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 48

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 48

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EDGAR EUGENE SELPH, attorney at Los Angeles and Pasadena, and secretary of the Roosevelt Mining and Milling Company, was born in Salem, Marion county, Ore., in 1860, and comes of a family of Welsh descent, the name being originally spelled Sylph. William

Selph, the father of Edgar Eugene, came to Cal- ifornia in the days of gold, crossing the plains from his native home in middle Tennessee, and engaging for a short time in the pursuit of min- ing. In 1852 he located in Oregon, and com- bined his trade of blacksmithing with the occu- pation of farming, in the vicinity of Salem, but in after years removed to Jackson county, Ore., where he is still living, at the age of seventy- eight years. He married Julia Chitwood, a na- tive of Iowa, and of English descent, and who came to Oregon in 1853. Mrs. Selph, who died in 1872, was the mother of four children, three of whom attained maturity, one daughter and one son only surviving at the present time.

The career of Edgar Eugene Selph was en- tirely of his own making, for his father was a man of moderate means, and the son was obliged to shift for himself at the early age of twelve. While performing the tasks on a farm he formu- lated large plans for the future, in which a good education played no inconsequent part. Though handicapped by responsibility, he managed to secure a common education and qualify as a teacher, and in this way he worked his way through McMinnville College, which he entered in 1880, and where he remained for five years. While teaching he began the study of law under IV. D. Fenton (now one of the attorneys of the Southern Pacific Railway Company) in Port- land, Ore., and was admitted to the Oregon bar in April of 1890. His professional career was in- augurated in Oregon, where he engaged in a general practice. On account of his wife's health he located in Southern California in the spring of 1898, and after residing for a time in Pasa- dena, settled permanently in Los Angeles. His professional and business interests have since been divided between the two cities, his office in: Los Angeles being in the Potomac building. Although engaging in a general practice, Mr. Selph makes a specialty of mining and corpora- tion law, and has been identified with some of the most ambitious undertakings in his line dur- ing his residence in the state.

The Roosevelt Mining and Milling Company, of which Mr. Selph is secretary, was incorpo- rated April 12, 1901, the directors being S. Washbourn, T. L. Martin, T. Lormer, J. E. Parker, E. H. Royce, V. L. Carroll and E. E. Selph. The officers of the company are: S. Washbourn, president; T. L. Martin, vice-presi- dent, and E. E. Selph, secretary. The San Ga- briel Valley Bank is the depositary. The direc- tors are men of high standing in the business world of Southern California, and are trust- worthy and conservative. The property of the company is located in San Bernardino county, eight miles from Ludlow, a station on the Santa Fe Railroad, and the roads leading thereto may be safely traversed by heavy loads at all seasons of the year. Adjacent to the mines are the cele-

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brated John R. Gentry group of mines, from which have been taken thousands of dollars in gold; also the Bagdad Mines, owned by Hon. Chauncey Depew and others. The company is developing their property, and the output con- sists of gold with a small per cent of copper.

ELI RUNDELL. Before the days of the forty-niners in California, Mr. Rundell had cast in his fortunes with this great western region. With a party numbering about seventy-five, hav- ing thirteen wagons and other accessories, he left St. Joe, Mo., May 8, 1846. Five months later California was reached, and they went into camp forty miles north of the present site of Sacra- mento. Next they proceeded to San José, camp- ing where the railroad offices now stand. As a member of Fremont's Battalion, he witnessed the battle of Santa Clara. After three months of service in a local company, he secured work in a sawmill at Santa Cruz. Later, with others, he went to Calaveras, where he helped to build houses. One of his vivid recollections of that period is a hunting expedition on the San Joa- quin, during which they killed one hundred and fifty elk. Continuing the trip, they came to the present site of the Newhall ranch, and thence made their way up the coast through Santa Bar- bara, about May, 1848.

