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 113

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 113

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The parental family included five children, three of whom are now living, one, W. R., being now with the Kern County Land Company at Bakersfield. The eldest member of the family circle, Herman S., received a public-school education. At a very early age he showed that he had unusual ability as a mechanic, hence was sent to the Jones Mechanical Institute in San Francisco, where he completed the regular course of training. Afterward he engaged in drilling wells and in installing pumping plants and machinery for irrigation and stock purposes. this work taking him through Kern, Tulare, Kings and Fresno counties, and giving him a wide circle of acquaintances as well as a general appreciation of his skill in his chosen work. During 1898 he became superintendent of the machin- ery department of the Kern County Land Company and since then he has devoted his entire time and attention to the oversight of the shop, discharging his many responsible duties with tact, skill and promptness. Some years ago he erected a comfortable residence on the corner of B and Twentieth streets, Bakersfield, where he and his wife and their chil- dren. Charles and Frances, have an attractive home hospitably open to their many friends in the city and adjacent communities. Mrs. Dumble was formerly Miss Rita Kalloch and was born in the state of Washington, but had lived in Bakersfield for some time before their marriage. Frater-

MR. AND MRS. J. E. ROBERTS

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nally Mr. Dumble is a member of the Woodmen of the World and the Knights of Pythias, U. R., in which he has been the recipient of official honors. From early life he has been staunch in his allegiance to the Democratic party and at one time he served as a member of the county Democratic central committee. Upon the consolidation of Bakersfield and Kern in July, 1910, he was selected as a member of the board of trustees and in April of the next year, at the first general election he was re-elected to the position, where he has rendered faithful service as a member of various committees and has been particularly efficient as chairman of the street committee.

JOHN E. ROBERTS .- One of the enterprising and industrions citi- zens of East Bakersfield who is making every effort possible to obtain a com- petency and one also who is well known in fraternal and social circles there is John E. Roberts. His father, Henry O. Roberts, was born in Kentucky, but was reared in Indiana, where he was a farmer in Ripley county all his life, and where his death occurred. He was married to Zela Graham, born in Indiana, and to them were born three children, of whom John E. was the eldest, having been born April 7, 1871, in Versailles, Ripley county, Ind.

After attending the common schools of this native place, John E. Roberts was sent to the Versailles Normal school, where he received a thorough training. He then followed farming, first in his native state, and then in Illinois, Minnesota and Iowa, and upon hearing such excellent reports of the prospects in this country, he in 1895 set out for the west, arriving in California in May of that year. In August following he entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad Co., as bridge builder at Tulare, after which he became a fireman for the same road running out of Bakers- field to Los Angeles. For four and a half years he remained in this position. giving it diligent attention and becoming so familiar with that work that in 1903 he was promoted to locomotive engineer and he holds that position to-day. He has invested in forty acres of farming land on Union avenue, about three-quarters of a mile south of Bakersfield, upon which he has installed an electric pumping plant and is raising alfalfa.

In 1901, in the city of Los Angeles, Mr. Roberts married Miss Georgia Sommars, who was born in Springfield, Ill., daughter of Michael Sommars, who was a brick mason in Illinois, where his death occurred. Her mother, who before her marriage was Margaret Devereaux, also passed away in Illinois. Mrs. Roberts is an active member of the Order of the Eastern Star of Bakersfield, while her husband is a member of Masonic Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M., Bakersfield Chapter No. 75, R. A. M., also of Sumner Lodge, K. of P., and of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. He votes the Republican ticket, and is actively interested in the welfare of that party.

BENJAMIN F. SEIBERT .- One of the substantial citizens of Kern county, who has been actively identified with its business life for a period of over twenty-five years is Benjamin F. Seibert, who came to this county in March, 1886. He was born April 20, 1867, in South Vineland, Cumber- land county, N. J., and at the age of six years moved with his parents, Ben- jamin and Martha J. (Sell) Seibert, to Reno, Nev. where they remained one year, thence moving to Ogden, Utah. They were at this point but a short time, and then moved to San Francisco and from there to San Diego, where they remained but a year and a half, going from there to Anaheim in 1876.

