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 110

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 110

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Upon selling out his interests in the south in 1901 and coming to Cali- fornia to make his home, Mr. Rooks was first employed in the Pike carriage- shop in Los Angeles, next was in the Tabor shop in the same city, and then for two years and three months served as foreman of the blacksmithing department in the car-shops of the Pacific Electric Railroad Company at Sherman. From Los Angeles he went to Hollywood, where he conducted a blacksmith's shop for three years. Meanwhile he bought and sold real estate and was able to leave the city with a profit of $10,000. Next he bought twenty acres in Azusa and engaged in raising oranges and strawberries. The latter crop was particularly profitable and brought him returns beyond his most sanguine expectations.

November of 1909 witnessed the location of Mr. Rooks in Kern county, where in 1907 he had purchased one hundred and sixty acres of alfalfa land for $12,000. After securing $5,000 in rent from the place he sold it for

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$25,000 and had previously purchased a tract of four hundred acres, also about the same time purchased four hundred and ten acres of improved land under the ditch. On this property he put down a well three hundred and fifty feet deep, thus securing an abundance of water for irrigation. Eventually he sold the entire acreage and then, in November of 1912, he bought a blacksmith's shop at No. 617 Grove street, where he and his son have since made a specialty of horse-shoeing, although doing also a general blacksmith and repair business in the line of wagons and carriages, also the manufacture of automobile springs and machine forgings. While living in Alabama Mr. Rooks married Miss Theodosia P. Mason, who was born near Stone Mountain, Ga., in Gwinnett county. They became the parents of twelve children, of whom the following survive: Mrs. Lulu James, of Tulare ; Mrs. Bessie Ward, of Florida; William J., Jr., member of the firm of W. J. Rooks & Son ; Murray, now at Taft ; Mrs. Linnie Sutliff, of Escalon, San Joaquin county ; Eunice, Cleo, Florence and Lyman, who remain with their parents in the Bakersfield home. The family holds membership with the Methodist Episcopal Church South. In national principles Mr. Rooks is stanchly Democratic and fraternally he is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Bakersfield.

REGINALD FRANK HAIMES .- Since coming to Bakersfield during April of 1895 Mr. Haimes has been identified with the Kern County Land Company, first as an employe on the Poso ranch and later as a clerk at the Kern island headquarters. Each of these places was made his headquarters for a number of years. To the work of both he gave the satisfactory service that furnishes abundant reason for promotion. Appointed in September of 1907 to the responsible position of payroll clerk in the Bakersfield office, he now gives his time and attention closely to the responsibilities of the place and discharges every duty with painstaking fidelity. For a consid- erable period he devoted his leisure hours to military tactics and for seven years he served in the California National Guard, retiring with the rank of sergeant. Enlisting in the old Company G of the Sixth Regiment, he remained with it after the re-organization into Company L, Second Regi- ment. At the time of the great fire in 1906 in San Francisco he was sent with other members of the guard to that city.

The third in a family of six children, Reginald Frank Haimes was born in Liverpool, England, February 22, 1875. and was a son of the late Francis and Elizabeth (Winsborough) Haimes, natives of Devonshire. For many years prior to his death the father had engaged as a wholesale tobacconist in Liverpool and it was there that R. F. Haimes attended school from 1881 until about 1889. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed on an English merchant ship, Crompton, which sailed to Burma, Asia, thence returning to Dundee. On the voyage he rounded the Cape of Good Hope twice, repeating this on a subsequent round trip between Liverpool and Calcutta. The next voyage of the Crompton took him from Cardiff, Wales, to Portland, Ore., thence back to England, thus rounding Cape Horn twice. When he passed the Horn for the third time it was on a voyage to San Francisco. Having concluded the apprenticeship he left the vessel at San Francisco in the fall of 1894, intending to become a permanent resident of the west.

A brief experience in the coasting trade out from San Francisco was followed by removal to Napa, where Mr. Haimes secured employment as clerk in a hardware store and from there in the spring of 1895 he came to Kern county, the location of his subsequent activities. In the city of Bakersfield he erected a comfortable residence at No. 2729 Twentieth street, and here he and his wife, with their only child, Kathleen Greta, have a home whose delightful hospitality is often enjoyed by their wide circle of friends.

