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 168

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

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The marriage of Mr. Stratton, in Macoupin county, Ill., united him with Miss Mary Web- ster, who was born in Jerseyville, that state, of Virginian and Maryland parentage. They are the parents of four children, namely: Samuel W., a graduate of the University of Illinois, and now at the head of the bureau of weights and measures in Washington, D. C .; Mrs. Olive Newcomb, of Pasadena, Matie, at home; and Mrs. Lucy Hobbs, of Chicago.

B. M. BLYTHE. Long Beach is fortunate in the possession of many citizens whose character and attainments would be a credit to any locality in the country, and among these none is more worthy the appreciation of a grateful commu- nity than is B. M. Blythe, a typical western man of affairs, at present engaged in the business of mining, real estate, loans and insurance, and a member of the firm of Lowe & Blythe.

As the name implies Mr. Blythe is of Scotch descent, and he was born in Graves county, Ky., September 4, 1855. The paternal great-grand- father was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and upon immigrating to the United States long before the Revolutionary war settled in Virginia, where he became a planter on a large scale. Here was born the paternal grandfather, Solomon Blythe, who also was a planter, and who lived and died in Virginia, from which native state he enlisted for service in the Colonial army of 1776. The father of B. M. Blythe, James T., was born in Virginia in 1823, and reared on the paternal plantation in Southampton county. No finer example could be found of the self-made man than the elder Blythe, who, when twenty-one years of age, started out on foot from Virginia and walked to Kentucky, where had settled three of his uncles. His uncle Zack lived in Graves county, where he had accumulated large holdings, and he readily gave employment to his nephew for three years, at the rate of twen- ty-five cents a day. At the expiration of this service the younger man had evidently dis- played many worthy qualities and shown him- self adaptable and capable, for he was given two hundred acres of the plantation to work on

shares, a distinct gain over the twenty-five cents a day limit. He was unusually suc- cessful at raising tobacco, and in time saved sufficient money to permit of an individual in- vestment of farm land, which he turned to the best possible account and became one of the foremost planters in the county. Nor was he content to travel in the comparatively narrow groove of the planter, for he became interested in the mercantile business, and ran with equal success a saw and grist mill, besides raising large numbers of fine stock. A commendable ambi- tion directed energies into the banking business

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in Kentucky, and he was not only a director in several banks, but was as well president of a number of institutions. In 1875 he removed with his family to Meridian, Tex., and engaged in the loan and banking business, and in 1887 located at Downey, Cal., where he organized the Los Nietos Valley Bank of Downey, of which he was president until his death, June 11, 1895. He was a broad, liberal minded man, and forcibly impressed all who associated with him in what- soever capacity. Fraternally he was a Royal Arch Mason, and he took an active part in the political developments of his time. Through his marriage with Sarah A. Adair, a native of Graves county, Ky., and a daughter of John Adair, who was born in Ireland and came to Kentucky with his parents when a boy, later becoming a blacksmith there, thirteen children were born, eight of whom attained maturity: Martha J. is now Mrs. Sims, of Fresno; S. W. is president of the Los Nietos Valley Bank at Downey; John T. was killed October 4, 1900, by an engine in Fulton, Ky .; Oscar is a farmer in Fulton county, Ky .; Clinton lives in Long Beach; Lou is the wife of Mr. Thomas, of Re- dondo; and Virginia is now Mrs. Harper, of Long Beach. Mrs. Blythe died June 23, 1891.

The preliminary education of B. M. Blythe was acquired in the public schools of Graves county, Ky., and in 1874 he went to Meridian, Tex., his family following one year later. There he engaged in the mercantile business, and was also greatly interested in the cattle business. While in Meridian he became prominent in general affairs, and was deputy sheriff for a time, besides holding other offices of trust and responsibility. Upon locating with the family in Downey in 1887, he engaged in real-estate and loans for a couple of years, and when the famous Thomas H. Blythe case came up he went to San Francisco and pushed the matter for six years with his lawyers. After return- ing to Downey in 1894 he continued his former business in the real estate and loan markets, and was also a director of the Los Nietos Valley Bank at Downey. In June of 1901 he came to Long Beach to engage in the business of real- estate and loans, bringing with him a firmly es- tablished reputation for push and veracity and general enterprise, which was not slow in as- similating with the conditions of his adopted town. He is a leading influence and the vice- president of the Long Beach Improvement Company, which company purchased three hun- dred and thirty lots in Alameda, and he is a director in the Long Beach Savings Bank. His real-estate transactions are mostly in connec- tion with his own property, and he owns many valuable holdings in the town and county.

