Historical and biographical record of southern California; containing a history of southern California from its earliest settlement to the opening year of the twentieth century, Part 149

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago, Chapman pub. co.
Number of Pages: 1366

USA > California > Historical and biographical record of southern California; containing a history of southern California from its earliest settlement to the opening year of the twentieth century > Part 149

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).

Resigning his position in 1874 he came to California, settling first in San Francisco, but later going to San Bernardino. While in the east he had commenced the study of law, and this he completed after coming to California. June 13, 1879, he was admitted to the bar in the district court of San Bernardino county, and later he was admitted to practice before the supreme court of the state: afterward to the supreme and federal courts of the United States. After having carried on a private practice in San Bernardino for a time he was elected judge of the superior court of that county. His dis-

1005

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

charge of official duties was thorough and grati- fying. May 3, 1889, he was appointed a member of the supreme court of California commission, and this high position he held until January, 1891, when he resigned in order to resume pri- vate practice.

COL. RUSSEL HEATH. The fact that Colonel Heath is the oldest surviving Amer- ican settler in the valley at Carpinteria is but one out of his many claims to prominence in his locality. During the half century of his identification with the history of Santa Barbara county, he has been intimately associated with many of the movements that have brought prosperity to this section of the state, and in every instance he has been in the forefront of those whose aim was the development of local resources. Born in Little Falls, Herkimer county, N. Y., in 1826, he was a son of Henry and Mary (Casler) Heath. His paternal an- cestors were of Puritan stock, early settlers of Massachusetts and Connecticut, and removed to New York in 1806. The maternal forefathers were among the early German settlers of the Mohawk valley. General Herkimer, the hero of the battle of Ariscany, was a great-uncle of Mrs. Heath; her grandfather Casler was colonel in General Herkimer's regiment in this same bat- tle, which turned the tide of warfare toward vic- tory for the colonial army. Colonel Heath's father, Henry Heath, established at Little Falls the first iron foundry west of Albany, N. Y., and for many years engaged extensively in the manu- facture of machinery. At the same time he was also active in politics. His death occurred at Little Falls in 1879.

As carly as 1700 the Heath family came from Surrey, England, and settled in Lebanon, Conn. Joseph Heath volunteered and served under Colonel Nickerson in the expedition against Montreal in 1710. Colonel Heath's grandfather, Hezekiah Heath, settled at Little Falls, N. Y., during 1801, and in that same town his son, Henry, afterward became the proprietor of the Heath foundry. Russel Heath was reared in this same town and received his education in Fairfield Academy. An appointment to the United States military academy was tendered him, but declined. Instead, he turned his atten- tion to the study of law, in which he was en- gaged at the time the report spread through the east that gold had been discovered in Cali- fornia. With his customary promptness of action, he was first to leave Herkimer county for the gold fields. By way of Mexico, he trav- eled to California, coming up the Pacific ocean on a sailing vessel from Mazatlan to Santa Barbara. On the 10th of July, 1849, the ship landed at Santa Barbara, being out of provi- sions. Many of the passengers refused to go further, and he was one of the number. Thus it

happened that his first glimpse of California was obtained in the vicinity of his present home.

After ten days in Santa Barbara the Colonel, in company with Gil Ewing of Ohio and others, proceeded to walk to San Francisco, and fifteen days later they reached their destination. It had been his intention to locate in San Fran- cisco, but on account of the poor water, he de- cided to go elsewhere. His first experiences in mining were gained on Mormon Island, where the Fulsom prison now stands. Next he en- gaged in mining on the North Yuba river. In 1852, on account of ill health, he came to Santa Barbara, where he was soon benefited by the fine climate. Turning his attention to the prac- tice of law and public affairs, in 1852 and 1853 he became interested in the organization of the county, under American law, the court of ses- sions having appointed him district attorney. During the two years (1852-54) that he held the office, he obtained the first conviction for mur- der under American law. When the county was placed under American system in 1853, he opened the county clerk's office books, which were the first records in the county under this system. Appointed sheriff in 1854, he was or- dered to enforce the law against gamblers and law-breakers, and had many thrilling experi- ences in the discharge of his duty, but his ser- vice was so satisfactory to the law-abiding ele- ment that at the expiration of the term he was elected to the office, which he filled until the fall of 1858. He then took his seat in the state legislature, having been elected on the Demo- cratic ticket. In this position, as in every other to which he was called, uprightness and fidelity marked his discharge of duties, and a progres- sive spirit made his service acceptable to his constituents. On his retirement from the leg- islature he again accepted the position of dis- trict attorney. In 1859 he was one of the com- missioners chosen to lay out the first state road under American law from San Francisco through Santa Barbara county to Los Angeles. Further opportunity for public service was ten- dered him in 1869, when he was again chosen to represent his district in the state legislature, where he served during the term of 1869-70.

