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 53

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 53

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April 17, 1873, Mr. Klassen left his saws and hammers and chisels and took up the vocation of arms, as a soldier in Company A, Twelfth United States Infantry. After the first year he was pro- moted to the rank of corporal, and after six months more to the rank of sergeant, in which capacity he served for the remainder of the strife. His regiment came on a special train to San Francisco for a campaign in the lava beds, which resulted in the hanging of Captain Jack and two of his confederates. In all he served in the army for five years, and was mustered out April 17, 1878, having previously spent some time at Camp Wright and at Mojave, Ariz. After the service Mr. Klassen located in Los Angeles and worked at his trade until 1880, in which year he went to Tombstone, Ariz., and contracted and built for two years. He then decided upon Los Angeles as a desirable permanent place of residence, and his subsequent success in his chosen occupation has seemed to substantiate the wisdom of his choice.

The marriage of Mr. Klassen and Mrs. Jane E.

Dees, of Ireland, occurred in San Francisco, and of this union there are three children: John is a carpenter in business with his father, while Rob- ert and Annie are living at home. Mr. Klassen has built a pleasant and convenient residence at No. 1455 West Thirty-seventh street, which is the scene of much agreeable hospitality. He is a Republican in politics, and is fraternally associ- ated with the Maccabees. In the business world of Los Angeles he is regarded as a substantial and capable acquisition, and by his friends and associates he is appreciated for the traits of gen- erosity, consideration and unquestioned integrity.

ALFRED BECK CHAPMAN. From the time when he first saw California, in 1858, to the present day, Mr. Chapman has never wav- ered in his enthusiasm concerning the ultimate prosperity of the state. Many of our pioneers passed away before their fond hopes were real- ized, but it has been his high privilege to wit- ness the transformation of the country wrought during the passing years. He has lived to see what was in days gone by a wild tract of land covered with brush and mustard and worthless except for stock pasturage, transformed into a prosperous, highly cultivated and beautiful region, whose attractions win unstinted praise from even the most critical of strangers.

The Chapman family came from England. William S. Chapman, of Virginian birth, gradu- ated from the University of North Carolina, of which his father was president, and after ward engaged in the practice of law and the manage- ment of his cotton plantation. Had he been spared to old age, undoubtedly his talents would have brought him success, but he died while still a young man, being thirty-two years of age. Some years before he had married Miss Coziah A. Beck, daughter of Col. Alfred Beck, a militia officer. Their son, Alfred Beck Chapman, was named in honor of his distinguished grandfather, and was born at Greensboro, Ala., September 6. 1829. Graduating from West Point in 1854, he was afterward stationed at Forts Leavenworth. Benicia, Tejon and Churchill. He held the rank of lieutenant, but resigned his commission and retired from the army to engage in the prac- tice of law. Coming to Los Angeles in 1861, he studied law with his father-in-law, J. R. Scott. After the war he formed a partnership with An- drew Glassell, and three years later another at- torney was admitted to the firm, which became Glassell. Chapman & Smith. The junior mem- hér was Col. George H. Smith, late of the Con- federate army. A large practice was built up in local courts and the supreme courts of the state. For several years Mr. Chapman was city attor- ney, later district attorney.

Retiring from the firm in 1879, Mr. Chapman settled upon a portion of the Santa Anita

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HISTORICAL AND. BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

rancho, his original purchase comprising six- teen hundred acres. Since then he has sold some of the ranch. and now owns seven hun- dred and fifty acres. Like all horticulturists, he has had his reverses, and, like most of them, too, he has had many successes. He has large acre- age in citrus trees.

In 1859 Mr. Chapman married a daughter of J. R. Scott. They became the parents of the following-named children: Alfred Scott, who became an authority in fruit-growing and served as a member of the state horticultural society, and now resides in Los Angeles; William, a physician practicing in Spokane, Wash .; Lucy, Ruth, Evelyn and Richard. After the death of luis first wife Mr. Chapman married a daughter of the late Col. W. H. Stephens. No one is more decply interested in the progress and wel- fare of his community than Mr. Chapman. While he is a stanch Democrat and a believer in the Episcopal faith, his interests are broader and more comprehensive than those of any party or church, but represent all that is best and truest in mankind. In promoting his own success he has advanced the prosperity of San Gabriel val- ley, and has been instrumental in attracting hither a highly desirable class of citizens.

