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 108

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 108

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The eldest of the family, Andrew Ferguson, was eleven years of age when the family immigrated to California in 1886 and six years later he began to assist his father in the oil industry, working for some time in the capacity of tool-dresser both in the Coalinga and the Kern river fields. With a brother he contracted to drill a well on the Lake county line for the Anglo-American Oil Company. After he had incurred a very heavy expense in the prosecution of the work the company failed and that precipi- tated his own financial collapse. Forced to start anew, he returned to Coalinga and found employment. Later he drilled wild-cat wells near Red Bluff. Upon going back to Coalinga he secured employment with the Zier Oil Company. A year later he was promoted to be superintendent of their lease and in that capacity he continued for six years, meanwhile building up the production from nothing to fifteen thousand barrels a month. Resign- ing that superintendency, he entered the employ of the Kern Trading & Oil Company, with which he has filled various positions in the line of suc- cessive promotions, being now traveling production agent, a post that neces- sitates considerable travel over the different leases. For convenience as headquarters, he established his home in Fresno, where he owns property at No. 413 Fresno avenue. In politics he votes the Republican ticket. Fraternally he holds membership with the Improved Order of Red Men and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is an honorary member of the Rebekahs, with which his wife also is associated. In Los Angeles he married Miss Georgia Burkley, a native of Boston, Mass., but from childhood a resident of California, her parents settling in Los Angeles, where she com- pleted the course of study in the high school.

WILLIAM J. McCARTHY .- A personal connection with the manufac- ture of boilers in many of the most extensive boiler works in the country qualified Mr. McCarthy for successful independent work when in 1909 he came to McKittrick, built a plant of suitable dimensions and modern equipment, and embarked in the business of making boilers and tanks, having for his field of patronage the entire west side of Kern county. To build and sell boilers and tanks of the highest quality and greatest depend- ability does not represent the limit of his identification with the locality, for in addition he has been a homesteader and through personal residence on a quarter-section of land fourteen miles west of McKittrick he has acquired the title to a ranch, on which grain, vegetables and melons may be raised with profit, irrigation being provided by means of a pumping plant of sixty inches capacity.

The business in which Mr. McCarthy has been markedly successful is one familiar to his earliest recollections, for his father, J. J., was a boiler-maker by trade and for years prior to retirement from business he was head of the firm of McCarthy & Sons, boiler-makers, of Indianapolis. Both J. J. McCarthy and his wife, who bore the maiden name of Catherine Murphy, are still living in Indianapolis, where their second son, Frank, is now president of the board of aldermen. There were fourteen children in the family and of these eight are now living. The eldest of all, William J., was born in Indianapolis. August 3, 1871, and as a boy attended the gram- mar and high schools of that city. When sixteen years of age he became an apprentice to the trade of boiler-maker with Sinker & Davis. Having

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completed the trade, he went to Chicago in 1889 and remained there for two years, after which he worked with his father for a time. During the financial depression of 1894 he returned to Chicago and resumed work. Later he was employed in Alexandria, Ind., and thence went to Kansas City, Mo., where he filled a position as superintendent of the Urie-Snyder iron works. After a time as superintendent of the Ducktown Copper & Iron Company at Isabella, Tenn., he went to Columbus, Ohio, to engage as superintendent of the Borger Brothers boiler shop. Next he held an impor- tant position as superintendent of the boiler shop of the Power Mining & Machine Company at Milwaukee, Wis., from which place he went to South Bend, Ind., to serve as superintendent of a boiler shop owned by the Folsom Manufacturing Company.

Coming to California after a successful identification with the before- named plants, Mr. McCarthy engaged at San Francisco as superintendent for T. J. Monahan & Co., and later was with the Pacific boiler works in the same city, remaining with them as superintendent until his removal to McKittrick in 1909. His citizenship in this place has been helpful to local development and is proving profitable to himself. In national politics he has voted with the Republican party. Upon the incorporation of McKittrick he was chosen a member of the first board of trustees. However, having decided to take up a homestead and being thereby obliged to take up resi- dence on the claim, he resigned the office of trustee, but after his return to McKittrick and at the time of the resignation of Mr. Hubband in 1913 he was elected to fill the vacancy, since which time he has been most efficient as trustee. Fraternally he is connected with the Loyal Order of Moose and is past sachem of the Red Men. His marriage was solemnized in Marion, Ind., and united him with Miss Nellie Smith, a native of Delaware county, that state, and by the union there is a son, Robert Edwin.

