History of Kern County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 103

Author: Morgan, Wallace Melvin, 1868- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1682

USA > California > Kern County > History of Kern County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 103

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Redlick-Newman Company, both of which have established large furniture stores in San Francisco and have built up an enormous trade in the line of their specialty. Meanwhile the Redlick Mercantile Company at Bakersfield has advanced in power and prestige with the constant growth of the city and under the able and systematic supervision of its secretary and manager, Joseph Redlick, has attained a position unsurpassed by any similar institution in the San Joaquin valley.

Throughout practically all of his life Mr. Redlick has lived in centers of the oil or gas industry. A native of the oil district of Pennsylvania and in early life a resident of the Indiana gas district, he now claims as his home Bakersfield, the commercial center of the oil and natural gas district of Kern county and easily a leader among all the districts devoted to the production and development of these indispensable factors of a modern civilization. Born at Meadville, Pa., May 2, 1860, he is a son of the late Ludwig Redlick, member of an old Teutonic family and himself likewise of German birth. The mother, who bore the maiden name of Bertha Sheftel, is also a native of Ger- many and now makes San Francisco her home. Besides the four sons already mentioned as having been the founders of the Redlick Mercantile Company, there were four daughters in the family, namely : Mrs. P. E. Newman, of San Francisco; Mrs. Henry Latz, of Bakersfield; and Misses Fannie and Louisa, both residing in San Francisco.

Becoming a resident of Indiana at an early age, Joseph Redlick entered upon business activities at the age of twenty-one and with his brothers conducted a shoe store in Fort Wayne, where he made his first ventures into the realm of business and gained his first experiences in merchandising. The lessons learned in those days of youthful earnestness proved invaluable as aids to a later large success. During 1889 the brothers disposed of their interests in Fort Wayne and came west to San Francisco, where they soon acquired business interests of growing importance. May 10, 1895, they open- ed a small store in the Galtes block in Bakersfield. It was not long before they had outgrown those modest quarters. During 1901 they moved into the J. B. Berges building, which had been erected and fitted up especially for their use and occupancy. There they enjoyed continued growth. Toward the expiration of their lease of ten years they began to plan for still larger quar- ters. With this object in view they acquired a quarter of a block, 115x132 feet in dimensions, on the corner of Chester avenue and Eighteenth street, and on this site they erected a substantial structure at a cost of $100,000. January 1. 1911, the Redlick Mercantile Company formally took possession of the building and moved into their new quarters. This is said to be the finest and most commodious store building in Kern county, while it is also architecturally substantial, convenient and attractive. A perfect system of ventilation was introduced and the sanitation also is without fault. therefore the health of employes has been conserved. Steam heat renders the building comfortable during the winter months and electric lights add a desirable fea- ture to the interior completeness. The ladies' rest room contains every com- fort and there are also lavatories for both sexes, these arrangements being as complete in behalf of employes as in the interests of customers. A stranger entering the great building is impressed with the healthful, contented appear- ance of the employes and with their uniform courtesy of manner, and this is explained by the attention given to their welfare by the proprietors and also by the fact that a profit-sharing system has been adopted whereby the employes may buy of the capital stock of the company according to their merit and worth. This was a concession in the interests of the employes, for the company was founded as a close corporation, with the members of the family owning all of the stock.

These modern innovations and many other matters not herein mentioned

Chas. E. Kitchen

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express the views of the secretary and manager concerning business affairs, the welfare of his employes and the interests of his customers. Thoroughly up-to-date in commercial affairs, he represents the twentieth century merchant of the west, brilliant in mind, keen in insight, skilled in the art of salesman- ship and original in ideas. In regard to the welfare of Bakersfield and Kern connty he is optimistic. Their future wealth and prosperity he cannot doubt. Judging the future by the past he sees a long era of growth stretching ahead of this district, with assured prosperity for the men who have been foremost in the work of upbuilding.