Hearing of the discovery of gold, Mr. Rundell hastened to the mines and at Placerville dis- covered numerous acquaintances among the gold seekers from the east. In 1849 he went to Stockton, where he clerked for Captain Weber one year. In the spring of 1850 he went to San José and embarked in the livery business, but later took up farming. In 1852 he began the manufacture of saddle trees and saddles, for which, in those early days, he received high prices. He continued the same business at Gil- roy from 1853 to 1864, after which he resided in Watsonville one year. In September, 1866, he came to Santa Barbara as agent for the Coast Line Stage Company, also as manufacturer of the harness used by the company. When the stage lines were discontinued some sixteen years later he turned his attention to other industries, and since 1885 has been engaged in the harness

business. Meantime, in 1868, the stage owners built a toll road across the mountains to Los Olivos, and he was elected president and man- ager of the same, which position he held until the road was sold, in 1896.

In Locke, Cayuga county, N. Y., Mr. Rundell Mr. Selph is a member of the Board of Trade in Pasadena, and of the Chamber of Commerce in Los Angeles. While living in Oregon he be- came identified with the Masonic fraternity some years ago, and he is now connected with several Masonic bodies. He was made an Odd Fellow was born December 14, 1828, a descendant of an old eastern family. His father, William, and grandfather, Eli, were natives of Connecticut, and residents of New York and Ohio, where the former made shoes and the latter manufactured harness. The death of William Rundell occurred in Sheridan, Ore., and is now a member of Com- . 111 Republic, Seneca county, Ohio, when he was mercial Lodge in Los Angeles. He is also a member of the Woodmen of the World, the Fraternal Brotherhood, and the Knights of the Maccabees. Politically he is a Republican. Mr. Selph ranks among the most able of the attor- neys in Southern California, and is personally one of the most popular and influential. fifty. His wife, Miranda (Mills) Rundell, was born in Cayuga county, N. Y., and died in Ohio in 1887. Of their seven children, the oldest, Eli, is the only one now on the coast. He was six years of age when the family settled in Seneca county, Ohio, and grew to manhood on a farm there. After coming to California, he married Kate McGee, who was born in Boston and died in Santa Barbara in 1897, leaving three children: Fred, of Santa Barbara; Albert, who is connected with the Southern Pacific road, and Alice (a twin of Albert), who is the wife of a physician in Ukiah. In October, 1900, Mr. Rundell was united in marriage with Mary A. Hammon, a half sister of his first wife and a native of Boston, Mass.

In politics a Democrat, Mr. Rundell was elected to the council on that ticket and served for thirteen years. During seven years of that time, in accordance with a resolution made by all the councilmen, he drew no salary. When he was elected to the office, not a sidewalk had been built, and in this work he took a deep interest from the start. He also assisted in the straight- ening and grading of the streets and the starting of other public improvements. In religion he is of the Spiritualist belief. After coming to Santa Barbara he was made a Mason in Lodge No. 192, of which he is now serving his twenty- eighth term as treasurer, and he is also con- nected with the chapter. The Odd Fellows, White Rose Lodge of Rebekahs, and Mar- guerite Chapter, Order Eastern Star, number him among their members, and of the last- named lie was secretary for many years.

A. KINGSLEY MACOMBER. Within the memory of men now living Africa was denom- inated the "unknown" continent. and, aside from the immediate vicinity of the coast, the feet of white men had never penetrated its vast wil- dernesses. Then came the brave and knightly Livingstone, who made two attempts to reach the interior from the east, and during his second expedition died at Bangwelo. The intrepid Stanley, with a splendid equipment of men and necessities, made three attempts to reach the in- terior from the north, but failed. During one

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of these expeditions his assistant, Maloney, with a few inen, made an expedition to some distance from the main party and succeeded in killing Misiri, the king of Mahdi. On another occa- sion the Germans sent a formidable expedition from the west, but it was never heard from, and its members undoubtedly perished in their ill- fated endeavors.