Cms. J. P. Plangher - A. P. Plangher.

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Mrs. Haimes was reared and educated in Liverpool, England, and is a woman of culture and charm, popular in social functions and an interested partici- pant in the work of the Pythian Sisters, to which, as also to the Knights of Pythias, Mr. Haimes belongs. Since becoming a citizen of our country he has espoused Democratic principles and always gives his vote to the men and measures advocated by that party. Although reared in England, Mrs. Haimes is of Irish birth and lineage, and was born at Banbridge, county Down, which likewise was the birthplace of her parents, Martin and Selina (Crawley) Kehoe. The parents removed from Ireland to Liverpool, England, where Mr. Kehoe engaged in business as a merchant tailor, remaining in the same city throughout the balance of his life. There were fourteen chil- dren in the Kehoe family and six of these are still living. The youngest, Margarita, was educated in public and private schools in Liverpool and came to Bakersfield May 17, 1908, where on June 7, 1908, was solemnized her marriage to Mr. Haimes, and since then they have remained residents of this city.

JOHN P. PLAUGHER .- The Plaugher stable at Taft, for which Mr. Plaugher paid T. T. Hunter $7,000 and the value of which has been increased by subsequent purchases and improvements, does not represent the limit of his investments, for outside of his holdings in Taft he owns a house and lot at Hueneme, Ventura county, four lots in Del Monte Heights, Monterey county, two lots in Oakland and forty acres in unimproved farm land situated three and one-half miles northwest of the court-house at Fresno, besides which he is a stockholder in the Amber Oil Company.

A resident of California since the 4th of July, 1896, on which day he arrived in Los Angeles, J. P. Plaugher had earned his own livelihood for a decade before he came to the west. The family of which he was a member comprised ten sons and two daughters, and the old home was in Pendleton county, W. Va., one and one-half miles from the state line of Virginia. There he was born September 8, 1873, and there he worked early and late as a boy, deprived of every educational advantage and in that way greatly handicapped for the activities of the business world. When scarcely more than sixteen he left home and he has not since been beneath the old roof nor has he visited the neighborhood whose only memories are of hardship, sacrifice and poverty. Having considerable mechanical ability. he found employment in running a traction engine which at different times operated a threshing machine, a hay baler and a wood-saw. March 4, 1892, he left Harrisonburg, Va., and proceeded to Lima, Ohio, where two older brothers were employed in the oil fields. For a year he engaged as teamster and roustabout with the Manhattan Oil Company. During the spring of 1893 he entered the emplov of the Standard Oil Company as a tool-dresser on the Marion and Bellefontaine pikes east of Lima. At the expiration of eighteen months the plant was shut down and he then became a boiler- maker in the Solar refinery (the largest refinery in the entire world). After eight months he was made foreman of the crew that built the railroad car tanks, but a year later he was obliged to give up the work on account of threatened deafness. Transferred to the yard as a pipe-fitter, having charge of a gang of five men, he continued with the Standard Oil Company at the Solar refinery for eight months, after which he drilled for the same corpora- tion at St. Marys, Ohio.

Resigning from the employ of the Standard June 28. 1896, Mr. Plaugher came to California, and on the 7th of July began to work in the Little Sespe canyon at Santa Paula for the Union Oil Company, with which he continued for five years as a driller. The boom began in the Kern river field in 1899 and perhaps a year later he had his first experience in that 45

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field, where he was employed as a driller on the San Joaquin division of the Associated. Later he was with the Imperial and 33 Oil Companies, after which he engaged as rig-builder and well-driller for the Rhode Island and Connecticut and California Oil Companies. From that work he went to section 27 of the Coalinga field, where he brought in the flowing well that laid the foundation of the later fortunes of the California Oilfields, Lim- ited. August 1, 1901. he married Miss Emma Webb, daughter of E. C. Webb, and a native of Bradford, Pa., but at the time of their marriage a resident of Santa Paula. One son, Edward W., was born of their union. Mrs. Plaugher is a woman of ability and executive force and has been a leading worker in the Women's Improvement Club of Taft.