W. A. WELDON, M. D., is the proprietor of the leading drug store in San Pedro and has been closely connected with every movement tending to advance the permanent welfare of this place. Broad minded in his views and loyal in his devotion to the chosen city of his abode, he accepted the responsible position of chairman of the board of trustees of San Pedro.

. Dr. Weldon was born in South Portland, Me., in 1853, but was reared in the city of Boston, where he obtained an excellent education in the public schools. After completing his high school studies he entered Bowdoin College in Maine, where he spent two years in the academic de- partment. He then obtained a position in a drug store, and, while mastering the business, he also devoted considerable attention to the study of medicine. In 1884, after he had been given his clegree as a doctor of medicine from Bowdoin College, he came to the west, and for a couple of years pursued his practice in the eastern part of the city of Los Angeles. In 1886 he came to San Pedro, where he soon built up a large and representative practice. From 1890 to 1893 he served as county coroner, and for several years he has been retained by the Southern Pa- cific Railroad Company as their district surgeon. He owns and carries on a well-equipped drug store, and usually gives employment to two clerks. He is the federal quarantine officer for the United States marine hospital service at San Pedro.

In politics the doctor favors the Republican

party. Fraternally he stands high in the ranks of the Foresters of America. May 11, 1901, he married Miss Franc Hawks, principal of the Boyd street school of Los Angeles.

JOHN J. DEAN. When Mr. Dean arrived in Moneta he found scarcely the semblance of a village, for as yet no streets had been laid out and there were only three houses to indicate the site of the future town. With a firm belief in the possibilities of the soil, he bought five and one-half acres which had been planted to barley. On this land he set out strawberries, blackber- ries, Logan berries, and various larger fruits, and he has since devoted himself with encourag- ing success to the berry industry. For some years he made his home in a small house, but it was inadequate to his needs, and was replaced by an attractive residence which has no superior in the entire community. Another improvement is a private gas pumping plant of twenty-six inches. Having a talent for landscape garden- ing, he has made his home and lawn attractive, and is constantly making some improvement to add to the beauty of the property.

It was after having traveled in many parts of the world that Mr. Dean decided California to be unexcelled as a place of residence. He was born in England August 4, 1851, and is a son of Henry and Marie (Whitehall) Dean, also na- tives of that country. His grandfather, William Dean, was a lifelong resident of England, as was also the father, who was a gentleman of lei- sure and owned an estate of almost three thou- sand acres, known as Hazel Hall. In a family of six children John J. Dean was the fourth. As a boy he was given the advantages of public and private schools. At the age of twenty-one he came to thic United States and for five years served an apprenticeship to the nursery busi- ness on Long Island. Subsequent to the com- pletion of his time he worked as a journeyman in South America, Canada and the West Indies. On his return to New York, he secured employ- ment as landscape gardener for the state insane asylum at Auburn, and this position he held for seven years. For four years afterward he en- gaged in landscape gardening in Dallas, Tex., and from there in 1887 came to California, set- tling at Tropico. Soon, however, he returned to New York, but fifteen months later came back to the Pacific coast, and worked as a foreman in the Elysian Park nursery, Los Angeles. From that city he came to Moneta in 1890. While in Los Angeles he married Miss Jeanette Weaver, who was born in Sussex, Wis. They are mem- bers of the Presbyterian Church and hold a high position in the respect and esteem of their ac- quaintances. Since becoming a citizen of the United States Mr. Dean has voted with the Re- publican party, both in local and national elec-

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

tions. Active in Masonry, he is identified with the blue lodge, chapter, commandery and con- sistory.

A. W. BUELL. If it is true that retro- spection plays a part in our later years in proportion as the conditions in the present are remote from those of the past, Mr. Buell must have abundant material for reflection, and one can imagine him spending the even- ings of many winters before a glowing grate fire, unconscious of the moving of the dial, or the wasting away of the embers. For the peaceful life which he is spending at his beautiful home in Santa Barbara is so strangely at variance with that of his youth and middle age, so thoroughly modern, so attuned to twen- tieth century comfort and even luxury, that to look back whence he came seems like peering into half-lighted vistas, remote, and altogether inaccessible. For the other half of the picture has a setting of pioneer days, dear to the lis- torian and romanticist, and recalls the white man fearlessly entering the domain of the red man, the progress to the little log school house, the prized candle light, the distaff and spinning wheel, and the dangerous and interminable plains, beckoning the credulity and ambition of man to the boundless resources beyond. Viewed in the artificial light of recent advance, this picturesque delineation is full of charm and beauty and simplicity, yet they who created it suffered from privation and hardship, and by reason of their courage, challenge our boundless admiration and ceaseless gratitude.

