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 83

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 83
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 83
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 83
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 83

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

In 1875 he came to California and for a time worked in a saw-mill in El Dorado County, then went to San Francisco, but, not being able to obtain employment at his trade, went to Ari- zona in February, 1876. Was engaged for a time in the restaurant business at Yuma, then taught Government school at Camp McDowell, then came to San Bernardino in January, 1877. He first engaged in farming here, then spent a year in the mines. In 1881-'82 he carrried on a general store in El Dorado cañion, Nevada; upon returning to San Bernardino County, he was foreman of the Colton Cannery for one year and then accepted the position of Assistant Postmaster in the postoffice, which position he filled three years, when, failing in health from excessive work and close confinement, he was compelled to resign. In the fall of 1885, Mr. Mack laid off and founded the town of Perris, five miles below the San Bernardino County line in San Diego County, on the California South- ern Railroad. He built a depot and dug a well, and the railroad company put in a side-track and a water tank, moving them from Pinicate, a mile and a half below. Mr. Mack named the new town in honor of Mr. Fred T. Perris, the chief engineer of the Santa Fé Railway system

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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.

in California; and that portion of the San Ja- cinto plains in the vicinity took the name of the town and is known as Perris Valley. The town consisted of 160 acres, to which two additions have since been made. There are now 160 voters in that district. Mr. Mack disposed of all his town lots, but he and his partner, T. H. Paler, have considerable land interersts in Per- ris valley.

In July, 1887, Mr. Mack in company with others incorporated the Citrus Water Works, who own 7,000 acres of choice land in the val. ley of the Gila river, near Gila Bend in Mari- copa County, Arizona. They have constructed a canal over nineteen miles in length, with a capacity of 20,000 inches of water with which to irrigate their tract. An actnal test shows the land to be well adapted to the production of raisin grapes and deciduous fruits. Mr. Mack was one of the projectors of the Mentone and Great Bear valley toll road, which, when com- pleted, will be an improvement of immense value to San Bernardino County, as Bear valley is destined to become one of the greatest snm- mer resorts on the Pacific coast, when it is rendered accessible by a good wagon road. Six stockholders comprise the company, of which Mr. Mack is president and his partner, Mr. Pal- mer, is secretary. It is estimated that from $12,000 to $14,000, of which several thousand is already paid in, will complete the road. Con- siderable work has been done on this end of the road, and the project only awaits sufficient capi- tal to be pushed to completion.

Mr. Mack is a pronounced Republican and a zealons worker in behalf of the party, but has preferred to see his friends, rather than himself, elected to office. But at the urgent request of the local party leaders, he became a candidate for the office of Public Administrator; in the fall of 1888 he was nominated by 103 of the 120 votes in the convention, and was elected by 625 majority to the office in which he is now serv- ing with great efficiency. He takes an active interest in military matters; is special aid-de- camp to the department commander of the

G. A. R., and Commander of the W. R. Corn- man Post of San Bernardino, and is First Lien- tenant and Quartermaster of the Ninth Regi- ment National Guard of California. He is a member of the Ancient Order of United Work- men, has passed through all the local official chairs, and is Grand Lientenant Commander of the Select Knights of the order for California.

Mr. Mack was married to Emma L. Sargeant, a native of Maine, in the city of Boston, in Oc- tober, 1874. Four children, two boys and two girls, comprise their family. The youngest son and daughter, twins, were born February 12, 1889.

Messrs. Mack and Palmer are among the leading and most active in the general insnr- ance business in this city, representing a num- ber of strong companies, whose aggregate capi- tal is $30,000,000.

OHN CALVIN CHRISTY, one of the leading members of the San Bernardino Bar, and Conrt Commissioner of the County, was boru in Armstrong County, Penn- sylvania, January 1, 1839. He was educated in his native State, attending college from 1855 to 1859. Coming west to Illinois, in 1859, he located in the southern part of the State, known as Egypt, read law during 1859-'60. and in the spring of 1861 was admitted to the bar. He soon afterward entered the army as a member of Company B, Eighteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and served nearly four years, two years of the time as a scont and sharpshooter. He participated in eleven hard-fought battles. Then, being mustered out of service, he re- turned to Pennsylvania, and commenced the practice of law, having been married December 13, 1864, to Miss Patterson, whose childhood's home was just eightly rods from his own, and who had been bis playmate and associate from infancy.