Meantime, while filling public offices and practicing law, Colonel Heath also became in- terested in ranching and fruit-growing. In 1858 he bought a ranch at Carpinteria which was then in small native timber. The following year he began the improvement of the land. Through subsequent purchase he became the owner of several hundred acres in the valley. but now has reduced his possessions, by sale. to two hundred acres. The first walnut orchard in the state was started by him in the fall of 1858, the seed being secured from Mr. Wolf- skill's garden in Los Angeles, and it in turn coming from trees planted by the Mission

1006

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

Fathers. At this writing he has one hundred and sixty- acres in walnuts, from which he se- cures about one hundred thousand pounds each year. In addition to his walnuts, he has a fine orchard of lemons, his specialties being the Sicilian and Lisbon varieties. He was the first horticulturist in Southern California to import lemons and the citron of commerce from Sicily, and he also brought a new variety of olives from that same island. All of these he now produces on his ranch. Besides his ranch, he owns sev- eral blocks of improved property in Santa Bar- bara, including the Heath block and ten busi- ness houses. For two years he filled the presi- dent's chair in the First National Bank, of which he is now a director. The recent oil dis- coveries in California have awakened his inter- est and he has been foremost in his efforts to make this one of the leading industries of the state. With his son, he is interested in a well in the Rincon fields that has good prospects.

Until 1895 Colonel Heath was one of the local Democratic leaders, but the adoption of the silver standard by the Democratic party caused him to transfer his allegiance to the Re- publican party, and in its interests he stumped the southern part of the state during the cani- paign of 1900. Fraternally he has passed all the chairs in the Santa Barbara Lodge, I. O. O. F., and is past noble grand. The Society of Califor- nia Pioneers numbers him among its prominent members. After he had been in the west some years, Miss Harriet E. Sherman, one of his childhood's playmates in Little Falls, came to San Francisco to meet him and they were mar- ried there in 1856. Three years later she died, leaving an only child, James R. Heath.

MILO M. POTTER. While it is a fact that Los Angeles has no immense metropolitan hotel, few cities on the continent are blessed with a wider range of comfortable, home-like hotels, and chief among those which have been placed at the service of the public within the past few years is the well-known Hotel Van Nuys. In all its appointments this hotel is mod- ern, convenient and beautiful, and under the management of its proprietor, M. M. Potter, it has come to the front as one of the finest hotels on the Pacific coast. It is said by well posted authorities to be one of the two or three most elegantly appointed and best conducted hotels west of New York City. The Van Nuys, cen- trally located at the corner of Fourth and Main streets, within a few blocks of the entire busi- ness section of the city, is a building six stories in height, and, owing to its situation on the corner, there is not a dark room in the house. It was completed in 1896, and was furnished throughout with new, handsome equipments. The proprietor is businesslike and courteous.

and is well liked by all with whom he has deal- ings in any capacity.

Mr. Potter was born in Dundee, Monroe county, Mich., in May, 1854. In 1888 he came to Los Angeles, and upon his arrival here took charge of the Westminster Hotel. During the eight years of his connection with that high class hotel he won the respect and confidence of the local public, and a reputation for fairness and business-like methods which has served him in good stead. Mr. Van Nuys determined to invest some of his capital in another and finer building. Thus the Van Nuys Hotel came into existence, and everyone concedes that no better manager could be found than Mr. Potter. His success is in a great measure due to his general- ship, he having that rare tact and talent to thoroughly organize the forces at his command, so that complete harmony prevails in every de- partment. He is also in charge of Hotel Van Nuys, Broadway, which he built three years after the completion of the Hotel Van Nuys, Main street. These two hotels have a capacity for accommodating about five hundred guests.