The Buell family is of English descent, and settled first at Plymouth and later in Connecti- cut. The grandfather, Samuel, served in the Revolutionary war, as mustering officer and military drill master, and while in the Quebec campaign became enamored of the beauties of Vermont, locating there after the close of the war. For a farm he bought out a Mr. Ash, after which be returned to Connecticut, married, and prepared to transport his household goods to the new home in the Green mountains. The country was locked in icy fetters and the journey was made by sled with a yoke of oxen, and, in order that the oxen and cattle which accom- panied the family might not slip on the ice, they had to be shod. Some of these same shoes arc at present a prized possession of the family. Mr. Wilcox accompanied the newly married couple on this expedition, and they were the first set- tlers in Essex, Chittenden county, Vt. The land was cleared of timber, and there began an ideal pioneer existence, in which carded wool, spin- ning and weaving played an important part, for the winters were cold, and the process of trans- forming crude sheep's wool into clothing for the human frame had to be accomplished under the low roof of a Vermont cabin. Food was cooked

in the broad fireplace, and a little log house was built near the spring and there a nursery was planted from seeds brought from Connecticut. Later still a new dwelling house was built on the knoll, and in this more modern affair Lynos Buell was born, the father of A. W., and March 18, 1836, A. W. Buell himself was ushered into existence in the same little house. Moral austerity ruled over the establishment of Grand- father Buell, an instance of which was repeat- edly furnished when he later kept an inn, and became a deacon in the Congregational Church. He allowed no one to go by or travel on the Sabbath, even if he had to keep them over Sun- day for nothing. He was also a strict temper- ance man. He lived to the good old age of seventy-four years, and his wife survived him until eighty-four years of age. Two of the sons were in the war of 1812, Samuel and Orange, and both were at Plattsburg, the latter attaining the rank of captain.

Lynos Buell spent his life farming on the old homestead in Vermont, and he carefully utilized the two hundred and eighty acres for dairy pur- poses, and for the raising of fine merino sheep. He was a selectman for many years, was a Whig, an abolitionist and a Republican, and a member of the Congregational Church. He lived to be seventy-one years of age. The mother, Hannah (Olin) Buell, was born in Westford, Chittenden county, Vt., a daughter of James Olin, a native of the vicinity of Bangor, Me., and an early settler of Vermont, where he died at the age of ninety years. The Olin family was of English descent, an old New Eng- land family, and the forefathers were as a rule seafaring men. Mrs. Buell died at the age of seventy-four years, and was the mother of six children, five of whom grew to maturity. Rufus Thompson Buell in 1853 came to California around the Horn on the Yankee Blade, and now resides in Santa Ynez, having a farm of fourteen thousand acres and owning over two thousand head of cattle. Mary Marion, who became Mrs. Thompson, died in Colchester, Vt .; A. W. was next in order of birth; Analutia died at the age of eight years; Harlan came to California in 1863, and is a merchant at Watsonville: and James died in Montecito, where he was post- inaster and a merchant.

On his father's farm in Vermont A. W. Buell developed ambitious traits of character, which found an outlet March 17, 1857, the day before he was twenty-one years of age. The auspicious occasion was his starting for California from Burlington, Vt., going by rail to St. Louis and from there by steamer to Boonville and by stage to Versailles, from which point he went in an ox train to Westport, Mo., where they outfitted. There were three wagons and three yoke of oxen for each wagon, eighty head of cattle, forty horses, and three thousand five hundred sheep.

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

and sixteen men. Mr. Buell worked his way through by driving one of the teams for N. Tal- cott & Co. Their course was up the Platte river to Fort Laramie, and for fifteen days they camped on the south side of the Platte river. A long remembered experience was the crossing of this river with the cattle and provisions, when Mr. Buell was in the cold water from daylight to dusk for fourteen days, guiding the sheep as they swam to the opposite shore. At night they were obliged to stand guard to protect the sheep irom the howling wolves, and one night he himself was nearly killed by these bloodthirsty animals. Arriving in Humboldt, Mr. Buell left the train and set out for California, experiencing great difficulty in crossing the desert, but arriv- ing safely in San Francisco, December 24, 1857, more than ten months after starting on the trip. The journey across the plains was a compara- tively uneventful one, judging by the experience of those who were in advance and who followed behind, many meeting ruthless death by being massacred by the Indians and Mormons.

