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 105

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 105

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HYMAN BLOCK WELLS .- This young man has by industry, energy and perseverance acquired a competency and has the esteem and confidence of his fellow men. Although not a native son he was reared in California, coming here with the family when he was two years of age. His birth occurred in Ashley, Pike county, Mo., January 26, 1877. The father, James M. Wells. was a farmer in Ashley, when he was married to Susie Block, also a native of that county. In 1877 James M. Wells came to California, the family joining him in 1879. Until 1886 he followed farming at Lemoore, and from there removed to Coalinga, where he purchased land from the railroad and from individuals as he made the money to buy them out until he acquired about five thousand acres in that vicinity. After years of successful farming he retired to Visalia, where he and his wife now live, enjoying the fruits of their labors. Of their ten children Hyman B. is the second oldest ; he was reared on the farm and educated in the public schools of Coalinga and at the San Jose Business College. After finishing his schooling he rented his father's farm for one year, then entered the employ of the Associated Oil Company at Mc- Kittrick and became superintendent of the water department which supplies McKittrick and the MeKittrick oil fields with water. In 1908 he resigned and located his present homestead of one hundred and sixty acres six miles south- west of McKittrick, where he has made the improvements and built his home. In March, 1913, he proved up and obtained a title to the land from the government. He also leases adjoining land from Miller and Lux and is raising about four hundred acres of grain hay, in which he has been very successful. In Hanford occurred Mr. Wells' marriage with Miss Eva Merrill, who is a native daughter, born near Stockton, and to them have been born three children : Susie Marie, Thelma Elizabeth and Kingsley Hyman. Fraternally Mr. Wells is a member of the Woodmen of the World and politically is a Republican. Mrs. Wells is a member of the Women of Woodcraft and the Order of the Eastern Star.

Max Aring

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MAX NUNEZ .- Among the men of affairs who have left their imprint on the growth and upbuilding of East Bakersfield is Max Nunez, who was born at Old Almaden, Santa Clara county, in June, 1859, and there he grew up, receiving his education in the local schools. Although the schools offered limited opportunities, he being of a studious nature continued his research for knowledge and became a well-informed man. His father was a contractor at the Almaden mines and Max aided him in packing cinnabar ore from the mines to the mill. Next he spent some time in Hollister and in 1882 he came to Sumner, now East Bakersfield, and for a time he engaged in the liquor business. Subsequently he founded the waterworks, obtained the franchise to supply the town of Sumner, as it was called, with water and put down wells, laid the mains and started the waterworks, managing it until he sold it to the Sumner Water Company.

After this Mr. Nunez spent many years as roadmaster, building, looking after and improving the public roads in his district. Then he built sheep- shearing stations where during the season he employed about three hundred hands to shear the multitude of sheep of the prosperous flock owners of those days. He became the owner of very valuable property in East Bakers- field, some of it located on Baker and Grove streets, which have become valuable business holdings.

The death of Mr. Nunez occurred January 8. 1905. He was a very liberal and enterprising man and in his death the city lost one of its most generous upbuilders. His wife, who survives him, was in maidenhood Rosa Lopez, a native of Sinaloa, Mexico. She continues to reside in East Bakersfield, looking after her real estate interests and building up her property.

E. E. BALLAGH .- It is conceded among residents of the west side that no citizen of Maricopa was more intimately identified with its incorporation and subsequent civic upbuilding than E. E. Ballagh, who, while engaging in insurance and real-estate activities, handling and selling oil lands, farm lands and town property in Kern county as well as lands and city lots in and near Porterville, has also been able to give the city most able and intelligent service in the capacity of clerk. Upon the incorporation of Maricopa as a city in July of 1911 he was chosen the first city clerk and the following year was re-elected, to serve until 1914. As a member of the board of trustees he is a co-worker with C. W. Beatty (mavor), W. E. Thornton, James Wallace, H. C. Doll and C. Z. Irvine, the other city officers being as follows: M. Y. White of the First National Bank, city treasurer; T. W. Brown, city recorder ; L. R. Godward, city attorney; H. J. Babcock, city marshal; Harry Parke, fire chief : Dr. H. N. Taylor, health officer ; and L. L. Coleman, city engineer. The Maricopa board of health, whose vigorous measures have urged forward all enterprises for the promotion of healthful sanitary conditions, comprises the following gentlemen under Dr. Taylor as chairman; F. T. Torpey, R. R. Lucas, L. L. Coleman and H. J. Babcock.