STEPHEN HATHAWAY MOTT was born June 21, 1828, near Saratoga Springs, N. Y .. in the historic village of Schuylersville, where the British general, Burgoyne, surrendered. He is the son of John R. and Abbie (Hathaway) Mott, who were natives of Saratoga county. N. Y., and both died in that same county, the father when seventy-one and the mother when eighty-four. When he was nine years of age our subject was taken into the home of his maternal grandmother. In 1854 he turned his course of destiny westward. He traveled exten- sively through the southern and western states. and in 1855 landed in St. Paul. Minn., and ac- cepted a clerkship in a wholesale and retail dry goods house.

After a short time in that position he went eighty miles south of St. Paul and opened a general store among the Indians at St. Peter. Minn., but, finding difficulty in getting trans- portation, he settled in Shakopee, where he remained from 1861 to 1864, arriving in Los Angeles May 3 of the latter year. In 1868 he bought what is now known as the Mott tract. He has been a director of the Los Angeles City Water Company since 1869 and its secretary al- most thirty years. "Self-made" is a title that will fit Mr. Mott. From his first training in school for his battle of life on up to the stern realities thereof, he has come alone, unaided by friends or wealth. Of schooling. as now understood, he virtually had none. Education he has, a wealth of practical information, which would be more helpful to a young man thrown upon his own re- sources than all the training of all the colleges of theory alone.

HENRY M. DAKIN AND FAMILY

1009

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

HENRY M. DAKIN. After a youth of ad- ventures such as fall only to the lot of sailors, followed by years of steady labor as an employe of the government, Mr. Dakin finally came to California and some years later, in September of 1887, settled in San Pedro. Buying property for business purposes, he embarked in the hard- ware and plumbing business, which he has since conducted. During the years of his residence in this city he has been identified with many of its important public measures, particularly with its library board, of which he has been president for six years.

Mr. Dakin was born at Boardman, Mahoning county, Ohio, September 6, 1835, being a son of Homer and Susan (Crane) Dakin, natives re- spectively of New York and Connecticut. His maternal grandfather, Rev. Stephen Crane, was an influential minister of his day and locality. The father settled in Ohio about 1832, taking up the trade of a carpenter in Boardman, where he made his home for many years. Finally, however, he removed to Ellsworth, Mahoning county, and there his life came to a close when he was sixty-nine. During the war of 1812, when he was a mere lad, he had offered his ser- vices to the country and expected to go to the front, but sickness kept him back. In politics he adhered to Whig principles, while in religion he was a Baptist. His wife was a believer in the doctrines of the Congregational Church. Her death occurred in Poland, Ohio, in the spring of 1863, when she was sixty-nine years of age, and she was buried in Ellsworth cemetery. Of their twelve children, all but one attained years of maturity. The youngest of these, Henry M., was sent to school until six- teen, when he was apprenticed to learn the tin- ner's trade, at which he served for four years. In the fall of 1855 he went to New York City and from there shipped on a whaling cruise, go- ing with his vessel around the Cape of Good Hope, thence to New Zealand, from there to the Hawaiian Islands, and finally returning to New York after a voyage of four years, during which he had sailed around the world. How- ever, the ship in which he first sailed had been burned, and he returned on the William Henry, of New Bedford, Mass.

A later cruise took Mr. Dakin to the West Indies. In 1859 he returned to Ohio, where he took up his trade in Cleveland. During the spring of 1864 he enlisted in Company F, One Hundred and Fiftieth Ohio Infantry, which was sent to guard a fort near Washington, D. C. At the expiration of one hundred days the com- pany was honorably discharged at Cleveland. Afterward for eighteen years Mr. Dakin was employed as a letter carrier in Cleveland, where, the number of carriers being far less than em- ployed at the present time, he was obliged to do double duty and work exceedingly long hours.

On resigning from the government employ he came to California in 1882 and for five years worked as foreman for Chapman & Paul, on Commercial street, between Main and Los Angeles streets, in the city of Los Angeles. From there he came to San Pedro in 1887 and has since devoted himself to the tinware, hard- ware, and plumbing business. Formerly he voted with the Republicans, but the evil wrought by the liquor traffic has more recently caused him to ally himself with the Prohibition party.