The schooling received by Mr. Seibert was naturally varied, as he was obliged to change schools as his parents moved on from place to place, but he was mentally of a bright mind and he learned easily. He studied at school until he reached the age of about fourteen and in December, 1882, began to learn the blacksmith's trade. He came from . Anaheim to Kern

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

county in March, 1886, and secured employment with C. N. Johnston, with whom he remained for eleven years, working at general blacksmithing and proving himself an able and energetic laborer in this line of work. Then he moved to the Panama district and started in the business for himself, opening up a well-equipped blacksmith shop, and here he has since been engaged in building up a fine trade. In 1908 he bought an acre of land at Panama, Cal., and the next year moved upon it, having his shop built on the home prop- erty. Mr. Seibert was in Bakersfield to witness the flood of 1893, having been there also at the time of the big fire on July 7, 1889.

Mr. Seibert was married December 23, 1890, in Los Angeles, to Clara L. Searle, who was born in Stanislaus county, Cal., and attended the public schools in her native county and in Los Angeles. She came with her parents in 1877 to Kern county, and lived on what is known as Reader Hill, at present the site of the Santa Fe depot, and they lived there a year and a half, at that time moving to Los Angeles, but in 1889 they returned to Kern county to make their permanent home. Mr. and Mrs. Seibert have three children : Frank S., Arthur A. and Vera V. Politically he believes in the principles of the Republican party, and fraternally is connected with the Woodmen of the World.

PETER HIEMFORTH .- Still in the prime of life (for his birth occurred in Leelanau county, near Traverse City, Mich., September 30, 1867), Mr. Hiemforth may expect many years of continued usefulness in the farming circles near Rosedale and in all probability these will also be years of increased gains through his experienced management of farm land.

Educated in public schools of Michigan, his native commonwealth, Peter Hiemforth assisted his father, Frederick Hiemforth, at home during vacations and after he left school at the age of fourteen he gave his entire time to the work of an assistant to his father on the home place. At the attainment of his majority he left home and began to work for wages, at times being on farms and at other times working in lumber mills. Being of a frugal nature, inclined to save his wages instead of dissipating them in amusements, he was able in the course of a few years to buy the equity in a tract of one hundred and twenty acres. Later he increased his hold- ings through purchase until he had one hundred and ninety acres, where he engaged in raising wheat and also made a specialty of potatoes. To the regret of his many friends there he was obliged to dispose of his hold- ings and seek a more healthful climate. Attracted to California, he arrived in Kern county during April of 1903 and at once settled near Rosedale, where he now owns one hundred and fifteen acres, of which all but five acres is in alfalfa. At the time of his purchase of the tract it was wholly unimproved. The task of preparing the place for alfalfa was one of great difficulty and necessitated incessant toil, but he has his reward in being the owner of one of the fine alfalfa farms in the county. While some of the hay is sold each year, much of it is fed to his dairy herd of thirty-two Jersey cows and to the other stock kept on this splendid alfalfa ranch. He has lately put down wells and installed a pumping plant with a capacity of two hundred inches. In his work he has had the assistance of his wife, whom he married in Northport, Mich., November 26, 1891, and who bore the maiden name of Jennie Scott. She was born in Northport, Mich., and was the daughter of Andrew Scott, a native of Ireland, who came to the United States and served in the Civil war in a Michigan regiment. Mr. and Mrs. Hiemforth are the parents of four children: Andrew, Kate, Theodore and Phillip. Mr. Hienforth was made a Mason in Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M. and also holds membership in the Woodmen of the World, while he is politically a Republican. He takes a great interest in keeping up the standard of the free schools and with that end in view he has con-

6 Mers Je Etcheverry F. Etcheverry

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sented to serve as a member of the board of school trustees of the Rosedale district.