A native Californian and the son of an able and popular Presbyterian minister, E. E. Ballagh was born at Red Bluff. Tehama county. Bv reason of the various removals of the family from one Presbyterian parish to an- other, he attended public school in different places. After he had finished his high-school studies he matriculated in the Leland Stanford, Jr., University, where he was graduated after a thorough course in the department of electri- cal engineering. As an engineer he found his first employment at Glennville, Cal. From 1904 to 1909 he was a salaried employe of the Consolidated Cop- per Company, his field of labor being principally in the mines of Cananea, state of Sonora, Mexico. Meanwhile in 1907 he married Miss Minnie L. Campbell, daughter of Daniel Campbell, a California pioneer who passed away on Christmas day of 1911. Mr. and Mrs. Ballagh have an only son, Ernest M.

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Together with his brother, Dr. H. A. Ballagh, during 1910 Mr. Ballagh erected the Ballagh block at a cost of $6,000. This is a cement building, 50x40 feet in dimensions, and divided into four offices, one of these being occupied by Dr. Ballagh for a dental office. Throughout the period of his residence in Maricopa, his work as real-estate agent as well as the office of city clerk have given to Mr. Ballagh an excellent opportunity to study condi- tions on the west side. While selling real estate in town Mr. Ballagh also has handled oil lands and has watched with unceasing interest the growth of the oil industry as new wells and deeper sands are constantly being developed in the field tributary to Maricopa. What the extent and wealth of the field will be, he states, is only a matter of conjecture, but exaggeration would be diffi- cult. The Coronation well on section 4. township 11 north, range 23 west, producing about eight hundred barrels per day, has increased the extent of the proved cil district by many thousands of acres on which there is still practically little development. The Edmunds Midway and Knickerbocker Oil Companies, operating northwest of Maricopa, have penetrated a lower stratum of oil sand and these remarkable gushers, each producing from five thousand to six thousand barrels daily, will in all probability be the cause of the redrilling of all of the adjoining sections of land heretofore producing from a shallower depth. El Camino Oil and Development Company, oper- ating on the flat five miles east of Maricopa and passing through excellent showings, is being watched in its work with exceptional interest, for a pro- ducing well there will widen and lengthen the area of the field, also will sub- stantiate the reports of geologists who maintain the continued trend of the main 35 Hill anticline to that point. On the southeast of town. Anaconda well No. 14 is in operation. To the northwest and southeast the develop- ment is extending gradually, but with substantial success. On the northeast the Maricopa Queen has brought in two fifteen hundred barrel-per-day gushers within the past year.

The world of progress moves onward and Maricopa is no exception to other districts in the development of its tributary territory. Mr. Ballagh reports companies organizing for development in the mountains and plains west of Maricopa, where indications are favorable for new fields. Progress is seen not alone in the oil industry. The farmer and stock-raiser are begin- ning to take up the adjacent fertile acres, the miner is prospecting in the mountain beyond, and the market gardener and fruit-raiser are experimenting with intensive cultivation of land. All of these workers are looking forward with eager anticipation to the building of the highway from Maricopa to the coast.

It has been the joy and pride of the pioneers of Maricopa to build a sub- stantial modern school building, to maintain a hospital with modern equip- ment, to put in street lights, erect a fire department house and also a city hall. A sewage system is being installed to meet the needs of the town for many decades to come. The water supply for the fire system is gravity pressure, capable of throwing six streams of water to a height of seventy-five feet. A new jail has been completed. Although many improvements have been made, there still remain ample funds in the city treasury.