At Cleveland, Ohio, in August, 1861, Mr. Dakin married Miss Harriet E. Stevens, who was born in Michigan. Five children were born of their union, but two died at an early age and George W. was drowned when the steamer Ke- wana went down. Those now living are Wil- liam S. and Charlotte E., Mrs. Frederick Wy- man, of Massachusetts. Mrs. Dakin is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and interested in its various. activities.

JOTHAM BIXBY. The distinction of being, perhaps, the largest landholder in Soutlı- ern California belongs to Mr. Bixby. Possess- ing far more than ordinary ability, it is said that when he was a mere boy those who knew him predicted that his future would be marked witlı decided success. Through the substantial qual- ities of his character he has been able to gain for himself financial prosperity, and that which is still more to be desired, the esteem of his associates.

When the discovery of gold in California fired the hearts of ambitious young men in the east, Mr. Bixby was one of those who resolved to seek a fortune in the far west. In 1852 he sailed via Cape Horn to San Francisco, and thence proceeded to the mines in the central part of the state, but did not meet there the success he had hoped for. In 1857 he went to Monterey county and began to raise sheep. Later we find him a resident of San Luis Obispo county, and from there, in 1866, he came to Los Angeles, having the previous year bought the rancho of Los Cerritos, a tract of twenty-seven thousand acres. This property, lying east of the San Gabriel river, and fronting on the ocean, includes the present sites of Long Beach and Clearwater. On this place he has since engaged in the stock business, and under his supervision a company was organized which purchased seventeen thou- sand acres of the Palos Verdes rancho and a one-third interest in Los Alamitos of twenty-six thousand acres, besides six thousand acres in the rancho of Santiago de Santa Ana. This en- tire acreage was devoted to stock-raising. At times the company had on the Cerritos as many as thirty thousand head of sheep, producing two hundred thousand pounds of wool annually.

1010

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

More recently, however, the company has made a specialty of raising cattle and horses, and has owned as many as thirty thousand head of cattle.

JOSEPH A. BUCKINGHAM. At the time that Mr. Buckingham came to Santa Ana, in 1876, few had as yet been attracted to the pos- sibilities of this region. Shortly after his arrival he bought fifty acres of the San Joaquin ranch from James Irving and settled down to the im- portant task of improving a farm out of the raw land. Among his early improvements were the building of a house and barn, and he also planted an orchard. Four years later he traded the property for sixty acres south of First street, now within the city limits of Santa Ana, and on this land he engaged in farming until 1882, when he sold out. His next purchase comprised twenty acres on Orange street, in the city limits, and here he has since made his home. The land has many qualities that enhance its value, note- worthy among these being its natural seepage which enables the owner to raise six or seven crops of alfalfa each year without resorting to irrigation. He has his own water-works. which provide water for domestic use and for the stock as well.

JOHN PHILIP GREELEY. From boy- hood the tastes of John P. Greeley have been in the direction of literature. Diligently pur- suing his studies in the Belfast high school and Castine normal, he fitted himself for the work of teacher, and for nine years he engaged in educational work in Maine. At the expiration of that time, in April, 1884, he crossed the con- tinent to California, and resumed the occupa- tion which had engaged his attention in New England. Near what is now Placentia, Orange county, he taught school for five years, contin- uing until the formation of this county and his simultaneous election, in 1889, as superintend- ent of schools, a position that he has filled with efficiency and success. In addition to the dis- charge of official duties, he gives some attention to the management of a fruit ranch that he owns in this county.

HON. A. A. CALDWELL. A leader in the Republican party, the sterling worth of Mr. Caldwell was recognized by the members of this party in his nomination, in 1900, for the state senate, representing the thirty-ninth senatorial district, composed of Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange counties. By a majority of almost twenty-one hundred he was the winner in the race. In the thirty-third session of the state legislature he served as chairman of the consti- tutional amendment committee and a member of the judiciary committee.

Few of the men now prominent in California's

public life were born in this state, but Mr. Cald- well is an exception, as he was born in Oakland, January 12, 1869. His parents, Edwin and Martha A. (Hayt) Caldwell, were natives of New York, where they were reared and married. In 1849 the father crossed the plains from the Missouri river, with an ox-team, and engaged in mining on the American river and other min- ing camps. In 1871 he brought his family to Riverside and five years later joined them here, turning his attention from mining to horticul- ture, in which he engaged until his death, in 1890. His wife died in 1893. The first death in the Riverside colony was that of his son, Harry, a lad of seven years, who died December 18, 1871.

