makes it a point in life to respect liis promises and strictly keep them. He loves his profession, and can be depended on in every instance to use his best judgment and experience, and is a successful practitioner. He is a member of the order of the Knights of Pythias, and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and holds the office of District Deputy. He was born and raised in the Society of Friends.

- LEX DEBARRA, A. M., M. D., one of the eminent representatives of the medical profession in Elsinore, is a Fellow of So- ciety of Science, Letters and Art, of London, England, a society that stands at the head of all such societies in the world. The Doctor was born in the north of Norway, of Russian par- ents. While in his infancy his parents removed to Moscow, where he was reared and educated in the schools and colleges of that country. During the latter years of the reign of Nicholas and while the Crimean war was being vigor- ously carried on, the students in the colleges were in great excitement over it and the affairs then engrossing the minds of the people. The college society to which he belonged took an exciting part in the discussion, and for that, he with many other young men like himself, was exiled to Siberia for a term of six years. When in an inhospitable region they were thrown wholly upon their own resources to get a liv- ing. He resolved to try for liberty, and fol- lowed the river Lena northward through the ice and snow of that inclement climate, sub- sisting on what he could find that he knew was not poison until he fell in with some Esquimeanx who were kind to him, and for six months he remained with them and followed until at last they reached a trading point where he took a ship for South America. While suf- fering with the exposure in Siberia he contract- ed diseases from which he has never recovered, and in order to find relief he has traveled a

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Author: Lewis Publishing Company Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : The Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1038

Author: Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1038