WILLIAM N. FORKER .- As the holder of the responsible position of Water Commissioner in Kern county, Cal., William N. Forker fills a most important place in the general working of that department, and as inspector of the oil production there he assumes a vast amount of responsibility, for there is doubtless no greater producer in any other state in the United States than in Kern county. Mr. Forker received his appointment from the Board of Supervisors, who showed excellent judgment in their choice of him as he has well proved to them, and no man perhaps in the oil fields today has a more practical idea of that industry and its branches than has he. Born in Clarion county, Pa., he worked from boyhood in the oil fields in that vicinity, starting

E. K

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from the bottom and working gradually up to an important place. In 1900, when the discovery of oil in Kern county attracted many to this part of the state, Mr. Forker decided to come here. He first engaged in the West Side oil fields, since which time he has helped to develop several of the producing wells of today. His experience in these fields has enabled him to gain an insight into climatic conditions and the general system of working these pro- ducers, and he is reputed to be an authority on the oil question.

Mr. Forker married Miss Soto, who with her talented daughters are active workers in St. Francis Catholic Church of Bakersfield. The daughters are highly gifted musicians, while the son, William M., a student at the University of California, is a baseball pitcher of reputation. They make their home at No. 2724 Nineteenth street, Bakersfield.

ERNEST KARNS .- No production foreman in the North Midway field gives to his work more exclusive, more conscientious attention than char- acterizes the capable activities of Ernest Karns, who in his identification with one of the great organizations in the oil industry has proved markedly efficient and thoroughly reliable.

The next to the youngest among six children, Ernest Karns was born near Clarendon. Warren county, Pa., and at an early age was taken to the vicinity of Rising Sun, Ohio, by his parents, Pierce and Amanda (Kleinfelter) Karns, likewise natives of Pennsylvania. For years the father has been an expert driller and has devoted himself to the oil industry, which he now follows in the Midway field in Kern county. When a mere lad Ernest Karns entered the oil business as a roustabout. Step by step he advanced. In each position he proved reliable and diligent. After a time as pumper he was trained to be a tool-dresser and from that he rose to be production man, which work he was following at the time of his removal from Ohio. Coming to California in 1908, he secured employment in the Midway field. His first job was that of well-puller on the Oregon Midway, from which he came to the service of the C. C. M. O. Co., commonly known as the Santa Fe, one of the greatest producing companies in the state, and since 1912 he has been production foreman for this gigantic corporation. Aside from voting the Republican ticket he takes no part whatever in politics, nor is he interested in fraternities, but prefers to devote his time wholly to the duties connected with the company's production.

EDWARD STEWART BROWN .- Through a long line of worthy American ancestry the genealogy of the Brown family is traced back to Ire- land and from that country to Scotland, where all authentic records are lost in a maze of traditional lore. Worthy of especial note is the long and honor- able record of Robert S. Brown as a locomotive engineer, first with the Ill- inois Central Railroad and later with the New York Central in charge of the North Shore Limited, the fastest train between Syracuse and Buffalo. Dur- ing the period of his service on the Illinois Central he witnessed the destruction of Chicago by the great fire (f 1871. On resigning from that road he removed back to New York state and settled at Rochester, later going on the old home- stead ten miles northwest of that city. By his marriage to Jane E. Bascom he had three sons, Edward S., Herman Bascom and Archibald R. After a splendid record as an engineer he met his death in 1891 in an accident at Rochester and nine months later his wife passed away. Their son, Edward S., was born in Chicago July 17, 1871, and received his education in the Albion high school and the Brockport Normal. The occupations which had interested his fore- bears did not attract him. Railroading, in which his father had achieved note- worthy distinction, did not fascinate him with its possibilities, and the occupa- tion of cabinet-making, which his grandfather, Dennis Patrick Brown, had followed through a busy life, in these later years has been taken by the great factories out of the hands of the skilled artisans. The modern industry of

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oil production gave him an opening of interest for the present and of promise for the future.

Arriving in California May 16, 1897, Mr. Brown at once found em- ployment in the Fullerton field. Starting in at the bottom, he continued for five and one-half years on the lease of the Puente Oil Company. Meanwhile he became an expert driller and when he left the Puente it was to work as driller for the Olinda Land Company. From Fullerton he went to Santa Maria, where he was associated with the Union Oil Company for nearly three years. Afterward he drilled on various leases. For perhaps a year he engaged as drilling foreman with the General Oil Company at Santa Maria. Since De- cember of 1909 he has been connected with the Pinal Dome Oil Company, owners of two tracts of eighty and one hundred and sixty acres respectively, all located on section 23, 31-22. As foreman he has charge of the lease and is engaged in drilling a new well. Already there are ten active wells, with a monthly production of about twenty thousand barrels.