In Norwalk, Cal., Mr. Blythe married Mary E. Merchant, a native of Texas, and daughter of Dr. W. T. Merchant. Dr. Merchant was a

native of Alabama and a graduate physician, and a practitioner of Norwalk up to the time of his death. His wife, formerly Sarah McMullen, was also a native of Alabama. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Blythe, Ver- non Merchant, Sarah Eskaleen, and Virginia Corinne. Mr. Blythe is prominent in fraternal circles, and is associated with the Independent Order Odd Fellows, the Independent Forest- ers, the Ancient Order United Workmen, the Maccabees, and the Woodmen of the World. He is a member of the board of trade, and has an enviable social and business standing in Long Beach.

EDGAR R. BRALEY. The pioneer bicycle establishment of Pasadena is owned and man- aged by Edgar R. Braley, who has been a resi- dent of the city since 1887. He at first started a fruit business on the site of his present storc, and in 1892 added thereto bicycles and supplies, as well as a repair department. So popular and remunerative was this combination of interests that recently the owner thereof purchased out- right the ground, upon which he has erected a large building, 50x90 feet in dimensions. He at first carried only Crescent and Eagle wheels, but has since added to his stock the Tribune, Stearns, Eldridge and Echo makes, and also handles the Thomas Motocycle and Waverley electric vehicles.

A native of Jasper county, Iowa, Mr. Braley was born at Kellogg February 24, 1867, and was educated at the public and private schools of his native town. His father, Carleton, was born in Vermont, the paternal grandfather, Jo- seph, having settled there at an carly day. The grandfather was a farmer and builder, and the father a farmer during their active lives, and both were well and favorably known in Kellogg and vicinity. Carleton Braley married Eliza Ann Rice, a native of Vermont, and member of a well known New England family. Mrs. Bra- ley died in Iowa, leaving nine children, five sons and four daughters, two of her children having died when young.

As the youngest son in his father's large fam- ily, Edgar R. Braley undertook to earn his own living when fifteen years of age, and found em- ployment on a farm for a couple of years. He then clerked in a general store in Kellogg for three years, and in 1887 located in Pasadena. which has since been his home. He married in Newton, Iowa, Alice E. Estes, a native of Kan- sas, and of this union there have been born four children: Rex, Ruth and Ruby (twins) and Everett. Mr. Braley is a member and trustee of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, and is also a Modern Woodman of the World. He is a Republican in political affiliation, but aside from the formality of casting his vote is not actively engaged in political undertakings. He

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has been very successful from a business stand- point, his enterprising methods and devotion to the best interests of his patrons ensuring a con- stantly increasing trade.

E. B. CUSHMAN. The various agencies which have tended to the development of South- ern California since the beginning of the '80s have had an interested spectator in E. B. Cush- man, one of the pioneer real-estate men of Long Beach, and the manipulator of land and prop- erty deals in different parts of the state. His initial experience in California life was acquired in 1882, when he located in Santa Ana, and served as deputy postmaster under his uncle, C. E. French. He then removed to Los Angeles and had charge of the registry department of the postoffice under Colonel Dunkleberger, and was thus employed during the great boom. A still later connection with government affairs was as mail agent between Los Angeles and Deming, N. M., a responsibility resigned in 1886, to engage in the real-estate business in 3000000 Los Angeles. He was remarkably successful owing to the favorable conditions prevailing during the rush for property at that time, and among other undertakings handled the Long- street place. While in Los Angeles he estab- lished an office in Long Beach in 1886. and managed the affairs of both offices from his headquarters in the larger city. In 1896 he lo- cated permanently in Long Beach, and in con- nection with his other and general work has been the agent for several years of the Alamitos tract.