An active spirit in the organization of the Bakersfield Board of Trade, Mr. Redlick was serving as its president in 1906 and took the initiative in the matter of relieving the sufferers of the San Francisco fire and earthquake. Immediately upon hearing of the catastrophe he sent a dispatch to the mayor of San Francisco inquiring whether money or provisions were most desired. The answer came back, "provisions." Through his energy and promptness a large consignment of provisions from Bakersfield reached the stricken city and did much to meet the material needs of its unfortunate people. For some years he has been a leading member of the Bakersfield Club, also has held membership with Masonry and the Eastern Star, with the Knights of Pythias. the Elks and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

CHARLES E. KITCHEN .- A man well known for honesty and integ- rity of purpose and who had the respect and confidence of his fellow-men was the late Charles E. Kitchen, justice of the peace of the fifth judicial township of Kern county, and who was also engaged in mercantile business in Famoso.

A native son, Charles E. Kitchen was born in San Jose, Cal., January. 7, 1869, the son of John and Wilhelmina (Henry) Kitchen, natives of England and Germany respectively and both pioneers of California. The father was a farmer near San Jose, but afterwards engaged in the insurance business in San Francisco, which he has followed to the present time.

Of the family of four children Charles E. was the second oldest and received a good education in the schools of Oakland and San Francisco and later was employed in a printing office in San Francisco. He became a member of Company A, Fifth California National Guard. Coming to Kern county in 1890 he pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of land at Semi- Tropic and in drilling for water obtained a flowing well. He followed farm- ing and fruit-raising there, but later purchased a ranch at Famoso, where he raised grain. In 1905 he built a store and put in a stock of general merchandise in Famoso which business he conducted successfully until his death, which occurred on Christmas day, 1913. He was also postmaster at Famoso, but in June, 1912, he resigned the position. Meantime, in 1902, he was first elected justice of the peace for the fifth judicial district on the Republican ticket and so ably and well did he conduct his court that his constituents re-elected him to the office in 1906 and again in 1910 and at the time of his death he was serving his twelfth year in the position with a fairness and justice of decision that won him the commendation of all who knew him.

In January, 1903, in Famoso occurred the marriage of Mr. Kitchen to Miss Mary Lois Smith, who was born near Bloomington, McLean county. Ill., the daughter of Dr. W. F. Smith, now of San Francisco, who served in an Ohio regiment in the Civil war. Of their union were born four children as follows Thomas E., Olga, Mckinley and Albert.

Always a believer in Republican principles Mr. Kitchen aided in the hustings of his party and was a prominent and influential man therein. Fraternally he was made a Mason in Delano Lodge No. 309, F. & A. M. in 1902 and was a member of Bakersfield Aerie No. 93 F. O. E. He was

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greatly interested in the welfare of Kern county and very optimistic for its future greatness, and being a liberal and enterprising man, was ever ready to give of his time and means toward any project that had for its object the enhancement of its great natural resources. Mr. Kitchen died December 25, 1913, and the funeral was held in Oakland under the auspices of the Masons.

HARRY D. FETHER .- The United Oil Company's production foreman, who has been identified with the Midway field almost continuously since April of 1901, is a native of Ohio and was born at Archbold, Fulton county, March 19, 1884, being the youngest son of Alexander and Sarah (Guyman) Fether, natives respectively of Pennsylvania and Ohio. For a number of years the father engaged in the lumber business at Archbold and became the sole owner of two sawmills, and at one time was engaged in furnishing hardwood lumber to the Studebaker firm at South Bend, Ind., to be used in the manufacture of their high-class vehicles. Unfortunately he was induced to dispose of his lumber interests and embark in the oil industry. At first it appeared that his prospects were fair. While drilling in the vicinity of Bryan, Williams county, Ohio, he struck gas. Indications seemed so favorable that he piped the gas into the city of Bryan and sold to consumers there, but in a short time the supply was exhausted and he was left a heavy financial loser. Next he turned to contract drilling in Ohio and Indiana oil fields. Eventually he came to California and at present he and his wife are living in East Bakersfield. Their eldest son, Frank, who is also represented in this work, holds a very responsible position as superintendent of the United Oil Company. The second son, Louis, while drilling for the Nevada Oil Company in the Kern river field, was killed January 1, 1908, by a dynamite explosion. Surviving him is an only son, Victor, now fifteen years of age and living in Los Angeles with an aunt, Celia, wife of John Klofenstein, a tailor. Besides Mrs. Klofen- stein there was another daughter, Effie, who died unmarried in 1898. The youngest members of the family are George and Harry D., the former. engaged at present in drilling water wells at Peach Springs, Ariz., for Mrs. A. B. Canfield.