Mr. Buell intended to get work to do in Oak- land, but found no position, so he walked forty miles in one day and surprised his brother, R. T., who had four years previously located in California at Point Reyes. R. T. Buell was a graduate of Oberlin College and had been a teacher for some years, but in California turned his attention to stock raising. In this locality Mr. Buell started to farm with a partner, and they improved some land and put one hundred and forty acres into barley and thirty acres into potatoes. When harvest time came around the grain was cradled and bound by hand, and when they succeeded in locating a threshing machine in the neighborhood, they were obliged to hand out the neat little sum of $40 a day while they were traveling there and back. This ex- penditure was not conducive to very exorbitant gains, and at the time of reckoning in the fall Mr. Buell had available assets amounting to fifty cents, a pair of blankets, and a saddle horse, which he sold in short order and took himself to San Francisco with small regret for things left in the rear. He worked on a milk ranch for a year, and performed the feat of getting up at midnight, milking numerous cows, and started for the city before the sun had thought of rising. A year later he went back to Point Reyes, rented his brother's dairy, and with Joe Fay as a part- ner ran the dairy on halves for three years. During that time business looked up a little and they made $15,000, in no easy way to be sure, for they worked night and day, milked fifty-four cows or more, and had no chance to fritter away valuable time.

This experience ended, Mr. Buell rented Steele's dairy, conducted on quite a colossal scale. One hundred and sixty cows came in for attention, and the services of ten men were

required, the output of the dairy during one year being sixty thousand pounds of cheese and three tons of butter. They also raised hogs. By the end of five years he had a fine start, and then went to San Mateo county and engaged in the dairy business with Fred Thompson for a year, but not liking this arrangement he decided to go south, and, accompanied by his brother, R. T., arrived in Santa Barbara August 14, 1867. Upon looking around they found a man named Hughes who owned a half interest in a San Carlos ranch, and they purchased the other half of the ranch, consisting of about thirteen thou- sand acres, after which the brother went back to Verinont, and Mr. Buell returned to San Francisco for money. He also bought Cañada Corral rancho, consisting of one league, or four thousand four hundred and forty-four acres. In December of 1867 he brought back a fine herd of cattle for a dairy, shipped lumber from Pigeon Point for building, erected the dairy and residence which are still standing, and engaged in the dairy and stock-raising business. He also raised sheep, and at one time had thirty-five hundred head, and upon his pastures grazed some of the finest horses that ever shook their manes in Southern California. Belmonts and Morgans were raised to the exclusion of other breeds, and here matured Flory, with a record of two-twenty; Lompoc, with a record of two- twenty-two and a half; and Bullet, with a record of two-twenty and a half. San Carlos was later sold to the brother of Mr. Buell, and Cañada Corral, with its fine record of successes in the dairying, sheep-raising and stock-raising line was disposed of to Mr. Hazard, who also bought eighty head of horses for $10,000, Mr. Buell reserving six horses for his own use.

Mr. Buell came to Santa Barbara and bought the property which at present constitutes his home, and which consists of two and three- fourths blocks on Milpas and Montecito streets. Nor does this cover the extent of his property, for he owns forty acres in Montecito, and con- siderable other business and residence property in Santa Barbara, besides the Victoria livery stable. His own home is improved and beauti- fied to the extent of the landscape gardener's art, and is one of the fine places in the city. His wife, formerly Mary Carter, of Vermont, and whom he married in Monterey county in 1868, is the mother of seven children, and is one of the interesting pioneer women of the county. The children are as follows: Mrs. Jennie Mal- hart, of Oxnard, whose husband is a farmer on a large scale; Elizabeth, at home; Alonzo, a resident of Santa Barbara; Mabel and Lena, who are students in the high school; Louis and Har- old. Mrs. Buell is a member of the Catholic Church. In voting at presidential elections Mr. Buell never deviates from the straight path of Republicanism.