The youth of Mr. Cushman was centered in the city of Boston and vicinity, and he was born in Northampton, Mass., in 1854. A just pride of ancestry has been maintained by latter day members of the family, who recall with satis- faction that one of their number, Robert Cuslı- man, was secretary of the Mayflower Company, and crossed the seas in the vessel of that name. In after years, when the supremacy of England began to be questioned by the colonists, the pa- ternal great-grandfather, Cushman, left his plow and shouldered his weapons on the great battle fields of the Revolution. His son, Samuel, the paternal grandfather, was born in Maine, and became a country squire with broad acres and large possessions. Among the children whom he reared was I. S. Cushman, who became a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal denom- ination, and belonged to the New England Con- ference. Like his grandfather, he was not want- ing in patriotism, and when the occasion of the Civil war created a demand for courage and de- votion he served as chaplain in the Thirty-third Massachusetts regiment, with the rank of cap- tain. He saw much of the grim and relentless and fearful side of warfare, and from the ex- posure incurred during the service died in 1871.

His wife, formerly Sarah Elizabeth Baker, was · born in Portland, Me., and comes of a promi- nent New England family. She is now a resi- dent of Boston, and is the mother of four chil- dren, two of whom are living, E. B. being the only son.

At a comparatively early age Mr. Cuslıman embarked upon a business career in Boston, as clerk for C. F. Hovey & Co., for five years. In 1878 he removed to Yankton, S. D., near which he purchased a ranch on the Missouri river and began to raise stock. His stay in the north was unexpectedly terminated by the great freshet of 1880, which carried away his stock and de- moralized his possessions. Thereafter he re- turned to Maine, and at North Anson married Helen Bunker, a native of that town, with whom he came to California in 1882, as hereto- fore stated. Mr. Cushman is a Republican and is a cousin of ex-Governor John A. Andrews. of Massachusetts, a sincere promoter of the principles of the party. Mr. Cushman has held some positions of trust here and in the east, and was deputy city clerk for one term of Long Beach. He is a member of the Board of Trade, and is fraternally associated with the Knights of the Maccabees and holds the rank of major of the Sons of Veterans, Division of California. He is a member of the Congregational Church. Mr. Cushman has rendered valuable service in the upbuilding of Long Beach, not only as an enterprising real-estate man, but as a citizen whom all are glad to honor.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN COONS. In the capacity of agent of the Southern Pacific at Riverside, and also commercial agent on a num- ber of the branch railroad lines of the fruit belt of this region, Mr. Coons has made many ac- quaintances in Southern California. He pos- sesses marked executive ability and merits the high degree of esteem which is accorded him by the general public, as well as by his superior officials in the railroad service.

Mr. Coons is proud of the fact that he is one of California's native sons, and that his father was one of the "forty-niners" of the Pacific coast. The latter, George W., was born in Bal- timore, Md., a son of George Coons, a merchant of that city, and a native of Germany. G. W. Coons also followed merchandising in his early manhood, and in 1849 crossed the plains by the Omaha, Humboldt and Nevada Pass route, and with ox-teams. At the end of a six months' trip he arrived in Sacramento, and, having built the first quartz mill in California, operated it for about a year. Then, going to San Francisco. he embarked in a mercantile business and in the spring of 1852 returned by the overland route for his wife and four children. Together they traversed the plains and located upon a ranch near Elk Grove, Cal. Not until 1853, however,

JESSE DRISKILL

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did Mr. Coons cease his business operations in San Francisco, and thenceforth he gave his entire attention to farming. In the early years of his residence on the coast he experienced some strange vicissitudes, and as a member of a vigilance committee and in every possible manner supported law and order. For a num- ber of years he was a justice of the peace in his county. When in his fiftieth year, in 1870, he passed to his eternal reward. He was sur- viyed by his widow, Mrs. Semphronia (Han- ilton) Coons, who passed away in Sacramento in 1897. Of their thirteen children, ten lived to maturity and eight sons and a daughter are yet living, all being in the northern part of this state, with the exception of our subject. Mrs. Coons was a daughter of George H. Lanham, a Baltimore merchant. Both were natives of that city and came of a very prominent family of Maryland, of Scotch extraction.

