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 46

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

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During the World's Fair Mr. Rust visited in the east. On his return he engaged in the local express business on the Terminal road, after which he was with Patten & Davis. In April, 1896, with his brother, S. L., he established the Independence Ice Company, a wholesale and retail concern, the two brothers having con- tinued together ever since. In addition he is interested in the Revenue Oil Company in Kern county. As a member of the Electro-Geodetic Mining Company, which operates in different parts of Arizona, he lias important connection witlı mining interests, and besides he is a di- rector in the Golden Age Mining Company, operating in Chaparal, Ariz. He is connected with the Pasadena Board of Trade, is a stanch Republican in political views, and in fraternal relations is associated with the Woodmen of the World. When living in Manhattan, Kans., he married Miss Ivaloo Winder, who was born in Ohio and received an excellent education in the Manhattan schools. While living in that city she became a member of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, with which she has since been connected. The two children born of this mar- riage are Everett W. and Russell L.

FRANCIS JEFFERSON BECKWITH. Much of interest attaches to the life of this pioneer of Ventura county, whose history for many years was closely associated with that of the county and whose death was a distinct loss to its citizenship. Mr. Beckwith was born in Ontario county, N. Y., August 14, 1834, of Scotch ancestry. His father, Nathan, Jr., was born in 1798 and for many years made his home in New York, from which state he moved to Iowa and took up land on the then frontier. However, he later returned to New York and died in Ontario county when sixty-five years of age. The grandfather, Nathan, Sr., was a pioneer of Oswego county, N. Y. Three of the Beckwith family bore arms with the Americans during the war of 1812. The mother of Mr.

Beckwith bore the maiden name of Phoebe Granger and was born in Ontario county in 1808, her father, Elihu Granger, having removed there from New Jersey.

In a family of seven children Francis J. Beck- with was the youngest. When quite young he accompanied his parents to Indiana and after- ward endured the vicissitudes connected with clearing a tract of raw land, in the midst of frontier surroundings lacking every comfort of modern civilization. After the death of his father he continued at home, assisting his mother after the older children had gone into homes of their own. On starting out for himself he went to Michigan and bought land near Ver- montville, Eaton county. No improvements had been attempted, and his first task was the building of a log cabin. Next he attempted to put the land under cultivation. After two very busy years on that place he sold out and secured employment in a mill, where he remained for three years.

September 21, 1874, was the date of Mr. Beck- with's arrival in California. For two years he worked for his brother, Appleton, on the latter's ranch in Ventura county. He then went back to Indiana, but two years later returned to Cali- fornia and re-entered the employ of his brother. February 3, 1881, Appleton Beckwith died, be- queathing to his brothers, Francis J. and Addi- son, his ranch of seven hundred acres. At a later date Addison sold his interest to Francis J., who thus became the sole owner of the valu- able estate. Three hundred acres of the tract are rich farming lands, while the balance is adapted for pasturage with the exception of a small acreage of waste land. In location thie ranch has many advantages. It is in the midst of a fine farming country, where successes in the past have encouraged the farmers to renewed efforts for the future. Formerly hogs and cat- tle were the chief products, but corn and lima beans now form the staple products, and from this Beckwith ranch twenty-five centals of corn and two thousand pounds of beans form an average crop. The most of the improvements on the place are the result of Mr. Beckwith's painstaking care and watchful oversight. He planted the trees that now adorn the homestead: and built the large barns and granaries whose well-filled cribs denote plenty and comfort.

August 27, 1859, Mr. Beckwith married Sarah L. Greenmayer, who was born July 5, 1841, and is a daughter of Jesse and Mary (Paul) Green- mayer. Her father was born in Pennsylvania in 1818 and her mother, of Dutch descent, was born in that state the same year. The four chil- dren of Mr. and Mrs. Beckwith are: Caroline, born in Indiana, September 20, 1860, now the wife of George A. Jones, of Ventura county ; Charles F., born in Indiana, January 12, 1862; Delbert T., born in Michigan, January 31, 1869;

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and Emma G., born October 22, 1878, now the wife of M. M. Baker, of Ventura county.

While a Republican in politics, Mr. Beckwith at no time participated actively in public affairs. Instead, his attention was concentrated upon improving his ranch and training his children for useful positions in society. He died December 30, 1901, and his body was laid in its final resting place on New Year's day. In death he was fol- lowed by the respect of associates and the af- fection of family and intimate friends. The end was unexpected, resulting from an attack of pneumonia and heart failure, and his sudden demise came as a shock to his acquaintances, and particularly to the pioneer element of the valley, among whom lie had lived and labored for so many years.

