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 85

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 85
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 85
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 85
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 85

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).

fire-eating Southern Democracy. They had held all the offices and represented the county in every Legislature up to 1861. That year the Douglas Democrats and the Republicans put Mr. Hoag forward for the Legislature. He was elected and carried most of the county officers into office with him. The Legislature of 1861- '62 stood by the general Government in pre- paring for and sustaining the war against the Rebellion, and Mr. Hoag was one of the most active members in this relation. The party elected for County Judge for Yolo County having become disqualified, Governor Stanford appointed Mr. Hoag to fill the vacancy. He held that office for one succeeding term, also greatly to the satisfaction of the people of the county.

In the spring of 1862 Mr. Hoag was elected Secretary of the State Agricultural Society, which office he held for ten years. During his incumbency of that office he drew and secured the passage of the law making the society a State institution, the directors being under the law appointed and commissioned by the Gov- ernor. He was also the author of the law under which all the district societies are organized and condneted. Perhaps no laws ever passed by the Legislature have had so important a bearing on the industrial interests of the State, both in the development of her resources and in calling the attention of the world to thein. While in this office in the year 1870 the Pacific Rural Press, at the suggestion of Mr. Hoag, was established at San Francisco by Dewey & Co., and Mr. Hoag became the leading agricultural editor of it, which position he filled for four years, until the duties of agricultural editor of the Sacramento Record-Union, which position he had in the meantime accepted, became so ardnous he had to resign one position or the other. No sooner had he resigned the editorship of the Rural Press, however, than both the Chronicle and the Bulletin of San Francisco sought his services to write the leading agricultural articles for those papers. He accepted the proposition of the Bulletin and wrote for that paper for about two years, still holding his position on the Rec-

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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.

ord- Union. When the management of the Record-Union was changed and William H. Mills left it to become land agent for the Cen- tral Pacific Railroad, Mr. Hoag also severed his connection with the paper. It should be stated here that one of the most important positions held in the State by Mr. Hoag was secretary of the State Anti-debris Association. When this

association was organized in 1881 to check the damage being done to the farming countries along the rivers of the Sacramento and San Joa- quin valleys, Mr. Hoag was selected as secretary and actuary of the association, and it was due largely to his efforts and influence that public opinion underwent so great a change npon the rights of the hydraulic miners to empty their de- bris into these rivers and their tributaries. His field for action in this direction was with the press and the political conventions of the counties and the State; also in accumulating testimony for the cases being conducted against them in the State and Federal courts. The leading attorney for the Anti-debris Association was George Cad- wallader, now deceased. When in May, 1883, Mr. Hoag resigned this secretaryship to accept the office of Commissioner of Immigration of the Sonthern and Central Pacific Railroad com- panies, both political parties had by resolutions in their State conventions declared against the continnance of hydraulic mining, and the State and Federal courts had issued restraining orders to protect the valleys against hydraulic mining. During all these years of active public life Mr. Hoag was the owner and manager of a farm on the Sacramento river, overseeing personally inany agricultural experiments of great interest to the farmers of the State. Among other things he had experimented with silk culture and fully demonstrated and published his con- clusions to the world, that, while the climate, of many portions of the State is well adapted to the success of this industry, it cannot be made a financial success while labor costs so much, and we have to compete with the cheap labor and low civilization of other parts of the world engaged in it. As intimated above, in 1883

Mr. Hoag received an important commission as immigration agent for those companies, and in May of that year opened an office in Chicago, and for nearly three years labored actively, and the result shows how effectively to convince the peo- ple of the eastern slope that California is the best State in the Union for people to make homes in and in which to engage in the various kinds of business. During a long and very active life Mr. Hoag had never been able to completely throw off a complication of diseases, contracted by too close confinement and too great applica- tion while a student. These diseases were an affection or dormant state of the liver, an affec- tion of the throat and neuralgia. Upon his re- turn from Chicago he determined to locate in Southern California and selected Redlands as his preference. He came here three years ago last June and at once set himself to work to discover the needs of the East San Bernardino valley and to put forces at work to develop her resources. The first need, in his mind, was a railroad, and he never ceased talking and working railroad until he was a member of a meeting of public- spirited citizens and capitalists at which it was determined to build the present railroad, and its name was fixed npon and articles of incorpora- tion inaugurated. The next need was to unlock and distribute the waters of the Bear valley reservoir, and he brought to bear influences that induced certain obstinate water and land own- ers to close contracts with the Bear valley com- pany, whereby the company secured control of the main distributing ditches through whichi to convey their water to the lands of the valley. The next need was people to occupy and improve the uncultivated lands of the valley, and he se- cured the location here of the Chicago colony, whereby the ownership of 440 acres of land in the center of the valley was transferred from one man to over forty men and families, and water in cement pipes was conducted to the highest point of each separate ownership. In connec- tion with other parties he had obtained an inter- est in the Crafton tract of abont 1,600 acres, east and adjoining Redlands proper. This land