At the time of the Major Allen Wilson mas- sacre at Majuba hill, the sole survivor was Major F. R. Burnham, and he it was who, during a Matabele war, killed Molimo, the witch doctor. His fame as an explorer had spread to England, and when he proposed seeking to gain more definite information concerning the interior, it was felt that he was the man to head an impor- tant expedition. Accordingly, when Cecil Rhodes and the British government authorized the formation and equipment of a company of explorers, Mr. Burnham and Mr. Ingram were placed at the head of the expedition, with per- mission to draw for anything they wanted. They accepted on the condition that they were allowed to choose the members of the party, which was granted them. Among those who were honored with an invitation to accompany them was A. Kingsley Macomber, who was at the time a young man of twenty years, eager for adventure, fearless, robust and active, and well equipped, physically and mentally, for the arduous cam- paign before him. He was born in Morristown, N. J., March 7, 1874, and in 1883 came to Pasa- cena, where his father, H. K. Macomber, M. D., is one of the oldest and most influential physicians. On accepting Mr. Burnham's in- vitation in 1894, he went via New York and the Canary Islands to Capetown, Africa, thence to Pretoria. The. expedition traveled by coaches six hundred miles to Buluwayo, at one time the home of Lobengula, whom Burnham is sup- posed to have killed in 1893. There the ex- pedition started on its tour of exploration. It consisted of nine white men (all Americans), about fifty Zulus and fifty pack animals. They spent six months in the heart of the country, and found a number of new tribes that hitherto had only been heard of indirectly. Practical value was given to their investigations by rea- son of their surveys and maps of the interior.

One of their most difficult feats was the cross- ing of the Zambesi river which at this point is about a mile wide. This was accomplished after two weeks of effort, the mode devised being the forming of pontoons from rubber beds that were inflated and lashed together. They were the second white party to see Victoria Falls on the Zambesi river, a magnificent spectacle, far surpassing our own Niagara in grandeur and sublimity, with the waves rushing wildly down from a height of three hundred and seventy-five feet, to seethe in a seeming caldron of foaming waters. No expedition had hitherto reached the

Kafui and Mashukulumbue rivers, nor had any white men ever before seen the Monchoia mountains, the highest peak of which they named Mount Wilson in honor of Major Allen Wilson and Wilson's Peak of the San Gabriel valley. In memory of the same distinguished explorer and martyr, Major Wilson, Major Burnham had erected a monument. They lo- cated the copper fields and made other im- portant discoveries. At every point of advance savage tribes were to be met and subdued or pacified. One of these, of which Mashu was the head, was particularly fierce and bloodthirsty, and the white men only escaped death through the fortunate circumstance that they had plenty of meat to give the savages, who were almost starving. Then, when night fell, they escaped in the darkness.

At one time Mr. Burnham and Mr. Macomber were escaping hostilities from the northern tribes for five days, and during that time slept only a few hours, the rest of the time hurrying on foot over the two hundred and fifty miles between them and the Zambesi river. At first eight Zulus were with them, but by the fourth day they had all dropped out from fatigue, and the two white men were alone, but finally they reached the river in safety. They journeyed around the camps of the natives, following the southern cross by night and the sun by day. The expedition returned to Buluwayo just before the Jameson raid and the breaking out of the Ma- tabele war. The English garrison had been so greatly depleted that the natives were quick to take advantage of the fact, and brought about a massacre, in which about three hundred out of the one thousand residents of the vicinity were killed. At that time Mr. Macomber and a com- rade, Mr. Blick of Pasadena, who had been in the Filabusi camp fifty miles from Buluwayo, fortunately were in town on the night of the massacre, so their lives were saved; but the twenty remaining in camp met a sad fate at the hands of the natives. The white people gathered in Buluwayo, where they were be- sieged by the Matabeles. The little telegraph line strung from tree to tree to Pretoria saved them, for they got a message through to Cape- town before the natives cut the line. The Eng- lish wired back that they would start two thou- sand men at once, but it would require two months to reach them, which estimate proved about correct, as over two months passed be- fore relief came. Meantime the garrison was al- most depleted of ammunition and provisions, and the rations were one small biscuit per day to each man, so that relief came none too soon. After Buluwayo was relieved the expedition disbanded and Mr. Macomber returned to Lon- don, where he received the degree of Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society from the im- perial government, authorized by the Queen

Henry Lacurso -

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and the Royal Geographical Society. The last act of Queen Victoria was the awarding of medals to these survivors of the Matabele war. In December, 1896, he returned to the United States, and for a time engaged with E. R. Kel- lam of Los Angeles in operating the Black Diamond coal mine at Gallup, N. M., also en- gaged in prospecting and mining in the Cascades and Coast range.