WILLIAM ROMMEL. A resident of Los Angeles since 1883, Mr. Rommel was born in Jefferson county, Ky., January 28, 1849. For many years the family of which he is a repre- sentative lived in the vicinity of Stuttgart, Wurtemberg, Germany, where they were scientific agriculturists and devoted members of the Lutheran Church. Daniel Rommel, the father of William, was born in the same locality, graduated from the Royal College of Wurtem- berg, and became proficient in horticulture, floriculture and landscape gardening. When twenty-one years of age he crossed the ocean and settled in Kentucky, where he first managed and later owned a fine plantation, and remained on the property until his death. He was an anti- slavery man and fearless in his denunciation of injustice. In Kentucky he married Barbara Beerworth, who was born in that state, her father having migrated there from Wurtemberg. She is now seventy-three years of age and makes Los Angeles her home. Of her ten children, all attained maturity and seven are now living, four in California. John is president of the Rommel Oil Company of Los Angeles; Edward is secretary of the same company; and a sister, Mrs. Kohlmeier, also lives in Los Angeles.

Until his eighteenth year Mr. Rommel was reared on his father's farm in Kentucky, during which time he received a fair education in the public schools. In order to prepare himself to be an architect and contractor he undertook mechanical studies with an expert in that line. In 1875 he began building in Louisville, Ky., where he erected some of the finest buildings in the city. In 1883 he came to Los Angeles, be- ing the first of the family to settle in the far west. Immediately he entered the building business, his first contract being for the resi- dence of Winnall Dalton. Later constructions due to his skill are the Young Men's Christian Association building, the English Lutheran and Christian churches, besides many other public and private structures. In January of 1895 he

was appointed building inspector by Mayor Frank Roeder, and served until 1897. At one time he was president of the Builders' Ex- change, of which he is a charter member. He was also a charter member of the Chamber of Commerce. In 1901 he became interested in the real-estate business as a member of the firm of Glass & Rommel, who have made a specialty of buying vacant property, putting up houses on the same, and then selling as op- portunity offered. They also act as insurance agents.

In Louisville, Ky., Mr. Rommel married Mary Philipine Freyvogel, a native of that city. They are the parents of six children: Nettie, Mamie, Samuel, Calvin, Carrie and Gertrude. The family are connected with the Lutheran Church, toward which Mr. Rommel is a contributor. In national politics he is a supporter of the princi- ples of the Republican party. While in Louis- ville he became a member of Campus Lodge, A. F. & A. M. There, too, he was raised to the Royal Arch, Knight Templar and thirty-second degrees. On coming to Los Angeles he be- came a charter member of the Southern Cali- fornia Lodge, F. & A. M., Commandery No. 9, K. T., Los Angeles Consistory and Al Mala- kiah Temple, N. M. S.

E. E. SHAFFER. The auditor of San Diego county, who has been a resident of San Diego since 1870, was born in Contra Costa county, Cal., May 29, 1859, and was one of three brothers now living. The eldest of these, George B., is connected with the First National Bank of Los Angeles, and the youngest, J. E., was deputy in the auditor's office in San Diego until his death, which occurred April 13, 1902. The father, Josiah Shaffer, removed from Penn- sylvania to Iowa and in 1849 crossed the plains with an ox-team, afterward engaging in mining on the American and Feather rivers. Finding the venture less profitable than hoped, he took up farming in Contra Costa county. From there he came to San Diego and engaged in milling. In 1872 he began the manufacture of salt by the solar process, having his works at the head of the bay, and continuing in the oc- cupation until he died, in 1880, at sixty-one years. His wife, Delia D., was born in Harrison county, Pa., of Scotch descent, and in 1851 crossed the plains with a sister and brother-in- law, settling in Contra Costa county. Her death occurred in San Diego in 1892.

The education of E. E. Shaffer was obtained in grammar and high schools, also in the San Francisco Business College. For twelve years he had charge of Snyder's book and stationery business. He then engaged in the manufacture of salt, as a partner of his brother, J. E., their works being known as the La Punta salt works. Under their supervision they were enlarged to

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

a capacity of six hundred tons per year. In January, 1901, the plant was sold. In 1892 E. E. Shaffer was elected county auditor on the Republican ticket. Two years later he was re- elected. Meantime the legislature had changed the term to four years, so that he remained in office for his second term a period of four years. In 1898 he was re-elected by a large majority, to serve until January, 1903. In San Diego he married Mathilda Gabrielson, who was born in Danville, Wis., and by whom he has three sons, George Ernest, Daniel Eugene and Elmer Evan. Fraternally Mr. Shaffer stands very high in Masonry, is past president of the Native Sons of the Golden West, a member of the Encamp- ment, I. O. O. F., the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, Maccabees, Ancient Order of United Workmen, Independent Order of For- esters and Knights of Pythias.