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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.

had but about half water enongh to cover it. He induced the owner, Mr. Crafts, to purchase of the Bear valley company water enough to irrigate the whole tract, and was then instru- mental in the organization of a water com- pany to distribute water over this tract and all the higher portions of Redlands, which up to that time had no way to get water up on them. The Sylvan boulevard, a beautiful drive through the entire valley, along one of the most beautiful streams in the State, is of his creation. This stream and boulevard is now one of the inost attractive features of East San Bernardino valley and in time is destined to become one of the finest drives and promenades in the world. Mr. Hoag was one of the organizers of the Red- lands, Lagonia & Crafton Domestic Water Com- pany, and is a director of the company at the present time. He is also, by appointment of the Governor, a director of the Twenty-eighth Dis- triet Agricultural Society, embracing San Ber- nardino County. Of his private enterprises it may not be proper to state particularly, but snf- fice it to say he is owner of some of the finest properties in the valley and has a residence on Lagonia Heights very seldom excelled for beauty of location and immediate surroundings in any county. Mr. Hoag mentions with emphasis that the one thing he came to Southern Califor- nia for he has succeeded in obtaining, good health. He is now sixty-seven years of age and says the elimate of the East San Bernardino val- ley has almost completely restored his health. He is a stronger man now than when forty years old.

EV. CHARLES A. KINGSBURY, of Redlands, was born in Newton, Massa- chusetts, in 1839, the third of a family of five children. His father, Isaac Kingsbury, was a market gardener for a period of fifty years. The subject of this sketchi was educated at Will- iams College, and also graduated at the Union Theological Seminary, in New York city, in

1867. After his graduation he filled two pas- torates in the Congregational Church. In 1875 he married Miss Mary Angusta Donaldson, a native of New York city. They have one son: Homer Penfield Donaldson Kingsbury. Mr. Kingsbury came to California in 1889 on account of failing health, and has located in Redlands, on what is known as Redlands IIeights. He has a most beautiful residence, commanding one of the finest views in South- ern California, overlooking the whole San Bernardino valley.

J. WATERS, Redlands .- A more im- portant namne cannot be mentioned in connection with the history of Redlands than that of Mr. R. J. Waters. Indeed, he is recognized as the father of the city. He built the first brick business block in the place, and has built and caused to be built by far the greater number of business houses in the place at this time. His first block was erected on the corner of State and Orange streets, in March, 1887. Mr. Waters came to California in 1886, an invalid, and located the Chicago Colony, of which he was president. He bought 500 acres of land of W. F. Somers, and laid it out as that part of Redlands known as the Chicago Colony. Mr. Waters is president of the Red- lands Street Railway Company, which is now operating about eight miles of road. He is now preparing plans for the building of an opera house on the corner of Citrus and Orange avenues. He is interested in the syndicate who propose taking Bear valley water some forty miles to irrigate 100,000 acres of land in San Jacinto valley. He was the first president of the Redland News Company, which formed the Citrograph. He formed and was secretary of the Redlands Hotel Association, which built the Windsor Hotel. He is also a director in the Bear Valley Land and Water Company, the Redlands Orange Grove and Water Com- pany, and the Crafton Water Company, besides

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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.

being interested in nearly every other enter- prise in the city. Mr. Waters was the first city attorney of Redlands, and has worked as hard and as faithfully for the interests of this enterprising city as auy citizen within her limits. He was born in Vermont, reared in Massachusetts, and educated at Franklin Insti- tute, and subsequently professor of Latin and mathematics for three years in that institu- tion. He then went to Chicago and studied law with Judge Waterman, and practiced there for twenty-one years, until he was obliged to leave that rigid climate on account of his health. If we are to judge of his delicate health, however, by the amount of work he has done since he became a citizen of the "Golden State," we would pronounce him sound and robust and good for at least half a century yet to come.