HARVEY LURANUS ROSS .- Fortified by an extensive experience in the production of oil in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, Mr. Ross eventually gave up identification with the east in order that he might asso- ciate himself with the growing oil industries of the Pacific coast region and from July of 1904 until he retired from active business life he had his headquarters in the Kern river fields, where he became known as a dependable workman and a competent superintendent. also as a true gen- tleman, carrying with him not only the culture and refinement characteristic of the east. but the breezy good-nature and broad-hearted sympathies morc especially characteristic of the west. The position to which he was appointed July 15, 1912, that of superintendent of the Patricia Oil Company, he resigned September 15 of that year.

Harvey L. Ross is a son of James and Elizabeth (Smith) Ross, life- long residents of Venango county, Pa., and farmers there until death ended their activities. Six children comprised their family, namely: Henderson. now proprietor of a store at Reno, Venango county ; Harvey Luranus, the only one to settle in California; Mary, Mrs. James Manson, of Rockland, Venango county ; Edward, who prior to his death July 18, 1911, engaged successfully in the oil business in Ohio; Lizzie, Mrs. Charles Gaggin, who lives near Pittsburgh, Pa .; and Carrie, who married Edward Bell and lives near Freedom, Beaver county, Pa. The second son was born August 13, 1855, in the village of Emlenton, Venango county, Pa., where he attended school as often as possible. The broad information he now possesses is the result of extensive reading rather than attendance at school. At an early age he became self-supporting. The first work which he secured in the oil business was in the "Scrub" grass field, where he was hired as a pumper. Next he worked in the Clarion field and afterward he was employed in the McKean county fields for about six years. Leaving Pennsylvania for New

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York he found employment in the Bolivar oil fields, where he continued about six years and during much of the time he had charge of production. From New York he went to West Virginia and secured work at Sisters- ville, Tyler county. For fifteen years he remained at the one place and during fourteen years of that long period he was employed by J. T. Jones. an extensive and influential oil operator. Upon leaving West Virginia he came to California and thereafter until his retirement he was engaged in the Kern river fields, his first position being that of foreman for the Capital City Oil Company and later he had charge of the Acme Development Com- pany until he became superintendent of the Patricia.

The marriage of Mr. Ross was solemnized at Oil City, Venango county, Pa., and united him with Miss Mary Farren, daughter of James Farren, for years a well-known Venango county farmer. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Ross was blessed with twelve children, but a deep bereavement came to them in the loss of five of the number by death. Seven have attained mature years and the four eldest of these have left home to do for them- selves in the world. the girls entering homes of their own and the boys taking up the oil business in which they are thoroughly trained. Clifford. the eldest of the eight, is now a driller in the Kern river fields. Effie, Mrs. Lovring, is living in Kern county, and Freda, Mrs. Ellsworth, makes her home at Maricopa. Claude, the fourth child, is working in Oklahoma in the oil industry. Kahle, Kenneth, and Flossie are still with their parents in the family home at the corner of Eleventh and Kern streets, East Bakersfield.

ARTHUR W. RENCH .- An important business enterprise of East Bakersfield is the Metropole meat market at No. 810 Baker street, which established about 1900 on a very small scale, has developed into a large and popular concern that receives the patronage of people throughout the entire community. Although it has been owned by Mr. Rench for a comparatively brief period, he has the advantages of previous experience in the same busi- ness and is well qualified to maintain the reputation established under former management. In connection with the market he and his partner operate a slaughter-house two miles east of town, and from there beef and pork of the choicest qualities are brought to the market for sale.