An experience in drilling a well in San Benito county proved so dis- astrous that Mr. Plaugher was not only left penniless, but also with a heavy debt that eventually was paid in full. After having worked for some time with the California Oilfields, Limited, he resigned on Thanks- giving day of 1908 and returned to Fresno, where he had bought residence property. From there he proceeded to section 6 in the Kern river field, where he drilled to a depth of twenty-nine hundred and eighty feet, but failed to strike oil. With the failure of the Big Indian Oil Company. in which he had been a shareholder, he again suffered a heavy loss. In 1909 he became a driller on the Santa Fe lease, but left that place in September, 1910, in order to work for Wallace Canfield on the lease of the Kern Trad- ing & Oil Company. Having resigned his position with that large concern he bought a livery stable in Taft, October 11, 1912, and has since engaged in the livery business and in contract teaming. Eleven head of horses were in the barn at the time of purchase and since then he has added seven- teen, so that he now owns twenty-eight horses besides two mules. The equipment has also been enlarged by the purchase of new vehicles. In- cluded with the barn and the stock in the purchase were four lots, 100 x 125, on Center street, and two lots and houses in block 15, Kern street. Shortly after coming to California he was made a Mason in the Santa Paula blue lodge in 1896 and is now a member of Los Palmas Lodge No. 366, F. & A. M.

GEORGE W. PREMO .- The name of Premo indicates the French lineage of the family (the name being originally spelled Primeau, but after- ward changed to Premo for convenience) and the records further show that from France they became transplanted in Canada upon the soil of the province of Quebec. Born near Montreal, Michael Premo came to the United States in early life and during the latter part of the Civil war served as a private in a Michigan regiment of volunteers. Later in the '60s, while still a young man, he came via the Horn to California and settled upon a tract of raw land in San Joaquin county. Early in the '80s he removed to Tulare county, secured a tract of land, developed a grain farm and for years conducted agricultural pursuits upon a large scale. About 1903 he retired from farming and estab- lished a home in Los Angeles, but more recently he has come to Bakersfield with the expectation of passing the remaining years of his life in this growing city.

The marriage of Michael Premo united him with Miss Maggie Minges. who was born in San Joaquin county, this state, and died at Porterville. Her father. John Minges, a native of Germany, came to the United States with his parents in boyhood and in the eventful summer of 1849 crossed the plains with oxen to California, where he remained until his death in Stockton. There were nine children in his family. A mechanic of exceptional ability, he ranked among the successful men of his day and locality. Inventive ability led him to experiment with improvements in farm implements. He invented and patented the first combined harvester, but sold the patent to Shippey of

GEORGE DELFINO

VICTORIA DELFINO

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

Stockton, who in turn sold to Mr. Houser the original model of the com- bined harvester of today. In addition he invented and perfected a header as well as other improvements in machinery.

There were eight children in the family of Michael and Maggie Premo. Seven of these are now living, namely: Walter, who is engaged in the real- estate business at Porterville ; Fred, a contractor doing business at Tulare ; George W., of Bakersfield ; Emily, wife of F. L. Tubbs, of Tulare ; Charles O., who is associated with his eldest brother in the real-estate business at Porter- ville ; Marguerite, now a student in the University of California at Berkeley ; and Kenneth, who was educated at Porterville. All of the children but the youngest are graduates of the Tulare high school. The third son, George W., was born at Stockton, this state, January 18, 1878, and was reared on a farm in Tulare county. After he had been graduated from high school in 1897 he spent two years as a student in the scientific department of the Univer- sity of California. Next he entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Rail- road Company, in whose interests he came to Bakersfield in 1903. Later he devoted one year to the butcher business in Kern as a member of the firm of Tubbs & Premo. At the time of the great fire in San Francisco he went to that city, where he engaged in the real-estate business for a year. Upon his return to Bakersfield he resumed a connection with the Southern Pacific road, but at the expiration of two years resigned his position as conductor and turned his attention to realty work in Bakersfield. For a time employed by Ballagh & Nighbert, in September of 1912 he bought their interests and now engages in the real-estate, loan and insurance business at No. 1717 Chester avenue. In addition to being an active member of the Bakersfield Realty Board, he is still a member of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen. Politically he favors Republican principles. In Bakersfield occurred his marriage to Miss Ethel Carlisle, who was born in Stockton and completed hier education in the Tulare high school. A son, George W., Jr., blesses their union. Mrs. Premo is a daughter of J. H. Carlisle, a pioneer of Tulare county, now living at Fresno, this state.