A. BALL, of Redlands, is a native of Vermont, born April 5, 1832. His father, Orange Ball, moved to Ashta- bula County, Ohio, in 1840, where he farmed until his death, which occurred in December, 1873. The subject of this sketch was reared in the "Buckeye" State, and in 1854 left his native State to be gone only three montlis. He went to Jefferson County, Wisconsin, where he engaged in farmning. Then he took five months to drive with wagons to Silver City, Nevada, where he mined and teamed until 1864, when he went to Sonoma County, California, and engaged in the dairy business for three years. He was married in Wiscon sin in 1858, to Miss Jennie McElroy, of Clarkson Center, New York, and they have had eiglit children, five of whom are still living, viz .: Edith, now Mrs. McCrary; Ethie died at at the age of four years; Edison died at the age of two years; Forest, Frank died at the age of four; Lewis, Grace and Jennie. Mr. Ball has been a resident of the county since November 12, 1869. He was a citizen of

Riverside from 1873 to 1879. After this he ran a farm three miles east of San Bernard. ino, on Base Line, nntil 1886, when he moved to Redlands and engaged in the hotel busi- ness, keeping the Pioneer Honse. He now runs a saloon and billiard hall. Last spring he took up a ranch of 160 acres on Santa Ana river, on Bear valley trail. He also owns prop- erty in Redlands, all of which is devoted to oranges. Politically Mr. Ball is a Republican. He is an I. O. O. F,, Riverside Lodge, No. 282.

ILLIAM CRAIG, M. D., Redlands, was born in Pennsylvania, January 2, 1818. His father, Samnel Craig, was a tanner and farmer, and moved to Clark County, Ohio, in 1819. Our subject attended the com- inon schools of Clark County, and in 1848 grad- uated at the Starling Medical College, at Co- lumbus, Ohio. He then practiced medicine in Shelby connty three years, and in Auglaize County three years. The five years following this he practiced in Winchester, Indiana, where he also carried on a drug business. Then he went to Muncie, Indiana, where he engaged in the drug business and practiced medicine for ten years. Then he successfully engaged in the baking powder business for some two years. In October, 1870, he moved to California, and was one of the first settlers in Riverside, where he pre-empted eighty acres of land and plowed tlie first furrow ever plowed there. He also built the first hotel in Riverside, and carried on the hotel business for about seven years, or until his hotel was burned. He, having previously pur- chased 108 acres of fine land three miles east of Redlands, has a magnificent country residence and as fine a vineyard as there is in the valley ; also, 500 orange trees in full bearing. Dr. Craig has been twice married; first at Muncie, Indiana, March, 30, 1838, to Joanna Moore. In six monthis she died, and in 1846, he married Char- lotte Moses, also a native of the " Keystone" State. By her he has reared three children:

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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.

Scipio, Mary E. and Joanna. He was made a Mason in 1849, and is also a Knight Templar. At three different places he has been Worshipful Master of a Masonic lodge. He was a charter member of Evergreen Lodge, No. 259, with which he still affiliates. Dr. Craig has been an active member of and an earnest worker in the Presbyterian Church. He first joined the church in 1848, and has held all the different offices in the church at various times and places, and has been an elder since 1854. Dr. Craig is an honored and highly respected citizen, and one whose character is beyond reproach, and no naine in this work is more worthy of mention than his.