JAMES MILLER GUINN, of Los Angeles City, was born near Houston, Shelby county, Ohio, November 27, 1834. His paternal and maternal ancestors removed from Scotland and settled in the north of Ireland in the latter part of the seventeenth century. His father was born near Enniskillen, in County Fermanagh, and his mother, Eliza Miller, was born near London- derry. His father came to America in 1819, and after ten years spent in the lumber busi- ness in the province of New Brunswick he mi- grated to Ohio, in 1830, and located on a tract of land covered with a dense forest.

James M. Guinn spent his boyhood years in assisting his father to clear a farm. The facili- ties for obtaining an education in the backwoods of Ohio fifty years ago were very meager. Three months of each winter he attended school in a little log schoolhouse. By studying in the eve- nings, after a hard day's work, he prepared him- self for teaching; and at the age of eighteen be- gan the career of a country pedagogue. For two years he alternated teaching with farming. Ambitious to obtain a better education, he en- tered the preparatory department of Antioch College, of which institution Horace Mann, the eminent educator, was then president. In 1857 he entered Oberlin College. He was entirely dependent on his own resources for his college expenses. By teaching during vacations, by manual labor and the closest economy, he worked his way through college and graduated with honors.

On the breaking out of the Civil war, in 1861, he was among the very first to respond to Presi- dent Lincoln's call for volunteers, enlisting April 19, 1861, four days after the fall of Fort Sumter. He was a member of Company C, Seventh Regi- ment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Later he en- listed in the same regiment for three years. This regiment was one of the first sent into West Virginia: He served through the West Virginia

campaign under McClellan and afterwards under Rosecrans. The Seventh Regiment joined the army of the Potomac in the fall of 1861, and took part in all the great battles in whch that army was engaged up to and including the battle of Gettysburg. In September, 1863, the regiment, as part of the Twelfth Army Corps, was sent to the west, and was engaged in the battles of Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge and Ringgold. Its three years being ended, it was mustered out the Ist of June, 1864, in front of Atlanta.

In August, 1861, while the Seventh Regiment was guarding Carnifax Ferry, on the Gauley river, it was attacked by three thousand Con- · federates under Floyd and Wise. After a des- perate resistance it was forced to retreat, leaving its dead and wounded on the field. On the retreat the company of which Mr. Guinn was a member fell into an ambush and nearly one-half of those who escaped from the battlefield were captured. Mr. Guinn, after a narrow escape from capture, traveled for five days in the moun- tains, subsisting on a few berries and leaves of wintergreen. He finally reached the Union forces at Gauley Bridge, almost starved. At the battle of Cedar Mountain his regiment lost sixty-six per cent of those engaged-a percent- age of loss nearly twice as great as that of the Light Brigade in its famous charge at Bala- klava. Of the twenty-three of Mr. Guinn's com- pany who went into the battle only six came out unhurt, he being one of the fortunate six.

Of his military service, a history of the com- pany written by one of his comrades after the war, says: "Promoted to corporal November I, 1862; took part in the battles of Cross Lanes, Winchester, Port Republic, Cedar Mountain, second Bull Run, Antietam, Dumfries. * * * On every march of the company till his dis- charge."

After his discharge he was commissioned by Governor Tod, of Ohio, captain in a new regi- ment that was forming, but, his health having been broken by hard service and exposure; he was compelled to decline the position.