His health being somewhat impaired, Mr. Christy moved to Washington, Iowa, and a few

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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.

months later to Wooster, Ohio, and practiced his profession about two years in that place, then removed to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he entered into a law partnership with Hon. James A. Caldwell, an eminent lawyer and a distin- gnished figure in the history of that State. In October, 1886, Mr. Christy came to California, and settled in San Bernardino. A few months after engaging practice here he was appointed Court Commissioner of San Bernardino County, which office he still fills with ability. The function of his office is to hear and decide by the code such civil cases as require an account- ing, and are referred to him by the Superior Courts. He is also authorized to perform all duties of a notary public. In addition to his official labors he enjoys a prosperous private law practice. Notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Christy was noted in earlier days for his physical prowess and as an expert in the art of hunting and fishing, he is an affable and com- panionable gentleman, and a worthy represent- ative of the old Quaker stock from which he is descended. His ancestors were among the early settlers of Pennsylvania, his father having been born in Beaver County, in 1800, and died in Armstrong County, at the ripe age of eighty- seven. His widow still lives upon the old homestead.

OHN J. WHITNEY, proprietor of the City Planing Mill and Inınber yard, and one of the principal manufacturers in San Bernardino County, was a native of Elmira, New York, and was born in 1843. He inher- ited a talent for mechanics from his father, and being a contractor and practical builder and the owner and operator of a large planing mill in Elmira, afforded him ample means of exercising and developing his innate tendencies. In 1862, in his nineteenth year, he enlisted in the armny as a member of the Fifth New York Heavy Artillery; served till the close of the war, and, participated in many a hotly contested battle,

and received three slight gunshot wounds. After returning home he turned his attention to Inmber milling and building, and during the ten years he conducted it did one of the largest contracting and building businesses in Elinira. Late in 1881 he came to California, partly for his health and partly on account of the superior business inducements offered him. Reaching Riverside the last of December, he worked a few days for wages, then took the contract to build the large Riverside Pavilion. Subse- quently he located in San Bernardino and was connected with W. J. Linville, on D street, in a planing mill. In July, 1886, he and another gentleman leased the City Mill, situated on F street between Fourth and Fifth streets. At the end of a month his partner sold out to Mr. II. H. Linville, and two weeks later the mill was destroyed by fire, thus ending the partner- ship. The mill was rebuilt by W. G. Wright, and Mr. Whitney leased the job department in January, 1887, and in July of that year he bought the property. On April 13, 1889, the mill was again burned, with a loss of part of the machinery. Releasing the ground for a term of years Mr. Whitney rebuilt the mill and fitted it up with the latest improvements in machinery for all kinds of house-building work, and also erected a large store house, which he keeps well filled with sash and moldings (of his own manufacture), doors, glass and other building material. He has invested in the buildings, machinery and manufactured stock over $8,000. He also opened a lumber yard in 1888 in the rear of the mill between Fourth and Fifth and F and E streets, in which he car- ries a general assortment of lumber for house building. Being a thorough master of every branch and detail of his business, Mr. Whitney is enabled to carry it on at the minimum of ex- pense and to understand and satisfy the wants of his customers in every case; hence he has a satisfactory and prosperous business.

He owns a fine homestead of fifteen acres on the Base Line, north of the city, which is occu- pied with a bearing vineyard and orchard; also

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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.

has a joint interest in fifty acres of land about eight miles west of San Bernardino, twenty acres of which is planted to raisin grapes and thirty to orange trees. He also owns a 135- acre tract of land seven miles from the city, which is to be planted to a raisin vineyard.

Mr. Whitney married Miss Burdick, near El- mira, New York. They have had eight children' four of whom are deceased. In October, 1882' he returned to Elmira and brought his family here, after having tested California and its cli- mate six months-a step which he never re- gretted. Mr. Whitney is a lover of music and has been a vocal leader in a church choir and on public occasions in San Bernardino for a number of years.