F. GARNER, residing on Mount Vernon avenne, San Bernardino, was born near Quincy, Illinois, March 5, 1835. His parents were George and Elizabeth Garner. His father moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, at an early day, and remained there one year when he crossed the plains to Utah, where he spent one winter. Frank was fifteen years of age when they left the Missouri river, and he drove an ox team all the way to California. While cross- ing the Missouri river on a ferry-boat, the team which he afterward drove became frightened and jumped off the boat into the water, and swain across safely with the yoke on. They left St. Joe with a train of sixty wagons in the spring of 1850, but many died on the way of cholera. The train being so long they divided it into six divisions of ten wagons each, and took turns leading. The ten wagons that led one day fell behind the next. George Garner was captain of ten wagons, and one day he was to lead he told his men to follow, and do hard . driving, and by that means they would leave the rest behind, which they did, and got to the end of the journey just two weeks in advance of the rest. They lost two of their number by cholera and had some trouble with the Indians. Mr. Garner had a family of eight children. For

awhile after their arrival they lived in the fort at San Bernardino, and then Mr. Garner took up Government land, which he farmed fifteen years. He then purchased 100 acres on Base Line. In 1853 the subject of this sketch went to San José valley, and was in the northern mines for some time; and also farmed and ran a thresher. In 1855 he came back here and was married to Miss Amanda Thompkins. She was the daugh- ter of Thomas Tompkins, who came to San Francisco from Steuben County, New York, on the steamer Brooklyn, the first that ever sailed. He then went to Utah, and then as a Mormon missionary he went to the Tahiti islands. After this he moved to the San José valley, where he farined on an extensive scale for several years. He then removed to San Bernardino County, where he died.

Mr. and Mrs. Garner have reared eight chil- dren: Frank, who is a stock-dealer in Aniz; Jane, now Mrs. George Evans; Levina, wife of Harry Hagan; Charley, Addison, Lewis, Jessie and Arena. Mr. Garner has been one of the successful men of San Bernardino, and is now retired from active business, in his comfortable home on Mount Vernon avenue.

R. B. F. WATROUS .- No man in Red- lands is more worthy of mention in a work of this kind than is B. F. Watrons, M. D. He came to Redlands with $350, with which he bought a team and went to work. He had previously contracted for ten acres of land for $1,000, and had paid $250 down. He began improving it the second year and put up a $400 house. He afterward bonght ten acres more for $1.500 and borrowed money for the first pay- ment. In five years he had bought and paid for thirty-one acres in Redlands and twenty in San Diego County. Since then he has bought and sold in this and also in San Diego County, and is recognized as one of Redlands' most enterprising and prosperous citizens. He was born in Cortland County, New York. He re-

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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.

ceived his literary education at Homer Academy and his medical education at the Pennsylvania University, from which latter institution he was graduated in 1870. He at once commenced the practice of medicine in Ithaca, where he re- mained six years; he then went to Rochester, where he remained two years. Then he went to Broadhead, Wisconsin, and from that place came to California. Dr. Watrous was Second Sergeant in the Seventy-sixth Regiment New York Volunteers, and rendered his country good service at the battles of Fredericksburg, Sonth Mountain, Antietam, Bull Run and the Wilderness. Since coming to California he has given up his profession, and has given liis entire time and attention to horticulture and to mak- ing a home in the beautiful, healthful and en- terprising city of Redlands.

EORGE H. CRAFTS, a rancher near Red- lands, was born in New York city in 1844, and came to California with his father in 1861. His father, Myron H. Crafts, was born in Whately, Massachusetts, in 1816, and estab- lished the first temperance grocery in New York city. He also had a large meat-curing house there, but was burnt out in 1844, and then went to Jackson, Michigan, where he started a soap and candle factory. He next went to Windsor, where he farmed for a while, and then went to Detroit and accepted a position as cashier in C. & A. Ives' bank. From there he came to California and purchased 480 acres of land in what is known now as Crafton, a most beautiful and productive country, four iniles east of Redlands. Here, for a number of years, he engaged extensively in raising grain and hogs, and later gave considerable attention to fruit culture. At his death he owned 1,840 acres of land in a tract, which was named Craf- ton, for him. He was one of the true pioneers, and was widely and favorably known. At one time he was elected County Judge by the Repub- lican party, but the opposite party, having

things somewhat in their own hands, never made him out a certificate. He never contested the matter, and so never served. He died Sep- tember, 1886, aged seventy years. The subject of this sketch entered the army, enlisting in Company D, Eighth California Volunteers, and served nine months. He then went to Arizona and worked for the Government two years in the quartermaster's department and then went to Cornell University, taking the course through the sophomore year, when he came back to California and married Miss Joanna Craig, daughter of Dr. William Craig, and has been a horticulturist ever since. He owns a fine ranch of 700 acres, three miles east of Redlands, on which he has recently erected a neat and com- inodious brick residence. Mr. and Mrs. Crafts have two children, Herbert and Mary. Mr. Crafts is identified with the I. O. O. F., the G. A. R., and the K. of P.