In addition to managing the interests of the company on the lease Mr. Brown maintains a warm interest in national problems and is a reader of papers and periodicals, although naturally he finds the publication of oil news more interesting than the news of other enterprises or of political questions. While in New York state he was made a Mason and later he was raised to the Royal Arch Chapter at Santa Maria, where also he and his wife were con- nected with the Eastern Star, and he further was connected with the Elks at San Luis Obispo. At Greigsville, Livingston county, N. Y., he married Miss Sarah E. Clement, a capable woman, whose co-operation in her husband's work is shown by her willingness to board and care for the men on the lease. The two sons also co-operate as much as possible, the elder, Robert S., being now a driller on the Pinal Dome lease. The younger, Edward Archibald, who is now a student in the California Polytechnic at San Luis Obispo, gives his entire vacation season to the task of pumping on the Pinal Dome, it being his present plan to embark in the industry upon the completion of his college course.

JOHN P. SAMUELSON .- Few men have traveled more widely or seen more of the world than has John P. Samuelson, now the transportation fore- man for the General Petroleum Company at Taft. As a boy he became familiar with the interesting old city of Stockholm, Sweden, where he was born May 12, 1878, and where his father, David Oscar Samuelson, still conducts one of the largest bakeries of the capital. As far back as the records can be traced his ancestors were people of worth and intelligence. Caring little for travel, but devoted to their own country, they were not tempted to leave Sweden and it is thought that all of the living representatives of the name, with the excep- tion of John P., continue to make that land their home. By the marriage of David Oscar Samuelson to Anna Louisa Samuelson, now deceased, there were three sons, one of whom, named for his father, now owns a meat market and other properties in Sweden. while the youngest, Nels A., also a resident of Stockholm, is engaged in the automobile livery business. The second son, John P., left home at the age of seventeen to become a sailor on the high seas. As an employe on Swedish and American sail boats and steamships he visited the principal ports of the world.

After having followed the sea from 1895 to 1899, Mr. Samuelson gave up the life of a sailor and became a miner in Alaska. There he had many adventures. Nome was a very small place when he first arrived in the town and he saw much of its development during the following years. Fairbanks also was frequently visited by him. His prospecting tours took him to every part of the country. Aside from mining he gave attention to no work except ditching. From 1899 until 1909 he remained continuously in Alaska with the exception of three return trips to the United States for the winter months.

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In November of 1909 he arrived in Taft, which then presented an uninviting aspect owing to the recent fire. Having a financial interest in the Bed Rock lease, he began to work there as a production man. From May of 1910 until May of 1911 he had charge of the Nome Oil Company in the Elk Hills, from which lease he came to the Esperanza Consolidated Oil Company (the nu- cleus of the General Petroleum). Transportation rather than production has appealed to him. Throughout his connection with the General Petroleum he has acted as transportation foreman. To him is given the oversight of all freight. He handles the materials used for drilling and the machinery used in connection with production. Under his supervision is all freight for the leases and properties of the General Petroleum Oil Company in the Central Midway, Belle Ridge, Lost Hills, Shale, Maricopa, McKittrick and Fellows fields, and on the Globe, Buena Vista, Sibyl, Continental, Nevada, Brunswick. Section 22, Oakburn and Carnegie divisions.

From the first Mr. Samuelson has believed in the future prosperity of Taft. Acting on that belief, he acquired three houses and lots in the town. In one of these bungalows, erected by himself and occupying a desirable loca- tion on the corner of Kern and Fifth streets, he and his wife have a com- fortable home, the hospitality of which is known to every friend. After com- ing to Kern county Mr. Samuelson was married at Bakersfield, his wife being Miss Ethel Fawcett, of Chico, a native daughter of California, her father being John Fawcett, a prosperous orchardist living in the vicinity of Chico. While living in Alaska Mr. Samuelson became connected with the Eagles in Nome and since coming to Kern county he has become a member of the Loyal Order of Moose at Taft.