FERNANDO ETCHEVERRY-The opportunities afforded by the Rosedale district as an agricultural region and its adaptability to the profit- able cultivation of alfalfa induced Mr. Etcheverry to invest in a tract of eighty acres in 1908 and the following year he came to the place in order to take up the task of building a house and barn, checking the land and sowing it to alfalfa. The farm lies eight and one-half miles northwest of Bakersfield and is under the Beardsley canal. During 1913 the owner sunk two wells to a depth of one hundred and five feet with water rising to within twenty-seven feet of the surface, and has since had an abundance of water, pumping by means of an engine of fifty-horse capacity producing two hundred and fifty inches of water and thus affording adequate irri- gation for the valuable property.

Of French birth and lineage, Fernando Etcheverry was born in Aldudes, Basses-Pyrenees, March 1, 1869, and was the only child of Michel and Louisa (Chabano) Etcheverry, the former still living on his farm in France, the latter being deceased. In boyhood Fernando was sent to school during the winter months and trained to help on the farm during the summer, but when sixteen, in 1885, he left France to seek a livelihood in the new world. At first he joined two aunts (Mrs. Peter Gastambide and Mrs. Domingo Gastambide), near Los Banos, Merced county, Cal., where he soon found employment as a herder of sheep, an occupation made familiar to him through earlier life in the valley extending from the Pyrenees moun- tains to the Bay of Biscay, a region peculiarly suited to the sheep industry. In 1890 he came from Merced county to Kern, now East Bakersfield. Mak- ing this place his headquarters, he engaged in the sheep business, ranging his flocks on the plains and in the mountains. Meantime, in 1892, he became proprietor of the Pyrenees hotel on Sumner street. After four years as a partner of F. M. Noriega, he purchased the interest of his partner and then continued alone for two years. Meanwhile he had continued an identi- fication with the sheep industry. For eighteen months he owned a flock. but, not being able to give the sheep personal attention owing to his business interests, he sold them to other parties. Soon afterwards he began to im- prove his Rosedale ranch and, having sold out his hotel interests to his former partner, Mr. Noriega, he since has devoted himself exclusively to the raising of alfalfa. He has been a useful man to his community, an up- builder of East Bakersfield and Kern county, an earnest supporter of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in East Bakersfield and a contributor to move- ments for the benefit of the people. In politics he has voted with the Re- publican party ever since casting his first ballot. At the time of his arrival in Kern county he was unmarried and at East Bakersfield September 4, 1902, he was united with Miss Mathilda Etcheverry, also a native of Aldudes, Basses-Pyrenees, and a daughter of John and Catherine (Laxague) Etche- verry, farmers in France. They have two sons, Felix and Peter.

J. G. RUPP .- Since first coming to the Kern river fields during the spring of 1900 Mr. Rupp has risen by dint of his own untiring persever- ance and constant application from a very humble identification with one of the oil concerns to a position of influence and responsibility. It has been his privilege, partly through chance and partly through his own plans, to secure considerable experience in the oil industry in other parts of California and in other states of the west, so that he has the distinct advantage of being able to utilize at this place ideas of worth tested out at other points. During the spring of 1912 he was called to the superin- tendency of the Ojai Valley Petroleum Company, proprietors of forty acres situated on section 21, township 28, range 28. Under his supervision there are sixteen producing wells, exclusive of the Melwood lease operated

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by the same company. The holdings of the company are located in the extreme northwest corner of the Kern river fields.