Much of the life of Arthur W. Rench has been passed in California and Bakersfield has been his home since 1894. The youngest of the four children of Dan and Emily (Foote) Rench, natives respectively of Maryland and New York state, he was born at Tooele, Utah, June 4, 1877. His father had crossed the plains during young manhood and settled in Utah, where he served as a deputy sheriff at Salt Lake City and lived for a time at Tooele. After his death the mother removed to Kansas with her children, the youngest of whom was then four years of age. Eight years later she brought them to California and settled in the Antelope valley, where her father, Erastus Foote, had moved from Utah in a very early day. For a few years the family lived on a ranch in the valley. Meanwhile the son, primarily educated in Kansas in the schools of Lawrence and Topeka, had finished his schooling and was ready to take up the task of self-support. In search of employment he went to Los Angeles and engaged as delivery clerk for various stores.

Coming to Kern county in 1894 and engaging in horticultural work for a year, Mr. Rench then secured work in Odell's market on Nineteenth street, where he learned the trade of butcher. A year later the market was bought by Graves & Baker and he continued in their employ, but later left them in order to run a meat wagon through the country. When he sold the wagon he entered Mr. Anderson's employ in the California market, which with Mel P. Smith as a partner he bought in 1907. Afterwards Lloyd P. Keester became a partner and the business was incorporated with Mr. Rench

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as vice-president. During 1910 he sold his interest and purchased the City market on Nineteenth street in partnership with Louis Johnson, but in 1912 sold that business and in April of the same year he bought from Jean Estribou the Metropole market, which he now owns in conjunction with Forrest Cassady; this has now grown to an extensive wholesale business. Besides owning one-half interest in the market he owns real estate in Bakers- field and an alfalfa ranch of one hundred and twenty acres about four miles southeast of the city, while his identification with Bakersfield is rendered even more intimate and important through his membership in the board of trade and the Merchants' Association. With his wife, who was formerly Mrs. Della (Cox) Laird, and whom he married at San Diego, he has estab- lished a comfortable home in East Bakersfield and has a host of friend's in the town. In politics he always has voted with the Republican party, while fraternally he belongs to the Eagles and is a contributor to the philanthropic and social interests of the order.

HARRY B. PHELAN .- The president of the board of trustees of McKit- trick was formerly a professional baseball player of more than local fame, and recent interests in other directions have not lessened his love for a good game. With his old-time skill he has promoted the success of a local club, devoting many of his leisure hours to such work and watching the reports from the great metropolitan teams with true professional zeal. However, this interest does not lessen his energetic oversight of the drug store (the first in McKit- trick), which he owns and manages and which has a profitable accessory in the form of a modern and well-equipped soda-water fountain. Upon the in- corporation of the city he was elected a member of the first board of trustees and has since continued in that office, being at present chairman of the board and as such an influential factor in every measure for the local upbuilding.

On a quarter-section homestead eight miles east of Tecumseh, Johnson county, Neb., Harry B. Phelan was born August 1, 1876, being a son of James A. and Mary E. (Clotfelter) Phelan, natives of Galesburg, Ill. The paternal grandfather. Jacob, was also a pioneer of Johnson county, where the father shortly after the close of an honorable service in the Civil war as first lieu- tenant of a company in the Thirty-second Illinois Infantry, took up a raw tract of government land in the midst of an undeveloped region, practically beyond the then confines of civilization. The transformation of the raw tract into a remunerative farm was no slight task, but he engaged in it with enthus- iasm and tireless energy. For years he made a specialty of buying and feed- ing cattle, shipments of which he sent to Kansas City in carload lots. The Johnson county farm is still his home, but with advancing years his activities have narrowed and he has enjoyed a leisure richly merited by industry and honesty.

Among seven children, all but one of whom still survive, Harry B. Phelan was fourth in order of birth. After he had completed the studies of local schools he was sent to the State Normal School at Peru, but at the close of the junior year he left college for the purpose of entering the professional baseball field with the Des Moines team. After a year as catcher he was transferred to the Atlanta team in the Southern league, where he was catcher for one year. The next two years were spent as catcher with the North- western Indian School at Genoa, Neb. With the opening of the Spanish- American war he offered his services as a soldier. Assigned to Company I, Sixteenth United States Infantry, he served as first sergeant in the Philip- pines for two years and four months. With his command he was ordered back to the United States and honorably discharged from the service. Re- turning to the old homestead he aided in the management of the ranch and also carried on a barber shop at Tecumseh, but in 1905 he came to California and played with the Bakersfield team. Next he was assigned to the Fresno team in the Coast league. After the earthquake he retired from baseball and

Peter Palio. Jefer Mars. Citer Salis.