In 1864 he came to California (by way of Panama) for the benefit of his health. After teaching school three months in Alameda county he joined the gold rush to Idaho, packing his blankets on his back and footing it from Uma- tilla, Ore., to Boise Basin, a distance of three hundred miles. For three years he followed gold mining with varying success, sometimes striking it rich and again dead broke. His health failing him again, from the effects of his army service, he returned to California in 1867; and in 1868 went east and took treatment for a num- ber of months in Dr. Jackson's famous water cure, at Danville, N. Y. He returned to Cali- fornia in 1869, and in October of that year came to Los Angeles county. He found employment

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as principal of the schools of Anaheim-a posi- tion he filled for twelve consecutive years. He reached the town with $10; by investing his savings from his salary in land, at the end of twelve years he sold his landed possessions for $15,000. During the greater portion of the time he was employed in the Anaheim schools he was a member of the county board of education. He helped to organize the first teachers' insti- tute (October 31, 1870) ever organized in the county. In 1874 he married Miss D. C. Mar- quis, an assistant teacher, daughter of the Rev. John Marquis. To them three children have been born: Mabel Elisabeth, Edna Marquis and Howard James. The Marquis family is of Huguenot ancestry. The progenitors of the family in America left France after the revoca- tion of the edict of Nantes, and settled in the north of Ireland. From there, in 1720, they emigrated to America, locating in Pennsylvania.

In 1881 Mr. Guinn was appointed superin- tendent of the city schools of Los Angeles. He filled the position of school superintendent for two years. He then engaged in merchandising, which he followed for three years. Selling out, he engaged in the real estate and loan business, safely passing through the boom. He filled the position of deputy county assessor several years.

Politically he has always been a stanch Re- publican. He was secretary of a Republican club before lie was old enough to vote, and, ar- riving at the voting age, he cast his first vote for John C. Fremont, in 1856, and has had the privilege of voting for every Republican nomi- nee for President. In 1873, when the county was overwhelmingly Democratic, he was the Republican nominee for the assembly and came within fifty-two votes of being elected. In 1875 he was the nominee of the anti-monopoly wing of the Republican party for state superintendent of public instruction. For the sake of party harmony he withdrew just before the election in favor of the late Prof. Ezra Carr, who was triumphantly elected. He served a number of years on the Republican county central com- mittee, being secretary from 1884 to 1886.

Mr. Guinn took an active part in the organi- zation of the Historical Society of Southern California, in 1883, and has filled every office in the gift of the society. He has contributed a number of valuable historical papers to maga- zines and newspapers and has edited the His- torical Society's Annual for the past ten years. He is a member of the American Historical Association of Washington, D. C., having the honor of being the only representative of that association in Southern California. While en- gaged in the profession of teaching he was a frequent contributor to educational periodicals and ranked high as a lecturer on educational subjects before teachers' institutes and associa- tions. He is a charter member of Stanton Post

No. 55, G. A. R .; also a past post commander, and has discharged the duties of post adjutant continuously for ten years. In Southern Cali- fornia Lodge No. 191, A. O. U. W., he has held the office of recorder for fourteen years. When the Society of Pioneers of Los Angeles county was organized, in 1897, he was one of the com- mittee of three selected to draft a form of or- ganization and a constitution and.by-laws, and has filled the position of secretary and that of a member of the board of directors continuously since the society's organization.

Besides the historical portion of this volume, he has written a brief history of California, and a history of Los Angeles city and county.

JAMES T. DUNN. The family represented by Mr. Dunn, of Gardena, is among the oldest and most honorable of Georgia. His grand- father, James Lavender, was a native of that state and one of its lifelong residents. For his day and locality he was a rich man, his posses- sions including two thousand acres of land and sixty-five slaves. At the time of his death, in 1864, the value of his lands had been greatly lessened by reason of the Civil war, which brought death and destruction in its wake. John, father of James T. Dunn, was born and reared in Georgia, and cultivated a plantation of eighty acres there. During 1857 he removed to the southern part of Arkansas and bought eighteen hundred acres in Union county, where he engaged in raising cotton for twelve years. February 5, 1870, he left his Arkansas home for the Pacific coast, and on the 3d of March he ar- rived in Los Angeles, from which city he pro- ceeded to Downey. There he bought eighty acres of land and his son, James T., purchased a forty-acre tract. In the fall of 1880 he re- moved to Redondo Beach, and for six years leased and cultivated five hundred acres, where he raised barley. The year 1886 found him in Moneta, where lie bought twenty-six acres, and improved the same with a neat residence. At this place his death occurred in 1895. His wife was Mary Lavender, a native of Georgia, and by their union three children were born who attained maturity, James T. being the eldest of these. He was horn near Atlanta, Ga., March 17, 1850, and received a fair education in private schools, after which he became interested in farming. In the various removals of the family he accompanied them, finally settling in Moneta, where he has made his home since 1886. In 1891 he embarked in the grocery business and about the same time erected the first store build- ing here, this being also utilized for a postoffice. He still operates a feed mill on his property. However, of late years he has given his atten- tion almost wholly to the cultivation of his ranch of two hundred acres, of which sixty acres are in peas and strawberries, while the balance

CHARLES FERNALD.