HARLES CAMMILLUS COOLEY is a Southern Californian by birth, a son of George and Ellen Cooley, well-known pio- neers in this county. He was born March 5, 1861. His first real-estate purchase was thirty acres in Washington district, which he improved and lives on at present. He is a young and en- terprising farmer and bids fair to honor himself and liis calling. October 31, 1886, he was mar- ried to Miss Nettie Crandel, of Warm creek district, a daughter of Milen Crandel, one of the first settlers in this county.

EORGE EDMUND OTIS, a leading meni- ber of the Southern California bar, is a descendant of one of the oldest New Eng- land families, his ancestors having emigrated from . Somersetshire, England, about 1630. That he springs from a cultured family is evi- denced in the fact that his paternal great-grand- father was one of the early graduates of Harvard University, as far back as 1752, and his father was a graduate of the same institution ninety years later. His mother was a direct descend- ant of Judge Sewall, who is associated in history 34

with the hanging of the witches in the seven- teenth century. Mr. Otis was born in 1846, in the city of Boston, and was educated at the New England metropolis, graduating at Harvard University with the degree of LL. B., in 1869, at the age of twenty two years, notwithstanding his educational studies had been interrupted by a term of service in the Union army, which lie entered during the closing year of the war, a youth of seventeen, as a member of the Sixth Massachusetts Infantry, and remained until the end of his period of enlistment. After graduat- ing, Mr. Otis spent a year and a half perfecting his law studies in the office of Hon. Richard H. Dana, Jr., a leader of the Suffolk County bar, and well known as the author of Dana's Whea- ton's International Law, and " Two Years Be- fore the Mast." Upon inotion of Mr. Dana, Mr. Otis was admitted to practice at the Massa- chusetts bar in 1872. Opening a law office in the city of Boston, he conducted a successful legal business in the " Hub" until 1875, when he decided to cast his lot in the Golden State, and crossed the continent, landing in San Fran- cisco. After spending a few weeks looking over the situation on the Pacific coast, Mr. Otis commenced the practice of his profession in California in the city of San Bernardino, and entered into a copartnership with W. J. Curtis, which continued about eighteen months, ter- minating with Mr. Otis' return to San Francisco. Here he established and maintained a large and lucrative legal business for seven years. Then, npon the death of Judge Saterwhite, who had succeeded him as a law partner with Mr. Curtis, the latter gentleman requested him to return to San Bernardino and resume their former busi- ness relations. Mr. Otis consented to do so, and removed down in the spring of 1885. The firm of Curtis & Otis at once assumed a promi- nent position in the bar of Southern California, and they have for years been connected on one side or the other with nearly every important civil case in the higher courts of San Bernardino and contiguous counties. Since deciding to settle permanently in this county, Mr. Otis se-

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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.

lected Redlands as the future home for himself and family, and has just completed the erection of one of the most elegant dwellings in that charming young city of orange groves. His place, appropriately named " Alderbrook," from the spreading alders which border the old Mill creek zanja running through his grounds, em- braces some forty acres, beautifully laid out and partially planted to ornamental trees and shrub- bery, aud an orange grove just coming into bearing.

Besides attending to his extensive law prac- tice Mr. Otis has found additional scope for the exercise of his active mind and energies in loyal and effective labors for the advancement and growth of the county and city. In 1888 he built the Otis block on Fourth street, between D and E streets, one of the finest brick business blocks in the city of San Bernardino, The same year he erected the First National Bank block in Redlands, one of the first, and one of the best brick buildings erected in that thriving town. He also built the brick block on State street known as the Otis building, occupied by the Motor Railroad offices in Redlands. He organ- ized the Monte Vista Land and Water Com- pany, the Redlands Land Company, and the Terracina Hotel Company. These companies have extensive holdings of the choice citrus fruit lands in that popular orange district, on which they have expended large sums of money for improvements. Mr. Otis was also one of the prime movers in organizing and constructing the San Bernardino and Redlands Motor Road, and is a director in the company.