WS. Day

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

HON. WILLIAM SCOTT DAY, judge of the superior court of Santa Barbara county, was born in Smith (now Trousdale) county, Tenn., March 14, 1848, and was the oldest son of Henry Douglas and Martha (Kearley) Day, na- tives of Tennessee. Ten children comprised the family, and all but one of the number attained mature years, seven of these now surviving, but Judge Day is the only one on the Pacific coast. The Day family is of Scotch extraction. John Douglas Day, a native of North Carolina, mar- ried a member of the Scotch family of McCau- leys, and settled on the Cumberland river in Tennessee, where he became a large planter. His son, Henry D., removed to Arkansas in 1859 and for two years remained on a farm there, but April, 1861, found him in Illinois, where he carried on a farm in Union county until he was accidentally killed at sixty years of age. His wife, who is of Welsh and Scotch de- scent, is now more than eighty years old and continues to reside in Illinois.

When the family moved to Arkansas William S. Day was eleven years of age, and in 1861 he accompanied them to Illinois, where he at- tended district schools and the Carbondale Sem- inary. From the age of sixteen he devoted sev- cral years to teaching school, but in 1872 took up the study of law under Judge M. C. Craw- ford, of Jonesboro, Ill., and was admitted to the bar in Mount Vernon, Ill., in June, 1874. From that time until 1888 he engaged in professional work at Jonesboro. In 1876 he was elected state's attorney of Union county, which office he filled for four years, after which time he de- voted himself to his private practice. In 1882 he was admitted to the bar of the supreme court of the United States. At the election of 1886 he was chosen to represent his district in the state legislature, where he served in the session of 1887.

Coming to California in 1888, Mr. Day se- lected Santa Barbara as his home and here began a general practice of law. In April, 1897, Governor Budd appointed him judge of the su- perior court, to succeed Judge Walter B. Copc, resigned. At the general election, in the fall of 1898, he was elected, on the Democratic ticket, by a majority of two hundred and eight in a county that usually gave a Republican majority of three hundred and fifty; it is a notable fact that he was the only Democrat elected at that time. During his term of office he has held court in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernar- dino, Ventura and San Luis Obispo, as well as Santa Barbara. As jurist, he is known for fidel- ity to duty, logical mind, impartial spirit and lofty principles of honor and justice, and both at the bar and on the bench his career has been one worthy of emulation.

In Jonesboro, Ill., Judge Day married Miss llelen A. Frick, member of a pioneer family of

Illinois that originally came from Germany to North Carolina. They are the parents of two children. The son, William Clarence, after graduating from the Santa Barbara high school, entered Leland Stanford University, from which he was graduated in 1901, at twenty-one years of age. The daughter, Alice M., graduated from the high school at fifteen years of age, and is now attending Bryn Mawr College in Pennsyl- vania.

During his residence in Illinois Judge Day was made a Mason and officiated as master of his lodge. He was also raised to the chapter and commandery degrees in that state. He is a charter member of St. Omar Commandery No. 30, K. T., of which he is past eminent com- mander. In addition he is a past officer in the local lodge of Odd Fellows and a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. In his religious belief he is a Unitarian, and is now a member of the board of trustees of his church in Santa Barbara. Socially he and his family are honored wherever known, for the talents that have brought him professional prominence are no less conspicuous in private and social life.

ALONZO E. HORTON. Probably the most noted man in San Diego is A. E. Horton. He belongs to that class of pioneer residents to whom so large a debt of gratitude is due. Often alluded to as the father of San Diego, his his- tory has been inseparably associated with that of the city. He has lived to see what was in years gone by an apparently worthless tract of land transformed into one of the charming coast cities of California, while all around the country is prosperous, beautiful and finely cul- tivated. The history of his early experiences here reads more like a romance than a chapter from real life. Everywhere the influence of luis energy and faith in the future was apparent. His own enthusiasm created the quality in others. When he landed in San Diego bay on the steamer Pacific, which had six passengers and twenty-six tons of freight, he came ashore in a yawl boat. While waiting for a conveyance to old San Diego he walked to the place where the courthouse now stands and at once remarked that the site would be unsurpassed for a city. Going to the old town he found that the six hun- dred or more acres of level land could be bought by having the land put up and sold to the high- est bidder. This was done after a board of trus- tees of old San Diego had been elected in order to make the transaction legal. Eleven days later the sale came off. Two hundred acres were offered. His bid of $100 was at once ac- cepted. Then a quarter section was put up; he bid considerable less than before and secured the land. The sale continued until he had se- cured the entire six hundred, besides other land. until he owned one thousand acres, com-

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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 53

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