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

came to Kern county, where he started a barber shop at McKittrick and since has engaged in other lines of business. In San Francisco he married Miss Elizabeth E. Hock, a native of that city, now sharing with him in the respect of acquaintances in Kern county. While at Atlanta, Ga., he was made a Mason in East Point Lodge No. 288, F. & A. M. For a time he was actively connected, at Peru, Neb., with the Ancient Order of United Workmen. In addition he has affiliated with the Improved Order of Red Men. Politically he votes with the Democratic party.

PETER SALIS .- Born in Arvis, Graubunden, Switzerland, January 26, 1865, Mr. Salis attended school in his native land. He was the eldest son of five children born to Melchior and Agnes Salis. The father died in 1874 when his son Peter was only nine years of age. Being the eldest of the family he had to help his mother look after the property. Completing the grammar school when he was fifteen years old, he continued on the home place until he came to the United States in 1889. As he had determined on California as his point of destination he set out from home and arrived here December 28, 1889. On January 1, 1890, he was employed by Wellington Canfield, for whom he worked for two years, being the only employer he had after reaching the United States. With John Koch and Michel Mazolt as part- ners he leased two hundred and fifty acres of land on Union avenue from J. C. Anderson, and later a six hundred and forty acre section adjoining. upon which he engaged in dairying and raising alfalfa, the dairy consisting of sev- enty cows. The partners remained here for about five years, but during the last year the partnership was dissolved and Mr. Salis continued alone until 1897. He then purchased land to the amount of a hundred and twenty acres on Jerry slough, which was all unimproved land. He cleared it of sage brush and sunk a flowing artesian well, with a capacity of ninety-six inches, and con- structed a reservoir to irrigate the farm, which was devoted to raising alfalfa and the dairy business. In the early days of his experience on the farm the coyotes howled at his door, but before he left it was comfortably improved with residence and buildings. On account of the flood in 1907, when the waters came down Jerry slough, he came to what is now his home place, originally a tract of forty acres. To this he later added twenty acres adjoining and now has sixty acres planted to alfalfa, besides which he also carries on a small dairy business.

In June, 1870, was born Miss Ursula Stoffel, in Arvis, Switzerland, who, October 15, 1892, became the wife of Peter Salis, and they have two children : Agnes, who graduated from the Kern County high school at Bakersfield in 1912 and now attending the University of California : and Melchior, who is attending the public school.

Mrs. Salis was the daughter of Anton and Ursula ( Bernhard) Stoffel, of an old Graubunden family. She came to Hastings, Nebr., in April. 1889, and to California December 28, 1889. She has been an able helpmate and com- fort to her husband and both are deeply interested in giving their children the best educational advantages in their power. In 1901 Mr. and Mrs. Salis with their two children visited his old home, relatives and friends. After a four-months' trip they returned to their home near Button Willow. Mr. Salis is a member of the Woodmen of the World.

WILLIAM D. JOUGHIN .- Among those men who have given of their time and best energy towards the development of Kern county we find William D. Joughin, who was born on the family farm, Ballacrebbin, in the Parish of Andres, Isle of Man. He was the son of John and Margaret Ann (Kaighin) Joughin, who were proprietors of Ballacrebbin and were of old families of that Isle, the families having lived there for generations. William D. was born November 12, 1870, and received his education in the local schools of the parish. At the age of seventeen he was apprenticed as a

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grocer in Ramsey. After three years, disliking the trade, he concluded to take up farming instead and he returned to the old farm, and after his father's death lie continued to live with his mother, until her death, after which he de- termined to come to California, where his sister, Mrs. T. A. Connell, resided on the south fork of Kern river. On May 1, 1898, he came into Kern county, where he remained for one year with Mr. Connell. This was his introduc- tion into the cattle business and farming, as it was done in California. In 1899 he went to Bishop, Inyo county, where he was for eight years employed in the cattle business. He then returned to the south fork and with J. Robert Stephen rented the Connell ranch, and since then the two have operated it in partnership. Aside from the Connell ranch of eight hundred acres they also lease the Patterson and Cook ranches on the south fork adjoining, and they also lease the Five Dog ranch at Granite station for ranging their cattle. On the south fork the ranches are irrigated from the ditches and they are ex- tensively engaged in raising alfalfa and grain. The balance is used for pas- ture and range. They make a specialty of raising and feeding cattle and hogs for the Los Angeles market. The brand is a triangle inverted.