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

is in barley. Under his supervision the land has been transformed from a raw prairie to an im- proved and valuable ranch, and he has also added to its value by his private pumping plant, which has one hundred inches' capacity.

While in Arkansas Mr. Dunn married Miss Ellen I. Edington, who was born in Alabama. Her father, Jesse M. Edington, a native of Ten- nessee, carried on a cotton plantation in the south and was a man of considerable influence in his locality; his last years were spent in Cali- fornia. The family of Mr. and Mrs. Dunn con- sists of the following children: Jesse L .; Mary E., wife of J. M. Hardwick; and John J., a uni- versity student. The family are associated with the Methodist Episcopal Church South and are interested in all movements for the wel- fare and progress of their community. In general elections Mr. Dunn always votes the Democratic ticket. During his thirty years and more of residence in Southern Califor- nia he has witnessed the many changes wrought here; has seen booms rise and fall, people come and go, and now at last has the gratifi- cation of seeing an era of steady prosperity set in, which ultimately will make of this region the inost desirable résidence section of our whole country.

CHARLES FERNALD. The life whose salient events this biography depicts began in North Berwick, Me., May 27, 1830, and closed in Santa Barbara, Cal., July 7, 1892. The Fernald family comes from a long line of Puritan ancestry and was founded in America by Dr. Reginald Fernald, who was born in Bristol, England, and as physician and surgeon accom- panied the expedition of Sir Ferdinando Gorges to the new world, settling in New Hampshire in 1631 with Capt. John Mason's company. A grant of fifty acres was conveyed to him in 1640. The northeast shore of the Piscataqua river which lie and his brother Thomas owned, re- mained in the family for one hundred and fifty years, when John Fernald, Jr., conveyed away Fernald's Island, which, June 15, 1806, passed into the ownership of the United States and is now the site of the Portsmouth navy yard. Dur- ing the Revolutionary war Hercules Fernald, grandfather of Charles, and who was born at Kittery December 4, 1749, rendered brave ser- vice in the Massachusetts line, fighting at Dor- chester Heights, Fort Constitution, Benning- ton, Bemis Heights, Stillwater, Saratoga and other noteworthy engagements with the British.

The education of Charles Fernald was largely gained under the preceptorship of Prof. Harri- son Carroll Hobart. When less than nineteen years of age he joined a party bound for Cali- fornia, and after a long journey arrived in San Francisco June 14, 1849. A few months in the mines sufficed to prove that his tastes ran in

other directions. Returning to San Francisco, he engaged in editorial work on the Post and Alta, well known publications of that city. Meantime his law studies were carefully con- tinued. The fire of May 4, 1851, and that of May 4, 1852, somewhat dampened his enthu- siasm in regard to life in the far west, and he decided to return to New England. With this purpose in view, but wishing first to visit some friends in Southern California and then take the Panama steamer at San Diego, he came to Santa Barbara, June 30, 1852, where he met his friends, Edward Sherman Hoar and Augustus F. Hinch- man.

So complete has been the transformation in the appearance of Santa Barbara that one can scarcely imagine the contrast afforded by pres- ent-day activity in comparison with the sleepy drowsiness of the Mexican settlement of fifty years ago. Just at the time of Mr. Fernald's ar- rival, however, the peaceful lives of the people had been interrupted by an organized set of bandits who terrorized the entire community and who had compelled the county officers to resign their positions. The best men of the community were making a determined effort to evolve order out of anarchy. At this opportune time Mr. Fernald was offered the position of county judge if he would remain. In a day his entire plans were changed and all idea of re- turning east was abandoned. March 14, 1853, he received the appointment as judge, and Sep- tember 5, same year, he was elected to the office, to which he was re-elected two years later. One of his first official acts was the appointment of Russel Heath as district attorney. His splendid personal courage enabled him to cope with the desperadoes who had no regard for life or prop- erty. His life was in constant danger in the then unsettled condition of the country and he had many stirring experiences in the adminis- tration of the law, and holding in check the many rough characters who menaced the public peace. That he succeeded in administering jus- tice and in securing the respect of the com- munity is proved by the fact that he held the office for four successive terms, by election. Under the first state constitution the duties of a county judge were not limited to the trial of civil cases. As judge of the court of sessions he presided at the trial of many criminal of- fenses, and he was also judge of the probate court and of the county court.

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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 46

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