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 77

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

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

arism in connection with lima bean culture would result in detriment to the latter, Prof. E. J. Wickson of the University of California cor- responded with Mr. Maulhardt to learn the re- sults of his investigations upon this subject, and was informed that bees were no benefit in con- nection with the raising of lima beans.

Not the least of his achievements in the de- velopment of the country is his solution of the question of water supply for irrigation, at all times an important item in Southern California. He has been, and in fact is, at the head of the artesian irrigation water agitation in the county, and has accomplished more than anyone else in this line. When, some years ago, he was con- fronted with the danger of a dry year and no visible opportunity to secure water for irriga- tion, with his characteristic energy and inde- pendence of action he at once cast about for an outfit to drill large wells for himself, as there was no machine in the county equipped to do such drilling as he desired. He got some ideas of a rig together from here and there, and went to work improving on them and making his own mechanical drawings of such parts as he desired and were not procurable. These were immediately madc to his order by iron works in Los Angeles, and soon he had a very fair rig at work with many new and improved features, at the very start drilling a ten-inch hole to a depth of as much as one hundred and sixty-six feet in one day. With this machine he devel- oped about six hundred miners' inches of water on his home ranch in time to irrigate and pro- duce six thousand bags of limas on some three hundred and fifty acres (besides other crops), which beans he sold at five cents, owing to short- age of supply caused by a dry season. He has also developed artesian water on his other farm- ing interests, amounting in all to about two thousand acres. His practical demonstration of success caused land in the immediate vicinity to increase in value, and he has since been operat- ing his rig constantly, and at the time this arti- cle goes to press is running two steam rigs night and day in the development of an artesian water system for the irrigation of a district comprising over fifteen thousand acres, which with this water system will become valuable beet land.

While the subject of this sketch was first drawn into mechanical pursuits by the demands of his own business, at the same time these de- mands called into play a natural inventive fac- ulty and genious for machinery, which in his case is quite marked. For example, his steam-drill- ing rig is his own invention, and contains many unique features of great superiority over the standard rig in use by others for artesian drill- ing, and he has made it the subject of an appli- cation for patent. This is not the only evidence of Mr. Maulhardt's mechanical ingenuity, as he las invented other things, one of which deserves

special mention. It has been said that there is no less than six thousand models pertaining to plows in the patent office in Washington. Mr. Maulhardt holds letters patent to No. 690067, issued under date December 31, 1901, covering sixteen distinct claims on so well-known an im- plement as the plow, which has been used for thousands of years in every part of the world, and on which one would think that no further improvements could be made. His invention comprises the combination of a sub-soil, gang and sulky plow, which is in use in the community and which he is arranging to place on the mar- ket in the near future, with some of his other inventions.

His parents were Anton and Margaret (Bieten- holz) Maulhardt, natives of Germany and Swit- zerland. His father came from Germany in the early '6os and settled in Contra Costa county, where he engaged in agriculture and sheep- raising. In the beginning of the '7os he removed to Ventura county and bought tracts of land near Hueneme, his land at the time being practically wild and uncultivated. Success attended his ef- forts in his adopted country, and his death, some ten years ago, removed one of the honored and prosperous land owners of the community. His wife, whose death occurred ten years previously, was the mother of two children: A. F., and Lydia, now the wife of F. O. Engstrum, a prom- inent contractor, doing an extensive business in Southern California. Albert F. was born in Contra Costa county in 1872, and was educated in Los Angeles colleges, his education compris- ing a knowledge of German, Spanish and Eng- lish. He is a member of several secret fraterni- ties, but has never taken any part in political affairs. In 1901 he married Jennie, the eldest daughter of A. W. Buell, a pioneer of Santa Barbara.