SRAEL BEAL was born thirty-five miles west of Richmond, Virginia, April 10, 1849. His parents, Oliver and Elvira (Myes) Beal, were both natives of Virginia. His father died during the war, and his mother is still living, at a good old age, having reared a family of eleven children, nine of whom are still living. The subject of this sketch came to California via the Panama route in 1865, and worked for a mining company in Kern County for three years. He then went to Nevada and Arizona and mined, and then came back to California and worked for M. H. Crafts two years, and afterward rented land for two years. In 1877 he bought twenty acres in Lugonia; next he purchased seventeen and one-half adjoining this, and then ten acres in Redlands. The Redlands property has since been traded for twenty acres adjoin- ing the original purchase. Mr. Beal has built a good house, improved his land and is one of the leading horticulturists in his neighborhood.

In December, 1870, he was married to Miss Martha Embers, a native of California, and has

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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.

had seven children: Oliver, Anna, who died in childhood; Newton, Harry, Clarence, who died in infancy; Charles A. and Morris. Mr. and Mrs. Beal are both members of the Congrega- tional Church. Mr. Beal is an industrious man and a good citizen. He has made a good home and reared a respectable family, and although he was born a slave and the color of his skin is dark, no man in Redlands is more worthy of respect than Israel Beal.

G. JUDSON .- About 1881-'82 Judson & Brown secured 1,500 acres of land on the sloping hillsides south of the Mill creek zanja, surveyed and platted the same into five, ten and twenty-acre lots, with wide avenues traversing the whole plat. This enterprise was regarded as an experiment from the fact that the red soil of the slope had never been tested as to its adaptability to horticultural pursuits. With plenty of water and good cultivation the doubt as to the value of the land was soon re- moved and the success of the colony enterprise was assured. Thus encouraged the projectors enlarged their possessions by additional pur- chases, until they liad between three and four thousand acres in their colony, which, on account of the color of the soil, they nained Redlands. This was the fourth city incorporated within San Bernardino County. November 26, 1888, the citizens, in accordance with the general laws of the State, voted as follows on incorpo- ration: whole number of votes cast, 283; for incorporation, 216. Officers elected were: Trustees, E. G. Judson, J. B. Glover, B. W. Cave, C. N. Andrews. H. H. Sinclair; Clerk, L. W. Clark; Marshal, W. C. Brumagim; Treas- urer, F. P. Morrison.

Mr. Judson was born in Bridgeport, Con- necticut, and was educated there and at Amherst. Ile first went into the book business in New York city, where he was afterward for a num- ber of years, a dealer in stocks, broker- age, etc., on Wall street. In 1876 he came 35

to California, and Redlands is the result of his coming. He is a man of marked abil- ity, and but for his indefatigable labors, Redlands would not be what it is to-day. He has been instrumental in organizing nearly all the water companies in the place, full descrip- tions of which will be seen elsewhere in this work.

Mr. F. E. Brown was born in New Haven, Connecticut, graduated at the Sheffield Scien- tific School of Yale College, and came to Cali- fornia in 1877. He was the engineer of the Redlands Water System and the discoverer of Bear valley as a reservoir; and more to him than any one else is California indebted for that great reservoir. The Bear valley dam was built by him, He has been one of the foremost citizens of Redlands, and in connection with Mr. E. G. Judson he has projected and built up that lively colony.

T. ROBERDS .- [The following sketch is in Mr. Roberds' own language:]

" I was born in Monroe County, State of Mississippi, April 9, 1837. My father, John Roberds, was born in Franklin County, Georgia, in August, 1800. My mother, Martha T. Ro- berds, was born in Madison County, Alabama, May 16, 1817. My father died in San Ber- nardino, October 15, 1878, being seventy-eight years of age. He was in the Black Hawk war, and learned to speak the Choctaw and Chicka- saw languages. My mother still lives in San Bernardino.

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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