GEORGE DELFINO .- Near Milan, Italy, George Delfino was born, De- cember 15, 1872, and there attended school until twelve years old, after which he worked for his parents for about eight years. In 1892 he decided to come to America, and accordingly arrived in the United States that year, coming direct to California and settling in Tulare county, where he obtained work. In 1894 he came to Kern county, where he became an employe of the Miller & Lux Land Company, remaining with them until 1898. when he started out for himself. With three others he rented two sections of land, which they worked for two years, at the end of which time he worked alone, in 1900 purchasing forty acres on Kern Island road, four miles south of Bakersfield, and here he lived for six years. He bought his present home place of forty acres in 1907, and in 1912 forty acres adjoining and he now owns and operates one hundred and twenty acres of land, all under irrigation and cultivation to alfalfa. His place is well improved with residence and buildings and is located three miles south of Bakersfield.

Mr. Delfino married in Bakersfield Victoria Bianche, who was born in July, 1883, in Italy. She came to Bakersfield with her parents at the age of four years. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Delfino occurred July 28, 1900, and six children have been born to this marriage: Marciano, Willie, Joe, Dalsolina L., Frank and James.

PAUL CORTI .- A son of Louis and Mary (Ariguni) Corti, farmers of Italy, Paul Corti was born in that country near the city of Milan, November 1, 1838, and was next to the youngest in a family of nine children. Only two members of the once large family are now living and none excepting himself ever came to the United States. Reared on a farm, he can scarcely recall the

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time when he first determined to seek a livelihood elsewhere and to see some- thing of the great world. The ambition of boyhood came into realization during January of 1860, when he saw for the first time the metropolis of the world and began to be familiar with the sights of old England. For three years he served an apprenticeship in London to the trade of mirror-making and cutting. At the expiration of his time he sailed on the ocean ship, Exeter, to South Africa, reaching the Cape of Good Hope after a voyage of four months and settling in the town of that name. However, there were only a few white people as yet at the cape and he could not secure steady employment at his trade, nor did the surroundings cause him to desire a permanent residence in South Africa.

The island of New Zealand next attracted Mr. Corti to its citizenship and for a time he lived at Auckland, but later went to Dunedin. During the war between the native tribes and the white settlers he helped to guard the city of Auckland. At the time of the first mining excitement at Otago he hastened to the camp and there prospected and opened a placer mine which he named the Garibaldi. Associated with others, twelve in all, he put in hydraulic mining machinery and developed the property, remaining at the mine for four years. Meanwhile he married Miss Susan Carroll, who was born at Lancaster, Eng- land, and died at Bakersfield, March 15, 1903, leaving five children. During the spring of 1869 he disposed of his holdings in New Zealand and accompanied by his family went to Melbourne, Australia, thence north to Sydney and Newcastle, from there by a sailing vessel to Honolulu. From the Hawaiian Islands he and his family came via steamer to San Francisco, where they landed May 19, 1870. During the same year he came to Kern county, whose county-seat was then still located at Havilah. At first he worked in the Morrell sawmill. Next he spent a winter on a farm in Bear Hollow, Linn's valley. The following winter was spent at the very top of the Greenhorn mountains.

As early as 1873 Mr. Corti pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres on section 18, township 31, range 27, which, together with adjacent land, he still owns. During 1874 he assisted in cutting a ditch out of the old river twelve miles south of Bakersfield. The following year the little canal, which is known as the Stine ditch, was opened and made available for use by settlers. In this ditch he owned an interest and from it he secured the water necessary for the cultivation of his claim. During 1876 he began to develop his farm and to make the necessary improvements. In 1878 he sowed fifteen acres of the ranch to alfalfa. It has been cut for hay, or pastured by stock, or cut for seed every suc- ceeding year. a period of thirty-five years, and is still a good stand. At differ- ent times he bought adjoining tracts, so that now he owns the whole of section 18. As early as 1875 he bought two cows and started in the dairy business. By gradual increase he became the owner of a herd of seventy milch cows, besides having a large number of stock cattle. From 1882 until 1888 he and his family lived in San Francisco, but returned to the ranch in the year last- named and resumed the dairy industry as well as stock-raising.