E. C. TALLANT. Prominently connected with the commercial, political and humanitarian undertakings of Santa Barbara is E. C. Tallant, secretary of the Hollister estate, chairman of the county board of supervisors, and a resident of Santa Barbara since 1874. A native of Wheeling, W. Va., he was born March 14, 1858, and is of English descent. His father, Henry, was born in Lincolnshire, England, and when a boy came to America with his three brothers, and settled in Wheeling, where they engaged in the real-estate and dry-goods business. They later removed to Chester, Pa., and after a few years settled in Baltimore, Md., conducting their wholesale dry-goods business under the firm name of Tallant Brothers, with headquarters on Hanover street. This association was amicably continued for eight years, when the business was sold out and Henry Tallant located with his family in Santa Barbara, where he is now living in retirement, at the age of eighty years.

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

He married Caroline Eoff, who was born in Virginia, a daughter of Dr. Eoff, one of the old and prominent physicians on the Ohio. The German physician married Miss Quarrier, of Virginia, whose father served in the Revolu- tionary war. The great-grandfather Eoff was also a soldier in that war. Mrs. Tallant, who died in Santa Barbara in 1896, was the mother of ten children of whom E. C. is fifth. The father and his brothers during their residence in Wheeling, W. Va., took an active part in se- curing the non-secession of West Virginia, thus aiding in securing one state for the Union.

The education of E. C. Tallant was acquired in the public schools of Pennsylvania and Balti- more, and in St. John's Episcopal School. He also attended Roanoke College, at Salem, Va., for two years, and after coming west attended Santa Barbara College for a year. His entrance into the business world was as a clerk in the grocery establishment of P. M. Newell, with whom he remained for five years, after which he purchased an interest with Mr. Newell, and subsequently bought him out entirely. He then engaged in an independent grocery business on State street, and also became agent at Santa Barbara for the Southern Mill & Warehouse Company, now the Southern Pacific Milling Company, with whom he remained for three years.

In 1896 Mr. Tallant resigned the management of the milling company to accept his present re- sponsible position with the Hollister estate management, his duties as secretary being by no means a light task, for the late W. W. Hol- lister was one of the most successful of the pioneers of Santa Barbara county, and left, among other possessions, five ranches and large city real estate holdings. The interests of Mr. Tallant extend beyond his immediate secretary- ship to various undertakings in the town and county, and he is a director, and was one of the organizers, of the Santa Barbara Lemon Grow- ers' Exchange. He himself has a lemon or-

chard of twelve and a half acres in the Monte- cito district, which is under irrigation and has been developed from raw land. He was one of the organizers of the Chamber of Commerce in May of 1899, and was one of the first board of directors. Politics have claimed consider- able of his attention, and in the fall of 1898 he was nominated on the Republican ticket for county supervisor of the second district, and elected over three candidates by a large major- ity. In January of 1899 he took the oath of office, his term of service to extend to January of 1903. In January of 1901 he was elected chairman of the board of supervisors, and he is also at present chairman of the Republican county central committee of Santa Barbara county.

In San Francisco Mr. Tallant married Martha

Dillon, who was born in New Orleans, La., and educated in San Francisco, in which latter city she became interested in educational work. Mrs. Tallant is a woman of broad culture, and is one of the vital forces of the city in educational and humanitarian work. She is especially interested in kindergarten work, is a prominent member of the Kindergarten Association, and a director of the same, and was one of the most enthusiastic of those who secured the erection of the kinder- garten school building, which is now incorpo- rated into the general school system of Santa Barbara. In her capacity as president of the Associated Charities Mrs. Tallant has accom- plished most gratifying results, and has been of great assistance to her husband in formulating plans for bettering the conditions of those re- quiring city assistance. An effort has been made to investigate such cases as applied for help, with the object of aiding those really in need, and of exposing fraudulent applicants. So successful has this truly wise precaution proved that, after all needful aid had been rendered, and positions secured for those who were willing and able to work, the county has been saved at least $7,000. The idea of investigating all ap- plications for help occurred to Mr. Tallant when he first became a member of the board of super- visors, and since then the plan has been adopted, with few exceptions, of giving pro- visions and clothing instead of money. This is in accordance with the views of the most ad- vanced philanthropists, who recognize the self- respect underlying the principle that money re- ceived should be at the expense of an equiva- lent in work on the part of the recipient. Mr. and Mrs. Tallant are the parents of two chil- dren, Percy E. and Harold C.