ALBERT JAMES McCOMBS .- The success of the well-known citi- zen of Kern county whose name is above is the legitimate fruitage of in- dustry, enterprise and integrity. These are the foundation stones on which he has most ably builded. Albert James McCombs was born in Cedar county, Iowa, March 3, 1875, and when he was about a year old was taken by his parents to Kansas and a little later to near Sidney, Cheyenne county, Nebr., where he lived until after his twentieth birthday and where he at- tended public school until he was about seventeen. He began life for himself as a farm hand and early acquired a knowledge of ranching and stockraising. In 1895 he came to California and settled at Hanford. Kings county, where he worked for a time for wages. Three years later he came to Kern county and entered the employ of H. L. Weems, apiarist, with whom he remained two years and during the ensuing three years he was foreman of the Palms fruit ranch at The Palms, three miles south of Wasco. While there he also engaged in the bee business, and at the end of four years he disposed of his thirteen hundred stands to good advantage. In 1904 he bought one hundred and twenty acres of land two miles east of Wasco, most of which is under alfalfa, and in 1908 he acquired eighty acres known as the Golden Gate fruit orchard, upon which he grows peaches, grapes and prunes. In Wasco he installed a cold storage plant and built a shop with a capacity of two tons. Here he engaged in the wholesale and retail butcher business, his slaughter- house being located two miles east of town on his alfalfa ranch. He now has two hundred acres of land under cultivation, and is engaged successfully in the breeding of hogs and cattle.

In politics and in measures for the general good Mr. McCombs has long been active and casts his ballot for Republican candidates. He is a Blue Lodge Mason, belonging to the lodge at Delano, and affiliates with the Woodmen of the World. December 17, 1903, he married Miss May E. Bacome, who was born in Cedar county, Iowa, in June, 1885, and they have a daughter and son, Edna May and Albert J., Jr.

A. S. MORTON .- The senior member of the undertaking firin of Morton & Connelly is a Californian by birth and unswervingly loyal to the material

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upbuilding of Bakersfield, with whose business interests he has been asso- ciated in an influential degree. Suisun City, Solano county, is his native place and October 18, 1859, the date of his birth, his parents having been Thomas H. and Sophia (Barnes) Morton, the latter a California pioneer of 1849. The father, a New Yorker by birth, made two trips to California in the pioneer days. After their marriage in New York City the parents came west and conducted the first hotel established at Suisun City, engaging actively in business until his death in 1877. The youngest among five children who attained mature years and the only son in the family, A. S. Morton was given such advan- tages as the common schools afforded. From an early age he was self-support- ing. While yet a young man he carried on a hardware and furniture business in his native town. Forming the acquaintance of his present partner, W. B. Connelly, he became interested in undertaking and began to study the art. of embalming, in which he soon acquired unusual skill. No expense has been spared to gain proficiency in his difficult occupation. Besides having grad- uated from the Renaurd school in New York he is a graduate of the Chicago College of Embalming. It is said that he and his wife have a technical knowl- edge of embalming that is equalled by few members of their craft. Equally skilled in the occupation is the partner, Mr. Connelly, manager of the Suisun City branch of the business, and a graduate of the New York School of Em- balming, also the Carl L. Barnes school in Chicago.

Many years ago Jacob Niederaur established an undertaking establish- ment in Bakersfield, the first business of its kind in the community. Upon his death the estate offered the business for sale and it was purchased March 1, 1901, by Morton & Connelly, who since have added every modern facility for the proper care of the dead. At the time Mr. Morton came to Bakersfield to as- stime the management of the business it was supposed that the climate of this section was too warm to permit a body to be kept for any length of time after death. Through his skill in embalming he proved the fallacy of this belief. Soon after he began in business a Chinaman died and the body was brought to the undertaking establishment for embalming. This work accomplished, the body was kept in perfect condition for seventy-three days before shipping to Hong Kong. Later a letter was received by Mr. Morton stating that the body was received at Hong Kong in first-class condition, notwithstanding the long period that had elapsed since death. In the possession of Mr. Morton there are also many other letters from relatives of deceased persons, testifying as to the satisfactory manner in which the remains of the dead were pre- pared for distant burial.

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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 105

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