After completing the studies of the grammar grade Harry D. Fether attended the high school at Bryan, Ohio, for two years. Meanwhile in March, 1900, his father and brother, George, had come to California and engaged in contracting and drilling at Maricopa. In the fall of 1900 Frank and Louis joined the others in the west, whither the youngest son followed in 1901, immediately afterward beginning to work as a tool-dresser with his father at Maricopa. In the same year he went to the Kern river field, where for five months he worked with Green & Whittier as a tool-dresser. Next he engaged at the Monte Cristo lease as a roustabout and pumper, from which he was promoted to be well-puller, tool-dresser and foreman successively. During the summer of 1904 he spent three months in the east, returning with his mother in the fall and then securing employment as a driller on the Monte Cristo in the Kern river field. As a cable tool driller he is considered an expert and since the fall of 1904 this has been his special line of work. For about one year he drilled on the Sesnon, Piedmont and Lunda Vista leases for Sanguinetti and later he continued in the Kern river field as an employe of the Kern Trading and Oil Company. When their sixty or more wells had been drilled and they had shut down six strings of tools, he went to Utah and spent two and one-half months at Virgin City. Upon returning to Kern county he spent three years with the Standard in the Midway field and then drilled without success on a prospect well at Dolgeville, near Pasa- dena. From Bakersfield he next came out to Fellows and engaged with the Kern Trading and Oil Company as a driller for a year, resigning in order to take a vacation trip back to his old Ohio home. Two months later he came

Charles Ster

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back to Fellows and entered upon his duties as production foreman with the United Oil Company, which position he now fills with energy and ability.

CHARLES KERR .- After having passed his childhood days unevent- fully near Belfast, county Antrim, Ireland, where he was born in August of 1830 and whither his ancestors had emigrated from Scotland, Charles Kerr came to the United States when scarcely fifteen years of age and settled in Philadelphia, Pa., there learning the trade of a butcher. Upon learning of the discovery of gold in California he determined to seek the west and during 1850 he traveled via Panama to San Francisco, where he spent a long period of commercial activity. Forming a partnership with Hugh O'Neil and Barney Horn he opened a meat market and conducted a wholesale and retail business, with slaughter house on the wharf. The partners later engaged in business at the Presidio and eventually at South San Francisco, but subse- quently the partnership was dissolved and each man continued in business alone.

The identification of Charles Kerr with Bakersfield and Kern county began in 1885, when he bought the Jackson farm of several hundred acres on Kern Island and engaged in raising alfalfa and stock. Upon selling the tract he bought two farms of one hundred and sixty acres each, situated five miles south of Bakersfield and well adapted to alfalfa and stock. On that place he became extensively engaged in the breeding of thoroughbred horses, buying the mares from J. B. Haggin and increasing the drove until at the time of his death he had .on the ranch one hundred mares of the finest pedigrees, together with two valuable stallions, Apache and Kismit. It was his custom to hold an annual sale in San Francisco. Upon these days he placed upon sale at auction all of the animals that could be spared from his large herd and the quality of the steck was such that great crowds of horsemen, not only from all over the coast, but also representative horse- men from the east, came to the sales every year. His life was full of activi- ties and both as a business man and as a rancher he won a high reputation in the state. While he had little leisure for participation in politics and never consented to hold office, he was always depended upon to cast a straight Democratic ballot at elections. When almost seventy-seven years of age he passed away April 20, 1907, and the body was taken to St. Mary's ceme- tery, Oakland, for interment.