THOMAS O. TOLAND. A fair proportion of the legal complications that arise in Ventura are satisfactorily and skilfully adjusted by Thomas O. Toland, who possesses a wide un- derstanding and practical knowledge of the science of law. He was born in Alabama in 1856, a son of James and Mildred A. (Street) Toland, natives respectively of South Carolina and Virginia. His father settled in Alabama in 1845, and still lives on the old homestead in his adopted state, near Bluff Springs in Clay coun- ty; the mother, whose father settled in Alabama in the early '3os, died when her son, T. O., was a child. Of the same family was Dr. H. H. Toland, founder of the Toland Medical College in San Francisco, which he afterwards donated in its entirety to the state of California, and which is now the medical department of the State University.

The education of Mr. Toland was prosecuted in Munford Academy, at Munford, Talladega county, Ala., and for one year he attended the University of Virginia. January 1, 1875, he

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came to California, and entered the University of California, from which he was graduated in the class of 1878. His university days were spent in distinguished company, for among those who formulated high aspirations within the walls of the famous university and started forth into the world of actualities at the same time were Judge Daingerfield, of the superior court of San Francisco; A. F. Morrison, of the firm of Morrison & Cope, attorneys, of San Francisco; and F. W. Zeile, president of the San Francisco Mercantile Trust Company. After graduation, Mr. Toland became a student in a law office in San Francisco, also studied at the Hastings Law College and was later admitted to the bar after coming to Ventura county. In 1882 he removed to Hueneme, Ventura county, and taught school for a year, and in 1883 con- tinued the same occupation in Santa Paula, where for three years he was principal of schools. Continuing to live in Santa Paula he opened a law office there, and soon after be- came a member of the real estate firm of Gui- berson & Toland, which partnership was later dissolved, Dr. Guiberson going out, and C. N. Baker taking his place. Under the firm name of Toland & Baker this arrangement was ami- cably continued until May, 1890, when Mr. Toland came to Ventura, and purchased the library and business of L. C. McKeeby, who had been appointed internal revenue collector, and removed to Los Angeles.

Mr. Toland has continued to practice in Ventura and has, at the same time, taken a most intelligent and active interest in the un- dertakings of the Democratic party. His gen- eral fitness for office has been variously recog- nized by his townspeople. In 1888 and 1890 he ran for district attorney, but with unsatisfac- tory results, although he was far ahead of his ticket. However, in 1892 he was elected to the district attorney's office and served for one term. In 1896 he was appointed city attorney and held the office for two years, or until Janu- ary of 1898. In November of 1896 he was elected to the assembly for one term of two years, and in July of 1898 he was nominated for member of the state board of equalization in the fourth district of California, which district comprises twenty-three counties, and is bound- ed on the north by San Mateo, Stanislaus, Santa Clara, Mariposa, and Mono. Although the district was five thousand Republican he was elected by three thousand five hundred, his term of office extending to January 1, 1903. The political services of Mr. Toland have met with a deserved appreciation on the part of his compatriots, and he is especially remembered for the wise and aggressive course which he adopted in connection with the opposition to the Southern Pacific Railroad in the sixth con- gressional district in the celebrated Patton-

Rose contest for the Democratic nomination for congress in 1896.

In 1900 Mr. Toland married Carrie, daughter of G. W. and Sarah Fleisher. She was born in Pennsylvania and in 1883 settled with her par- ents at Santa Paula, where her father became a prominent oil man. Mr. Toland is fraternally associated with the Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, and the Masons, and took the Shriner's degree in Los Angeles in April, 1900.

JAMES ROBERT McKEE. It may well be a matter of pride with Mr. McKee, of Bards- dale, that three of his great-grandfathers were active participants in the American struggle for freedom, in which Great-grandfather Mc- Kee lost his life during the Kings Mountain campaign. Necessarily patriotism is a promi- nent element in the characters of the present- day representatives, who, together with this in- heritance of loyalty, have also a heritage of those other qualities that tend to the forming of an ideal manhood. Through the efforts of J. R McKee, a genealogical chart has been com- piled, which traces the record of the family in a direct line from four ancestral families and gives a record of successive generations from the date of the families' arrival in America, about 1750, to the beginning of the twentieth century. This work has been largely a labor of love and self-sacrificing effort, and entitles the compiler to grateful recognition from the Mc- Kees of future generations.