In politics he is a pronounced Republican and a member of the central committee; and while he has been a zealous supporter of the party he has never been an aspirant for office. He is a member of the San Francisco Bar As- sociation, the San Francisco Harvard Club, and the California Historical Society; and within the past year has been elected a member of the American Bar Association. In his mental com- position Mr. Otis is a typical son of New En- gland, possessing that quick perceptive and re-

ceptive intellect, acute reasoning powers and characteristic energy which have made the " Yankee " famous the world over. He is a gentleman of polish and superior scholastic attainments both in and outside of his profes- sion. He married Katharine, daughter of Hon. Alexander Johnson, formerly Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals of New York, and subse- quently a Judge on the United States Circuit Bench in the Empire State.

ICHARD A. STETSON, Tax Collector of San Bernardino County, was born in the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts, in 1856. His father, James H. Stetson, was a direct descendant of Cornet Stetson, who settled on the place where he was born in 1634. His mother was Miss Phebe C. Nickerson, great-grand- danghter of Sir Thomas Nickerson, and was born and reared at Chatham, on Cape Cod. Richard enjoyed the educational advantages of the schools of Boston. On reaching manhood he came direct to California, locating in San Bernardino in March, 1877. He was em- ployed as clerk in the office of a lumber com- panyafor about three years, and from that time until he was elected to hiis present office, was engaged in the hotel and livery business in part- nership with his brother-in-law, John A. Cole, under the firm name of Cole & Stetson. At one time they owned and conducted three hotels and two livery stables. The hotels were the Trans-Continental, at Colton; the Railroad Ho- tel, at Daggett, and the railroad hotel and eating house at the Needles. Their livery stables were in San Bernardino and Colton. They did a successful and profitable business, netting some- times $3,300 in four months. On being clected to the office of Tax Collector in 1886, Mr. Stet- son sold out his business interests. He re- ccived the largest number of votes of all can- didates on the Republican ticket, there being 431 majority. Being renominated in 1888, he was re-elected by a majority of over 700 votes, the

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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.

largest of all candidates on the ticket save one. On qualifying for the duties of his office the bond required and executed was for $120,000. The tax collections of San Bernardino County steadily increase, aggregating in the fiscal year of 1888-'89, $270,323.68, the sum total collected and turned into the office, as shown by the books. The total number of assessments in 1889, in the county, is 13,129, the amount col- lected on same being $326,066.28. During the busy season from four to eight assistants are required to discharge the labors of the office. The records of 1889 fill ten volumes of 200 pages each.

Mr. Stetson married Miss Cole, a native of California, and daughter of James A. Cole, an early settler in this State. They have resided for nearly six years in Colton, where they have a fine homestead. Mr. Stetson owns an eighty- acre tract of choice land in the heart of the dis- trict of Old San Bernardino.

AMES STEWART, a prominent citizen near San Bernardino, was born in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, in 1837, the young- est of seven sons of Archie Stewart. He left his native State at the age of eighteen, for Ne- braska, where he homesteaded and proved up on 160 acres of Government land, and to this added eighty acres more. He was in Omaha when there were but twelve houses in the place. He sold out his interest in Nebraska and operated on the plains with headquarters at St. Joe, Leavenworth, then at Denver, and later at Salt Lake City, Georgetown, Colorado, and Idaho. He began as a stage driver and finished as a paymaster and superintendent of the Northern Overland Stage Line. Then the projection of the railroads put an end to stage routes and he resigned. lle then came to California and staged from Los Angelos to Prescott, Arizona, and on different lines to the Colorado river. After this he had charge of a line from Tue- son to Tombstone, Arizona, and fromn Mineral

Park, Arizona, to Pioche, Nevada, and other mail routes. He was in the stage business thirty years, and has seen as much of the real, practical side of human life, perhaps, as any other man in Southern California. He can tell some thrilling incidents of fording streams and rafting miners across, the burning of sta- tions by the Indians, and of lives lost by their savage cruelty.

He was married in 1882, in Arizona, to Miss E. A. Holbrook, who was born in Boston and reared in San Francisco. He owns a fine ranch of 227 acres in Washington district, which he purchased twenty years ago for $5,000, and is giving his whole time and attention to raising and training horses.