Benjamin F. Coons was born in Sacramento. Cal., April 5, 1862, and lived upon a farm until 1880. In the mean time he received a liberal education in the common and high schools of Sacramento, and was graduated in the latter in June, 1880. On the following Monday he assumed the duties of a telegraph operator at Hot Springs, Nev., on the Central Pacific, for while at school he had become familiar with the business by devoting his spare time to master- ing the craft. During the next four years he was agent and operator at different stations along the Central Pacific road in California and Nevada. As secretary of the committee having in charge the railroad exhibit for these two. states at the World's Fair held in New Orleans, he spent seven months there. In 1886 Mr. Coons married Miss Jennie Taylor, at Rose- ville, Cal. Born in St. Louis, Mo., she accom- panied her parents to California when five years of age, and was educated in San Francisco. The couple have two promising sons, namely: Er- nest Alvin and Wallace A. B.

Returning to the employ of the Central Pa- cific, Mr. Coons was stationed as an agent at Elk Grove, Cal., from the time when he com- pleted his duties in the Crescent City, in the spring of 1885. until 1888, when he was installed as agent at Wheatland. His residence in that place extended over a period of nine years, and from 1897 to May 30, 1900, he was located at Covina, Cal., being the commercial agent of the line between Pomona and Bassett. Since the date given he has been the Southern Pacific's agent at Riverside and also has been its com- mercial agent between Banning and Pomona. In his territory there are fifty miles of the main road, seven miles of the Colton branch, four miles of the Redlands branch, three miles of the San Bernardino road, and nine miles of the Chino loop. With railroad men he is very pop- ular, and is a member of the Traveling Pas-

sengers Railroad Agents Association of the United States. While with him business and the interests of his employers ever are para- mount, Mr. Coons is and always has been very fond of athletic sports. At Wheatland he was president of a tennis club and was vice-president of a gun club; at Covina was one of the organ- izers and later was chairman of the Country Club's house committee; was president of the Covina Tennis Club, and vice-president of the Gun Club. At Covina he was initiated into Ma- sonry, and now belongs to Evergreen Lodge. Besides, he is past president of the Native Sons of Golden West, is sir leading knight of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and is connected with the Roubidoux Club. Though surrounded with Democratic influences in his youth, he was independent and at length iden- tified himself strongly with the Republicans.

JESSE DRISKILL, one of the foremost con- tractors and builders of Long Beach, was born in Bond county, Ill., September 30, 1850, and comes of an ancestry intimately connected with the history of Scotland. The emigrating an- cestor was the paternal great-grandfather, who was born in Scotland and removed to the north of Ireland, from where he embarked for the United States. He settled in North Carolina, and served during the Revolutionary war under Gen. Francis Marian. The paternal grand- father, Jesse, was born in North Carolina, and served with distinction in the war of 1812. at which time he was under command of General Jackson at the battle of New Orleans. William Driskill, the father of the present Jesse, was born near Fayetteville in middle Tennessee, and settled in Bond county, Ill., about 1830. He was a farmer during his active life, and died in Il- iinois at the age of forty years. His wife, for- merly Mary Cruthis, was a native of Bond county, and a daughter of John Cruthis, born in North Carolina, and one of the first settlers of Tennessee. He removed to Bond county, Ill., about 1824, and farmed for the remainder of his days. He was a Quaker in religious belief. In his young manhood he married Milberry Red- fearn, who was of Scotch descent, and whose father, Isaac, served during the Revolutionary war under General Marian. Mrs. Driskill, who lied in Illinois, became the mother of two chil- dren, and of these John is a resident of Bond county, Ill.

Until his seventeenth year Mr. Driskill lived on the paternal farm in Bond county, Ill., and attended the public schools, supplemented by training at McKendree College, Lebanon, III. He then engaged in farming with his brother in Bond county, but from his earliest years showed a special aptitude for things mechanical, and especially carpentering, and when twenty- four years of age gave up farming to learn to