The residence of Mr. McKee in California dates from January, 1887. Born in Butler county, Ohio, June 21, 1854, he is a son of Wil- liam and Louisa (Stipp) McKee, both natives of Kentucky, but from early years residents of Ohio. He received the rudiments of his educa- tion in the public schools of Butler county, after which he matriculated in Monmouth (Illi- nois) College, from which he was graduated in 1874 with the degree of B. S. His education completed when he was a little less than twenty years of age, he was ready to start out into life's activities. For two years he acted as city editor of the Independent, a daily paper published in Richmond, Ind. In this way he not only gained a knowledge of journalism, but also of those broader fields of general activity which, in his editorial capacity, he was obliged to master and thoroughly acquaint himself with.

On coming to California, Mr. McKee was connected with the Los Angeles Times for a brief period. For two years he served as dep- uty recorder of Los Angeles county, which po- sition he filled with credit to himself, revealing the possession of qualities that fitted him for reliable work as an accountant and bookkeeper. Along a similar line of activity he was engaged in the real estate and loan business in Los An- geles. During 1890 he became associated with

G. M. Faulkner

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Hon. Thomas R. Bard, United States Senator from California, and since then he has made Bardsdale his home, having charge of the sen- ator's business matters at this point, and acting as superintendent of the South Side Improve- ment Company (Senator Bard, president). In addition he officiated in organizing the Fillmore Citrus Fruit Association and was chosen its first secretary, besides which he is now one of the heaviest stockholders and also a director.

August 18, 1891, Mr. McKee married Miss Grace Farnsworth, of Los Angeles, her father, R. L. Farnsworth, being a retired attorney of St. Paul, Minn. Two daughters, Margery and Dorothy McKee, form the family. Fraternally Mr. McKee is connected with the Sons of the American Revolution, his membership being in the San Diego chapter of this patriotic society. In the political affairs of his town and county, he takes an active part as a Republican, an ad- vocate of clean politics, and has frequently served as a delegate to local and state conven- tions. A study of the principles of the Repub- lican party brings him into hearty accord with the same, for he is a firm believer in the pro- tection of home industries, believing that the tariff on incoming products from the old world should be such as to protect the infant indus- tries of our far western region. For five years he has been a member of the Santa Paula Union high school board, in which he has served as clerk and president. It was his privi- lege, in an official capacity, to present their diplomas to the graduating class in 1900. When it is considered that he came to California in January, 1887, without friends or means, and now stands among the representative men of the Santa Clara valley, it not only proves him to be a man of enterprise and ability, but also indicates the possibilities offered to such men by our great western state.

GEORGE W. FAULKNER. So many enter- prises in Ventura county have profited by the enterprise and business ability of Mr. Faulkner that it is almost impossible to correctly estimate the extent of his services or his share in bring- ing about the present prosperity. He arrived in California in 1875 with a very small financial foundation on which to mold the future, and after spending a short time in San Francisco January 1, 1876, he came to Ventura county and bought a ranchi in the Santa Clara valley. Seventy-five acres of the property formed a por- tion of the old Santa Clara del Norte ranch, on the south side of the river, where El Rio now stands. For three years he conducted farming enterprises and a small orchard there. In the spring of 1879 he purchased one hundred and fifty acres, where he now lives. At the time the place had but scant improvements compared with those which are now the admiration and

pride of the county. Following a general farm- ing industry until 1883, he then began to set out deciduous fruits. He was among the first here to raise apricots, of which he now has twenty-five acres. To him belongs also the dis- tinction of raising the first soft-shell walnuts in the valley, twenty acres being devoted to this nut, and the average yield being about sixteen tons. One hundred and twenty-five tons of apri- cots, thirty tons of sugar beets and an equal quantity of beans are more of the averages quoted.