January 17, 1902, Mr. Macomber organized the Los Angeles Trust Company, with a capital stock of $1,000,000. This is the first strictly and exclusively trust company organized in the city and its outlook for the future is exceedingly favorable. Associated with him in the company are some of the most prominent capitalists and foremost business men of Southern California. Under the direct supervision of Mr. Macomber, who is president of the company, an eight-story building is now being erected on the choice northeast corner of Second and Spring streets, to be known as the Los Angeles Trust building. This company ranks as one of the strongest financial institutions of the west, and its success- ful future is assured by the able management.

HENRY LEWIS, one of the early pioneers in the Carpinteria valley, was born near Ma- nassas Junction, Va., in 1830. His father was a farmer, and Henry followed a like occupation, although a part of his boyhood was passed in a store in Washington, D. C. At the age of twenty years he married Miss Chattin, of Virginia, and he then bought a farm and began what has proved to be his life work. He sold out all in- terests and came to California in 1857. The next year he went into the mines in Tuolumne county, and after six months' experience he came out "with rheumatism and little else," the former of which has remained with him through life.

In December, 1858, Mr. Lewis moved to Half Moon Bay, and there farmed for three years. In the spring of 1862 he came to Carpinteria valley, purchased eighty-eight acres of land and pitched his tent near where his house now stands. He bought his property from the city of Santa Bar- hara at $1.25 per acre, the land being wild and uncultivated and covered with brush and live oak trees. He drove down from Half Moon Bay looking along for a desirable situation, and the Carpinteria valley was the first location which seemed practicable. He immediately began cut- ting and clearing, and now has one of the most complete ranch properties in the place. The only white people then in the valley were Col. Russel Heath and Mr. Lowrie. As rapidly as land was cleared he began the cultivation of lima beans, corn and barley. In 1864 they had a very dry year, no crops maturing and horses and cattle dying for want of sustenance. Mr.

Lewis has since added eighty acres to his ranch, which now numbers one hundred and sixty acres, one hundred and fifty acres of which he plants to lima beans, with an average crop of two thousand pounds to the acre.

Mr. Lewis lost his first wife in February, 1863, and in 1879 he married Mrs. Rebecca Mullin of Cincinnati. He has seven children by his first wife and three by his second, all living. His handsome two-story residence, fine barns and suitable out-buildings, all go to show the thrifty and successful farmer, and his well-kept ranch is significant of the prosperity which has at- tended him.

GILBERT H. SPROUL. From the far east- ern state of Maine, where he was born near Windsor in April, 1830, Gilbert H. Sproul sought the opportunities and possibilities of the great undeveloped west. As a partner of his brother Atwood (in whose sketch appears the family record) he acquired possession of a large body of unimproved land in Los Angeles county in 1868, the purchase price of the same being $II an acre. While his brother continued for some years to make Oregon his home, he himself gave personal attention to the improvement of the California property. December 15, 1874, the brothers gave to the Southern Pacific Rail- road a right of way through their land, as well as twenty acres, on which was erected a depot and needed equipments at Norwalk. The town site was then surveyed just opposite the depot, but has since been largely added to, from a portion of their ranch of four hundred and fifty- seven acres. The home of the family has since been north of town.

Besides these two brothers, a third, Ephraim, had come at the same time to California, but the latter was killed by an Indian in Humboldt county, Cal., and the other two had many nar- row escapes from the savages. In December, 1870, Gilbert H. brought his family to the ranch, and when a postoffice was established he was appointed postmaster. In addition, he was prominent in other affairs connected with the early history of the town. Under his super- vision an artesian well was sunk which cost $2,500 or more and which is still the source of water supply for the village. November 20, 1864, he married Miss Anna M. Davis, daughter of Thomas C. and Rachel D. (Carl- ton) Davis. Her maternal grandfather was of English extraction and served as an aide to Washington during the Revolution. Mr. Davis was born at Martha's Vineyard, Mass., from which he accompanied his parents to Farming- ton, Me., in childhood. By his own efforts he acquired a thorough education, which he utilized in teaching school in Maine and New York. For some years he held office as justice of the peace.

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While he possessed unusual ability, it was in the direction of literature rather than business, hence he gained a high standing as a man, but did not achieve financial success. His mother was a member of the Puritan family of Smiths. When he was about seventy-two years of age he came to California to visit his daughter, re- turning later to Kansas, where he died. His wife also died in Kansas when fifty-seven years of age.