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be a builder. He afterwards built and con- tracted in Bond county, and while there at- tained to some political prominence, filling among other offices that of justice of the peace for four years. Later he started out as a travel- ing salesman for a St. Louis house, and was successful in the sale of agricultural implements, heavy hardware and blacksmith supplies, throughout the south and southwest. At the end of three years of journeying he came west to California, and was made superintendent of the building of the Hotel Coronado at San Diego. Upon the completion of the now fa- mous house in 1887 he continued to build in San Diego until after the boom, and then went to Calamali, Cal., and superintended the erection of the quartz mills at that place. Nine months later he went to Tacoma, Wash., where he put up the large school building and other construc- tions of importance, remaining in the Washing- ton city between 1889 and 1895. Following this he spent two years working at his trade in Los Angeles, and in October of 1897 located at Long Beach, where he has since had all the work he could attend to. He built the fine new high school and many public buildings and resi- dences, but of late has turned his attention al- most exclusively to street contract work, and has probably done more cement work than any other one man in the town.

In Jefferson City, Mo., Mr. Driskill married Ida Holbrook, a native of Bond county, Ill. Of this marriage one child was born, William L. Mr. Driskill is a Democrat in political affiliation, and while living in Washington served as jus- tice of the peace and police magistrate. He is a member of the Board of Trade, and is frater- nally associated with the Masons, and belonged to the Sumner (Wash.) Lodge No. 70, F. & A. M. He is also a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Eastern Star.

G. H. CARDER, M. D. One of the mem- bers of the medical profession in Pasadena is Dr. G. H. Carder, who is not only a disciple of homeopathy, but also an artist of more than ordinary skill. He was born in Kalamazoo, Mich., February 2, 1852, and was educated in the public schools, graduating from the high school and the commercial college. His natu- ral inclination was towards a life devoted ex- clusively to art, but in the following of this plan he met with decided objections from his father, who put him to learning the upholsterer's trade. E. A. Carder, the father of G. H., was born in Connecticut, and was a furniture manufacturer in Kalamazoo, Mich., in later years doing busi- ness also in Jackson and Grand Rapids. He died in Kalamazoo in August, 1901, at the age of eighty-two years. His wife, formerly Sarah A. Green, a native of England, survived him but four months, her death occurring in November,

1901. There were five children in the family, two sons and three daughters, of whom G. H. Carder was the third oldest.

After learning his trade Mr. Carder estab- lished an upholstery business, yet so much did he regret his absence of art chances that he hired a basement in Kalamazoo and put in a supply of clay and marble with which to prose- cute his art work. Although otherwise em- ployed during the day, he modeled and studied far into the night, and often until two or three o'clock in the morning, and in this way made great headway with a foundation upon which to base his future exertions. In the mean time he had decided to study medicine under Dr. Charles Adams, of Chicago, and eventually graduated from the Homeopathic Medical Col- lege in 1882. He began practicing in Chicago, and at the same time lectured on obstetrics for a couple of years in the National Medical Col- lege. In connection with a large obstetrical practice, he worked up a large patronage as an oculist, with offices on the corner of State and Washington streets, and would doubtless have still been a member of the profession in Chicago had not ill health in his family rendered a change of climate imperative.

In February of 1900 Dr. Carder came to Cal- ifornia and located on a ranch in La Canada, but by the following December had decided that ranching was not his forte, and so returned to his profession, and is now located in Pasa- dena, with an office in Masonic Temple. He was married in South Bend, Ind., to Elizabeth B. Roberts, a native of that place, and of this union there is one child, Robert H. Dr. Car- der is a member of the Illinois Medical Society, and he is fraternally associated with the Auburn Park Lodge of Masons, at Chicago, in which city he joined the chapter. He was formerly a Knight of Pythias. In political affiliation he is a Republican. Mrs. Carder is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. During all his practice Dr. Carder has maintained his in- terest in art, and from sculpture has branched out into painting, many admirable canvases having developed under his brush.

WILLIAM BRYANT. The early experi- ences of Mr. Bryant in California were not such as to give him rose-tinted views of the opportu- nities offered by the state, but since he came to Gardena he has been far more fortunate than before, and has not only retrieved past losses, but has also established himself upon a solid financial basis. He is a native of Ohio, born in Belmont county, February 16, 1849, and his parents, John and Mary (Van Dellan) Bryant, were also born in that state. In 1877 the family removed to Kansas and settled near Geneseo, Rice county, where the parents still make their home. Of their fifteen children nine attained

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mature years, William being fourth in order of birth.

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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 168

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