In keeping with his progressive spirit, Mr. Faulkner built in 1894 the largest and finest rural home in Ventura county, in which no mod- ern convenience has been neglected, the house throughout being piped and wired for gas and electricity. A favorite social center of the county, hospitality is here meted out most gra- ciously, the honors of the house being dispensed by Mrs. Faulkner (née Rhoda S. Seymour) and her sister, Miss Lou H. Seymour, both graduates of Baldwin University, class of 1872. Mrs. Faulk- ner was born in Ohio, and is a daughter of Rev. S. D. Seymour, of the North Ohio conference of the Methodist Episcopal denomination, and at the time of his death a resident of Texas. The children born to the union of Mr. and Mrs. Faulkner are all graduates of the high school. and the daughters are attending the University of Southern California.

Until coming to California Mr. Faulkner lived in Richland county, Ohio, where he was born August 16, 1846. His father, George Faulkner, was born in England in 1806, and came to Amer- ica in 1835, settling on a farm in Richland county, where the remainder of his life was spent. He married Julia A. Green, a native of Franklin county, Ohio, and a daughter of Wil- liam and Martha (Stanton) Green. Her mother was a relative of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. William Green, who served his coun- try in the war of 1812, built the third house in the township in which he lived, and was a prom- inent pioneer. There were six children in the parental family, George W. being fourth. He received his education in the public schools and spent his youth on the home farmn.

Among the various interests which command the attention of Mr. Faulkner may be mentioned his association with the organization of the Peo- ple's Lumber Company, of which he was one of the original board of directors. In 1897 he as- sisted in organizing the Santa Paula Co-oper- ative Company's store, of which company he is now president. To his wise judgment, in his official capacity, and to the capable supervision of the manager, D. W. Huffman, largely belongs credit for the fact that the company, which began with a capital of $500, is now doing a business of about $50,000 per annum. For several years Mr. Faulkner was a director of the Santa Paula

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Fruit Packing Company. He helped to organ- ize the Saticoy Walnut Growers' Association and the Santa Paula Walnut Growers' Associa- tion, of which latter he is now president. For- merly, for years, he served on the board of directors and as secretary of the Farmers' Canal and Irrigating Company. He is a stockholder in the Riverstreet Irrigating Company. In part- nership with his brother, he owns eighteen hun- dred acres of land at Fillmore, where he has twenty acres in fine oranges.

Politically Mr. Faulkner is a Prohibitionist, and his influence has ever been exerted on the side of municipal purity and the abolition of the saloon. He is a member of the Anti Saloon League. In educational matters he is active, and for two terms served on the high school board. In church circles he is well known. He has been one of the foremost in his locality in maintain- ing the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he has been a member for thirty-five years, and a lay delegate for a long period. He assisted in organizing the church of that denomination in Santa Paula, and is a trustee and steward in the same, as well as Bible class teacher. No citizen of the county enjoys to a greater extent than lie the confidence and esteem of his fellow-towns- men, nor are any more thoroughly in touch with the needs, aspirations and successes of the com- munity.

MRS. JULIA F. WILLIAMS. Fidelity to duty has been the keynote to the lifework of Mrs. Williams. First an assistant to her hus- band, who was the lighthouse keeper on Santa Barbara Point from 1856 to 1860, and since 1865 as the incumbent of the position herself, she has been true to every duty and has main- tained an unceasing vigil in seeing that the beacon light is always kept burning. It is a re- markable fact that for over thirty-six years she has not been absent from the lighthouse even one single night; and, indeed, the only time she ever remained away over night since taking the position was once in April, 1865. Believing that she is doing merely her duty and nothing more, she has asked no reward for her long and faithful service. Some years ago she was solic- ited to assist in forming a society that had for its object the pensioning of lighthouse keepers after a certain number of years of service; but, when approached, she said that she did not want a pension for doing what was her duty and therefore would not give her influence to- ward the proposed organization.

At Campo Bello, New Brunswick, across from Eastport, Me., Mrs. Williams was born July 12, 1826. Her father, Cadwallader Curry, a native of St. Andrews, of Welsh descent. owned six stores, carrying different lines of goods, at Welsh Pool, and also owned vessels in the trans-Atlantic trade. He died very sud-

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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 77

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