For a time after the death of her husband Mrs. Kerr continued to man- age the ranch, but eventually the horses were sold and she erected for her home a substantial residence in Chester Lane, Bakersfield. Still later, in 1911, she erected and removed to a modern and attractive residence on I street, where in the afternoon of existence she is surrounded by every material comfort and enjoys the affectionate regard of her circle of friends. The other house and also the alfalfa farm are rented. Mrs. Kerr, who bore the maiden name of Jennie Dean, was born at Port Glasgow, Renfrewshire, Scotland. and her earliest memories of childhood cluster around that place. Her par- ents. James and Agnes (Mackenzie) Dean, were natives respectively of Manchester, England, and Port Glasgow, Scotland, and her father died in the latter place, he having settled there as a civil engineer in early manhood. Her mother died in San Francisco at the age of eighty-six years. The only child in the family. Mrs. Kerr grew to girlhcod at the old homestead and during 1852 came to California via Panama. settling in San Francisco, where August 7. 1866, she became the wife of Charles Kerr. Two children blessed the union, William D. and Jennie K., Mrs. Sylvester, both residents of Bak- ersfield. Mrs. Kerr has been a generous contributor to those movements of a public nature bearing upon the material prosperity or educational ad- vancement of the community.

P. J. CUNEO, M.D .- The Cuneo family has been located in Kern since

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1893, at which time Bartholomew and Adelaide Cuneo brought their children to this place, where they have since maintained a home, the former now conducting a restaurant at No. 903 Sumner street. They are the parents of eight sons and one daughter, namely: Peter J., who was born in San Fran- cisco December 22, 1884, and was nine years of age at the time of coming to Kern; Charles, who is connected with the general office of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company in San Francisco; Emil, who is associated with an oil company at Taft; Albert, bookkeeper in the First Bank of Kern; Rose, chief deputy in the county recorder's office; Frank, who is employed in the office of the superintendent of the Southern Pacific Railroad; Will, an em- ploye in the Southern Pacific freight office; Alfred and George, who are students in the Bakersfield high school.

After having completed the studies of the Kern grammar school and the Bakersfield high school, from which latter he was graduated in 1904, P. J. Cuneo entered the Hastings Law College, an institution affiliated with the University of California and located in San Francisco. At the completion of the regular course of study he was graduated in 1907 and admitted to the bar of the state of California. However, he felt himself less drawn toward the law than he had anticipated and in spite of his excellent college record he deter- mined to seek another field of work. During 1908 he passed the state exam- ination of the pharmacy board and then entered Cooper Medical College of San Francisco, the medical department of Leland Stanford University, and there he continued his studies until he received the degree of M.D., upon his graduation in May of 1911. In the following August he was examined by the state medical board and received a license to practice medicine and surgery in California. Meanwhile he had accepted an appointment as interne at St. Luke's hospital and there he continued throughout the term, the work proving of the greatest benefit to him in broadening his professional knowledge and giving him valuable experience in surgery. Since his return to East Bakers- field, the community where he passed his school days and where he has many oldtime boyhood friends, he has devoted himself to the building up of a private practice.

MRS. REBECCA TIBBET .- Among the very first settlers on Kern Island and a pioneer of Kern county is Mrs. Rebecca Tibbet, who came hither on March 1, 1864, with her husband and four children. Grandma Tibbet, as she is called, was born in La Grange county, Ind., July 31, 1835, and was the daughter of Nathaniel and Annie (Lawrence) Callahan, natives of Delaware and Ohio, respectively. In her native county Rebecca Callahan was brought up and received her education in the local schools of the day. There she was married April 24, 1853, to Edward Tibbet, a native of Ohio.

The week after their marriage they started on their honeymoon trip, which arrangement included a trip by boat to St. Joe, Mo., and thence they crossed the plains by the overland trail with ox teams, being en route from May 3 until November 25, when they arrived at San Gabriel mission. They located in Arroyo Seco, now Pasadena, then a Spanish grant, where Mr. Tibbet was engaged in cutting wood, which he disposed of in Los Angeles.

In 1864 they located on Kern Island and purchased an eighty acre farm from Colonel Baker and later homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres adjoining, all of which now adjoins the city on the south. They paid for the eighty acres by raising beef, beans and vegetables, and afterward con- tinued farming and stockraising.

Mr. Tibbet died in 1879, at fifty-two years of age. Since her husband's death she continues to reside at her old home, making it her residence except when she visits her children. She became the mother of twelve children, seven of whom grew up as follows: Eliza, Mrs. W. T. Hoke, of Los Angeles ; George, deceased, at one time city marshal of Bakersfield; William, who was killed by the desperado Mckinney while performing his duty as a

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deputy sheriff; Alfred, who died at his home near Bakersfield October 26, 1913; Emma, Mrs. C. P. Larsen, who resides in Bakersfield; Edward, also of Bakersfield ; and Burton M., of Taft.