At the First Methodist Episcopal Church, Los Angeles, June 3, 1912. occurred the marriage of Mr. Joughin and Miss Ethel Christian, a native daughter of Kern county, and the daughter of Robert Christian, one of the old-time merchants of Kernville.

Mr. Joughin was made a Mason in Winnedumah Lodge No. 287, F. & A. M., at Bishop. He is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal church at Isabella and a believer in protection and Republican principles.

M. L. WEITZEL .- The name of Weitzel is indicative of Teutonic ancestry and we find that the genealogy of the family points back to a long identification with Germany. The first representative of the family to seek a home in the new world was Frederick Weitzel, who left his native land in young manhood, crossed the ocean to America, proceeded from New York to Michigan and settled in Detroit, where he followed his trade of a mill- wright. After a time he moved to the southern part of Indiana and bought a tract of farm land which he developed, while in addition he managed a saw and grist mill. The second generation in America was represented by Lewis Weitzel. a native of Detroit, Mich., but throughout the greater part of his life a resident of Indiana.

Like his father, he engaged in farm pur- suits and also conducted a saw and grist mill. A man of ability and intelli- gence, he rose to political prominence and for many years served as chair- man of the county central Democratic committee in Dearborn county. For four years he served as deputy sheriff of that county and so well did he fill the position that he was chosen sheriff, in which capacity he rendered efficient service for another four years. During 1882 he left Dearborn county and went further north and west in Indiana, buying a farm in Boone county, where he continued to reside until his death. He is survived by his widow, Mrs. Margaret Weitzel, a resident of Boone county and a native of Germany, whence in early life she was brought to the new world by her father, Henry Miller, the family settling in Indiana and taking up land in Dearborn county.

All of the ten children of Lewis -and Margaret (Miller) Weitzel are still living. One of the youngest members of the family was M. L., a native of Dearborn county, Ind., born June 3, 1872, but from the age of ten years until he was twenty a resident of Boone county, where he received a public-school education. When sixteen years of age he became an appren- tice in the machine shops of the Midland Railroad, where he remained until he had acquired a complete knowledge of the machinist's trade. Upon starting out for himself he came to California in 1892 and settled in Kern county, where he hoped to secure employment in the railroad shops. In

consolabehere Michel.

Mariana Ansolabehere

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this hope, however, he was destined to be disappointed, for work was slack and no new hands were being added to the force. Farm work pre- sented itself as a temporary source of livelihood. During January of 1893 he was employed on Tutman's ranch and the following month he went to the Underwood ranch. From there he went to the warehouse and packing house July 26, 1893, and on the 10th of October of the same year he became an employe on the Lindgren ranch, where he remained for a long period of productive activity. It was during 1898 that he first became interested in cement work, to which he since has devoted his entire time. After having been employed for some years as foreman of cement construction he began for himself in 1906 and since then has risen to a position among the leading cement contractors in Kern county. Some of the finest work of the kind in Bakersfield is the result of his efficient skill. To his credit there are also seventeen substantial cement and brick reservoirs in the oil fields. Upon the organization of the Builders' Exchange he became a charter member and since has maintained an intimate association with affairs in this progres- sive body. In 1912 he incorporated the Weitzel-Larsen Contracting Com- pany, of which he is general manager, the company being organized for the purpose of engaging in general contracting on an extensive scale. Some years after coming to Kern county he married Miss Annie Psherer, a native of this county, and by the union there are two children, Henry and Gertrude. He belongs to the Woodmen of the World, and is a Democrat.

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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 108

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