After having completed her education in the schools of Farmington, Me., Anna M. Davis be- gan to teach school, which occupation she fol- lowed several years. Since her marriage she has made her home in California, with the exception of a year spent in Kansas. Of her children Ambrose A. is engaged in horticultural pursuits in Orange county; Hattie resides with her mother at Norwalk; Gilbert is station agent at Orange for the Southern Pacific Railroad; and Frank is in the mercantile business at Downey. Since the death of Mr. Sproul, which occurred September 3, 1883, Mrs. Sproul has devoted her- self to the management of the various interests bequeathed her, including eighty acres of the old ranch, subdivided into lots of an acre or less. During recent years she has disposed of many lots in Norwalk, the purchasers being permanent settlers of a high class. Included in her possessions is an eighty-acre tract contain- ing two good wells; this she rents. Under the

administration of President Harrison she was given charge of the postoffice at Norwalk and continued to serve in the position under Cleve- land, resigning after nine years of service. In addition to the management of her property and the rearing of her children, she has kept posted in the world of literature and art, and, as a cor- respondent for some of the Los Angeles papers, has not only proved the possession of ability as a news-writer, but has also kept before the public the attractions and advantages of Nor- walk as a desirable location for a home.

THOMAS COATES STOCKTON, M. D. San Diego numbers among its long-established residents this influential physician and success- ful horticulturist, who is a pioneer of 1869. He was born at Smiths Creek, near Sussex Vale, New Brunswick, Canada, April 3, 1837, and traces his ancestry to Richard Stockton, who with his son, Richard Stockton, Jr., more than a hundred years previous to the Declaration of Independence, emigrated from England and set- tled in the central part of New Jersey. In 1701 Richard Stockton, Jr., purchased of William Penn, an estate of 5,500 acres on Stoney Brook, of which the present city of Princeton is in the center. He, his wife, and five children, Richard, Samuel, Joseph, Robert, and John, were the first residents of that name in Princeton. Hon.

Richard Stockton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was the son of John Stockton.

Major Richard Witham Stockton of Prince- ton, was a son of Samuel Stockton. During the Revolution he was a major in the New Jersey Volunteers, known as Stockton the famous land pilot to the King's troops. He was surprised February 18, 1777, by Colonel Nelson of Bruns- wick, N. J., and with fifty-nine privates, taken prisoner. General Putnam sent him to Phila- delphia in irons, of which Washington disap- proved. "The Major," he said, "has, I believe, been very active and mischievous, but we took him in arms, as an officer of the enemy, and by the rules of war, we are obliged to treat him as such, and not as a felon." At the close of the war, not finding continued residence in the United States desirable on account of his Tory sympathies, he removed to St. John, New Brunswick. He was a grantee of that city and enjoyed half pay. He died at Sussex Vale in that province. His son, Lieut. Andrew Hunter Stockton, was born in Princeton, January 3, 1760, became officer of the marines in the British navy and was twice captured and ex- changed during the Revolutionary war, after which he went with his father and three brothers to St. John, New Brunswick. April 4, 1784, he married Hannah Lester, of New York state, by whom he had four sons and one daughter, all whom survived both parents. He died at Sussex Vale, May 8, 1821.

Next in line of descent was Charles Witham Stockton, second son of Lieut. Andrew Hunter Stockton, who was born April 4, 1787, near Sussex Vale, and became a large farmer in that locality, also was justice of the peace many years. He died at Smith Creek, July 12, 1869. Thirteen children, nine sons and four daughters, were reared of the fifteen that were born of his marriage to Alice Coates. She was born in New Brunswick, and died at Smith Creek, May 21, 1865, seventy-two years of age less six days. Nine sons and six daughters survived her. She was a consistent member of the Wesleyan So- ciety forty years.

The youngest of the fifteen children was Thomas C. Stockton, who was also the only one of the large family to settle in the states. He was educated in Mount Allison Academy, after which he spent a year in Harvard Medical College, Boston, Mass., and three years in the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, from which he was graduated in 1868. Frequently since then he has engaged in post-graduate work in the Poly- clinic of New York. After his graduation he opened an office in New York City and was ap- pointed out-door physician to the Marion Street Lying-In Hospital. Desiring to establish his home in a region where the climate was more equable, he came to San Diego, and has since

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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 48

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