The public schools of Riverside and the high school of Oakland furnished Mr. Caldwell with the elements of his education, after which he spent one year in the University of California. In 1890 he matriculated in the Hastings College of Law, a department of the State University, and from this institution he was graduated in 1893. Returning to Riverside, he opened an office for the practice of the law, and has since made this city his home. He was made a Mason in Evergreen Lodge, F. & A. M., and is also connected with Riverside Chapter, R. A. M., and Riverside Commandery, K. T., also Al Malakiah Temple, N. M. S., of Los Angeles. In the local lodge, B. P. O. E., he is a charter member. He is connected with Arrow Head Chapter, Native Sons of the Golden West, in San Bernardino, and is a member of the Beta Theta Pi and the Phi Delta Phi of his alma mater.

In Riverside Mr. Caldwell married Clara M. Keith, who traces her ancestry direct to one of Robert Bruce's field marshals, also to Pere- grine White, the first white child born in America, and whose mother, widowed before his birth, became the first bride in the little May- flower colony. Mr. and Mrs. Caldwell have one child, Duncan Keith Caldwell.

J. M. OLDENDORF. One of the finest orange groves in Riverside is owned and con- ducted by Mr. Oldendorf, to whose intelligent and constant oversight is due the attractive ap- pearance of the grove. He came to this city April 1, 1882, and in June of the same year bought ten acres, seven of which were in seed- ling oranges. The balance of the land he set out in navels, and he has also budded the seed- lings to the navel variety, so that the entire property is now improved with a high grade of fruit. He makes it his aim to keep the trees in a thrifty and healthful condition, and he also trims them with care, in order to secure a sym- metrical appearance. The property is further improved by a comfortable and neatly ap-

1011

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

pointed residence, standing at No. 247 East Central avenue.

In Mount Carmel, Ill., J. M. Oldendorf was born May 27, 1855. He was reared on a farm and received a high school education. Going to Indianapolis, Ind., in 1876, he engaged in the mercantile business, which he conducted until his removal to California in 1882. Besides his property in Riverside, he is the owner of valu- able real estate in Los Angeles. From the time of attaining his majority he has voted with the Republican party and has assisted its progress by committee work and in other ways. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and a liberal contributor to religious and char- itable enterprises. He has always taken an in- terest in educational work and in June, 1901. was elected trustee for the Arlington school district.

H. A. BINGHAM. The most ambitious creamery aspirant could hardly hope for larger returns for his labors than has fallen to the lot of H. A. Bingham, one of the most successful creamery men in the state of California. In this, the paradise of creamery enterprises, Mr. Bingham has continued an occupation begun in youth, and for which he inherits a liking and special aptitude. He was born in Lunenburg, Mass., November 3, 1857, and comes of an- cestors whose founder in America sailed away from the shores of England in 1698, and set- tled in Massachusetts. The paternal grand- father, Horace Bingham, was a farmer in the Puritan state, and Henry Bingham, the father of H. A., was born at Carlisle, Mass., and en- gaged for the greater part of his life in the dairy business at Fitchburg. He lived to be fifty years old. On the maternal side Mr. Bingham is re- lated to another Massachusetts family, for his mother, who was formerly Frances Kilburn, was born near Charlestown, Mass., and was a daughter of Milton Kilburn, a ship carpenter in the navy yard. Mr. Kilburn later turned his attention to farming, and was thus employed at the time of his death. Mrs. Bingham, who died when her son H. A. was four years of age, was the mother of one other son, Eugene, who is one of the superintendents of the creamery. Of the second marriage contracted by the father there were also two children, Earnest, the only one living, being also in the employ of his brother, H. A.

At the public schools of Fitchburg, Mass., Mr. Bingham received a practical education, and while still quite young gained considerable knowledge of the creamery business. After the death of his father he continued the dairy suc- cessfully, but in the spring of 1889 sold out his interests and two years later located in Cali- fornia. In January of 1891 he started a cream-

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Historical and biographical record of southern California; containing a history of southern California from its earliest settlement to the opening year of the twentieth century, Part 149

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918 Publication date: 1902 Publisher: Chicago, Chapman pub. co. Number of Pages: 1366

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago, Chapman pub. co.
Number of Pages: 1366