The family came to Bakersfield in 1901 and Mr. Corti erected a house on the corner of Twenty-second and E streets, but later bought his present home on the corner of Twenty-first and E streets. Two years after the death of his first wife he married Miss Eugenia Flournoy, a sister of Judge George Flour- noy, and a native of Texas, but this estimable lady was called from earth January 27, 1912, leaving a large circle of friends to mourn her untimely death. The family have been identified with St. Francis Catholic Church ever since they came to Kern county and Mr. Corti is also a member of the Knights of Columbus. In politics he adheres to Democratic principles. About 1905 he sold all of his stock on the ranch, which he has since rented to a dairyman, the latter keeping about one hundred head of cows on the place.

Emma L. Vandaveer

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About three hundred and twenty acres are in alfalfa and perhaps an equal amount in pasture, so that the property is exceptionally well adapted to the dairy business and indeed is now considered one of the finest dairy farms in the entire county.

MRS. EMMA LEA VANDAVEER .- Born at St. Louis de Gonzague, near Montreal, province of Quebec, Mrs. Vandaveer is a daughter of Michael and Genevieve (Maheu) Primeau, both natives of St. Martine, Chateauguay, Quebec. Both the Primeau and the Maheu families came originally from France and were of old and honored ancestry in that country, while their French-Canadian descendants displayed the same qualities of thrift and indus- try that had characterized the ancestors in Europe. For years Michael Primeau engaged in farming near St. Louis de Gonzague, but with all of his arduous labors he could give to his children few advantages aside from helping them to secure good educations. There were four children in the family and three are still living. Mrs. Vandaveer, who was the youngest of the family circle, completed her education in the Notre Dame convent at Huntingdon in Lower Canada, near York state. After she was graduated from the convent she engaged in teaching school for five years, but since coming to California in May of 1887 she has been interested principally in the hotel business. For seven years she managed the Petrolia hotel in Santa Paula, after which she followed the same business in San Francisco. Upon coming to Bakersfield in 1904 she continued in the same line of activity and for eight years managed the Boston hotel. This property she sold February 13, 1913.

From the first identification of Mrs. Vandaveer with Bakersfield she has had a deep faith in its future prosperity and growth. The upbuilding of the city is a matter of personal interest and pride with her. The many favorable features for community growth have impressed her deeply. As an illustra- tion of her faith in local upbuilding it may be stated that she has erected four large and substantial houses in the city, three of these being located on the corner of Twenty-first and E streets, and the fourth standing at No. 2727 Twentieth street. Throughout all of her life she has been a devout Roman Catholic, an earnest worker in the church and a large contributor to its charitable enterprises. St. Francis' Catholic Church has in her not only a faithful, but also an active and capable member. As president of the Altar Society, promoter of the League of the Sacred Heart and treasurer of St. Francis Ladies' Aid Society, she has been identified inti- mately with organizations for the upbuilding of the church and the enlarge- ment of its sphere of usefulness.

CHARLES H. KAAR .- The growing importance of the automobile industry won the apreciative recognition of Mr. Kaar to such an extent that during September of 1911 he relinquished other business interests in order to accept the agency for Bakersfield of the Studebaker automobiles. The garage is established at Eighteenth and L streets, the dimensions being 1151/2 x 132 and covering more floor space than any one-story garage in California, having room for about a hundred and seventy-five cars. It is equipped with machine shop run by electric power, has a vulcanizing depart- ment, electric battery charging department and carries a full line of acces- sories and supplies.

It was on the 5th of March. 1894, that Charles H. Kaar first landed at East Bakersfield, in company with his father, John Kaar, the latter one of the honored upbuilders of this community and a man of sterling traits of character. (His biography appears in this publication.) There were five children in the family and the fourth of these. Charles H., was born near Lochiel, Benton county, Ind .. January 15, 1878, hence was sixteen at the time of the removal to California. For two years he was a student in the public schools, but in 1896 he gave up his studies in order to earn his own liveli-

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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 110

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