Mr. and Mrs. Tibbet were pioneer members of the Methodist church and assisted in organizing the First Methodist Episcopal church in Bakers- field, in which Mr. Tibbet was trustee and class leader as well as superin- tendent of the Sunday school. About twenty years ago, when the Salvation Army was organized in this city, Mrs. Tibbet became a member and has since been active in the cause.

SIDNEY POWERS .- When the various countries of Europe were con- tributing of their brain and brawn to the colonization of America there were not wanting immigrants from the rugged hills of Scotland to aid in the herculean task of founding a new nation and among these colonial settlers were representatives of the ancient Scotch family of Powers, whose early home in the new world was among the gallant cavaliers of Maryland. It is said that the Scotch formed an important element in the early history of that state, where they were noted for energy of character and success in business. Originally planted in that colony, the Powers family became iden- tified with Virginia through the removal thither of Richard Powers, a gen- tleman of Maryland nativity and education. The next generation was represented by Sidney Powers, Sr., a native of Cumberland county, Md., but throughout much of his life a planter in Virginia, where he owned a large plantation in Stafford county not far from the city of Fredericksburg. A quiet, uneventful devotion to farming, that continued until his death in 1896, was broken only by the advent of the Civil war, which found him enthusi- astically advocating the doctrine of states rights and he served throughout the war as a private in the Confederate army. During young manhood he had married Mary Ann Thompson, a native of Fauquier county, Va., and a descendant of an old Scotch-Irish family. Since the death of her husband she has continued at the old homestead in Stafford county near Fredericks- burg, where her sixth child, Sidney, was born March 30, 1880, and where also had occurred the birth of her other children. There were eleven in the family and all but one of these still survives.

When attending the country schools in Virginia and working on the home farm, Sidney Powers, Jr., was impressed by the lack of opportunities in that region. Hearing much concerning the west, he resolved to seek an opening somewhere along the Pacific coast. Accordingly as soon as he attained his majority and was free to start out for himself, he began to make plans for removal to California. December 18, 1901, found him newly arrived in Bakersfield, where the following day he secured employment in a livery stable owned by R. A. Moncure. A few months later he began to work at the butcher's trade under Mr. Graves. Later he assisted in the building of the steel tanks of the Standard Oil Company in the Kern river field, fol- lowing which he worked in the White Star dairy for nine months. His next position was with the Kern County Land Company, for which he continued as a collector for almost eight years. Eventually he resigned the position in order to embark in business for himself. During June of 1910 he purchased the Ideal stables at No. 2221 I street, in Bakersfield, which he since has con- (lucted with efficiency and success, having since the acquisition of the business equipped and improved the property, which now includes two stables, one a brick building 80x100 feet in dimensions, and the other 75x80, both substantial in construction and convenient in arrangement. While he has not maintained an active interest in public affairs, he is decidedly Democratic in his sym- pathies and adheres to the political faith in which he was reared. Fraternally he belongs to the Woodmen of the World. At the time of his arrival in Bakersfield he was a young man without domestic ties and it was not until some years afterward that he established a home of his own, his marriage in

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Bakersfield uniting him with Miss Mary W. Wilson, by whom he has one son, Thomas Sidney, and who like himself is of Virginian birth and education, a native of Isle of Wight county and descended from an old and honored family of the southeastern portion of the Old Dominion.

CHARLES H. HELDMAN .- Nestling in the foothills on the north slope of Piute mountain near Bodfish, Kern county, is the ranch of Charles H. Heldman, who owns four hundred and forty acres of land on which he has a full bearing orchard of apples, pears, cherries, peaches and plums, the place having been improved from the wild land, and which bears evidence of his energy and enterprise.

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History of Kern County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 103

Author: Morgan, Wallace Melvin, 1868- [from old catalog] Publication date: 1914 Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company Number of Pages: 1682

Author: Morgan, Wallace Melvin, 1868- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1682