OHN HENRY STEWART, one of the most prominent citizens of San Bernardino, was born of Scotch parents in Williams- town, Massachusetts, April 28, 1823. His father, Samuel Stewart, removed his family to Oswego County, New York, when John Henry was but two years old, and his childhood and youth were passed there. At an early age he learned the trade of house carpentering and joining, which he followed for many years. Being the oldest in a family of eight children and his father not enjoying good health, a large share of the support of the family fell on his shoulders,-a burden which proved too heavy for his youthful years; so he came westward to Illinois, and worked at his trade in Rockford. In 1846 he returned to New York State, and was there married to Miss Charlotte Woodworth, in September of that year, and returned with his wife to Rockford, Illinois. In 1850 failing health induced him to come to California. In 1852 he returned to Rockford for his family, and on their arrival they settled at Sutterville, Sacramento County, where he engaged in the freighting business, and also worked at his trade, re- ceiving $16 a day. In 1855 he removed to

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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.

Cloverdale, Sonoma County, bought 400 acres of laud and engaged in stock-raising. A year later he was stricken down with a severe and protracted illness, which resulted in a perma- nent muscular paralysis of his lower limbs, and he was never again able to walk without the aid of crutches or canes. In 1857 Mrs. Stew- art died, leaving two sons, Clarence and Richard, who are respected citizens of the county, the former a resident of Riverside and the latter of San Bernardino.

In December, 1857, Mr. Stewart was joined in marriage with Miss Martha D. Kenfield, a native of Worcester County, Massachusetts, and an old friend of Mr. Stewart's, who, in spite of the opposition of her relatives, whose friendship she thereby sacrificed, was willing to assume a double responsibility of feet to the laine and mother to the orphans. With the loyalty of noble womanhood, she performed the voluntary task of wifely devotion to her crip- pled husband for nearly twenty-eight of the best years of her life.

In 1858 they moved to Petaluma, selling their property in Cloverdale, and in 1865 they exchanged their property in Petaluma for a block of land in San Bernardino, situated a little west of the business portion of the town, bounded by Second, Third, D and E streets. In 1867 Mr. Stewart erected the first brick build- ing in San Bernardino, on the corner of Third and D streets, now known as the Meyerstein corner. In 1872 he built the three stores next west of that. In 1878 he erected another block of three stores. For some time previous to the aceident which caused his death Mr. Stewart had contemplated building a fine hotel which should be a credit to the city; he had drawn the plans, and began the foundation for it on the site of the present Stewart Hotel, expecting to push forward the work in 1885. On February 14, of that year, he was thrown from his car- riage, receiving a compound fracture of the thigh, too close to the body to admit of ampu- tation. After eighteen weeks of untold suffer- ing, death came to his relief, on June 22, 1885.

Mr. Stewart was ever one of the foremost workers for the advancement of every worthy enterprise benefiting the county, the merits of which his discriminating judgment never failed to discover and appreciate. As an instance of his wise foresight: He was one of the project- ors of the Silk Center Association of Sonthern California, organized in November, 1869, for the purpose of colonization and promotion of raw-silk- producing industry, the intention being to cultivate the variety of mulberry tree suitable for silk-worm food by irrigation. An arrange- ment was made to purchase land, a preliminary survey was made for a canal, and some work done on it in the spring of 1870, but the death of Louis Prevost, the president of the company, suspended the work. In September of that year the first settlement of Riverside was made under the name of Jnrupa, and the Silk Center Association was merged into the Southern Cali- fornia Colony Association about the middle of that month. The principal stockholders of this new association were: C. N. Felton, Henry Hamilton, M. W. Childs, J. H. Stewart, Dndley Pine, W. J. Linville, J. W. North, Dr. J. P. Greves and Dr. K. D. Shugart. Mr. North was elected president, and Mr. Stewart, treas- urer of the company. The enterprise has suc- ceeded in transforming the once arid lands of Jurupa and Rubidoux ranches into a veritable Eden of floral beauty. The name Jurupa was changed to Riverside in December, 1870. In 1877 Mr. Stewart sold his stock and retired from the association. While acquiring the ample fortune which he made and which he left his family, appraised at $90,000, but worth much more, he, by his generous assistance, enabled many a struggling fellow-man to attain a com- fortable prosperity which they could not other- wise have secured. He was possessed of extra- ordinary business tact and judgment; was noted for his public spirit and hospitality; was strong and constant in his friendship, tender in sympa- thy, broad and comprehensive in mental grasp. and in energy indomitable.

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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