Born in Luzerne county, Pa .. December 17, 1871, J. G. Rupp is a twin brother of Al Rupp of Bakersfield. At the age of seven years he accom- panied other members of the family to Kansas, where he received a common-school education. By chance his early industrial efforts brought him into the oil business and he learned the work in every detail, serving as roustabout, tool-dresser, driller and in other capacities up to that of superintendent. As a driller he has worked in various parts of the west, one of his principal experiences being in the San Juan fields in San Juan county, Utah. While working in Colorado he was married at Boulder, that state, Miss Sarah Hand becoming his wife. They have three children, Mariam, Georgia and Kermit, and the family now occupy the superin- tendent's cottage on the company holdings. Called to his present position in May of 1912 by the company of which R. A. Sweet of Los Angeles is president. Mr. Rupp has devoted his attention closely and untiringly to the many responsibilities incumbent upon him in his effort to transform the holdings of the concern into a dividend-paying investment and in the meantime, while thus working, he has won the confidence of stockholders in the organization as well as the respect of other leading oil men of the field.

MRS. MARGARET H. PREBLE .- No one among the older residents of Mojave occupies a higher place in the esteem of the people than does Mrs. Preble, who since coming to this city during 1891 has won the friendship of everyone with whom she has maintained business or social relations. Not only is she a woman of gracious and attractive tempera- ment and agreeable disposition, but in addition she possesses ex- ceptional mental qualities and has a broad education supplemented by the self-culture of later years. Shortly after her arrival here she was tendered the appointment of postmistress under President Harrison. So satisfactory was her service that she also received the appointment under President Cleveland and remained in the office for ten years altogether. Meanwhile, in order to increase the small income received from the office, she carried a stock of notions, confectionery and stationery, and also secured an appointment as manager of the long distance service of the Pacific Telegraph & Telephone Company. As there was no location suited to her needs she bought a lot on Main street and built the store which she has since occupied, and in addition she erected a modest cottage for a home, thus surrounding herself with the simple comtorts that she found essential to the highest happiness.

From early life a resident of California, Mrs. Preble was born at Springbrook, Erie county, N. Y., being a daughter of Capt. A. J. W. and Phylancy (Gilson) Palmer, natives, respectively, of Erie county and Pembroke, Genesee county, N. Y. After some years of fairly prosperous activities as an architect and builder in New York state, Captain Palmer came to California in 1859 and settled at Sacramento. During the Civil war he served as captain of a company of militia from that city. For years he was employed as a bridge-builder or as superintendent of bridge-build-

ing for the Central Pacific Company and meantime he constructed the first snow-plow ever used on that railroad. For a time he had charge of the car department at San Diego. Upon leaving the California South- ern & Central Pacific Railway Company he formed an alliance with the Santa Fe as manager of their car department and bridge building and continued in that capacity until his death in San Bernardino at the age of sixty-eight years. In that city also occurred the demise of his wife, who had been a resident of California ever since making the tedious trip from New York via Panama to San Francisco during 1863, some years before

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the building of the first railroad across the continent. They were the parents of six children, namely: Mrs. Margaret H. Preble; H. J., who died in Sacramento county ; S. A., former mayor of Santa Cruz, this state; Mabel, who died in girlhood; Charles M., now living in Santa Cruz; and Mrs. Hettie A. Dunn, of Sacramento.

Graduated from the Sacramento high school at the age of seventeen years, Miss Margaret H. Palmer taught school for four years afterward in Sacramento. Three months after starting she was promoted to be principal of the intermediate department and continued in that post throughout the balance of her work as teacher. At Sacramento in 1874 she became the wife of Charles B. Preble, who was born in Massachusetts and died at Mojave January 5, 1899. For a time during the carly part of his identification with the west he had been connected with a manufactur- ing business in San Francisco. After going to Barstow in 1885 he served as a clerk in the California Southern & Central Pacific office. During 1891 he came to Mojave as a clerk in the freight department of the Southern Pacific, which position he filled throughout his remaining years. In poli- tics he favored Republican principles and his widow holds to the same political views, although when in charge of the postoffice her friends and supporters were not limited to that party, but included the entire popula- tion, irrespective of partisan affiliations. In religion she has adhered to the Congregational faith from childhood and has maintained a deep, generous interest in movements for the uplifting of humanity.

JO. P. CARROLL .- As secretary of the Bakersfield Aerie of Eagles and house manager of the club headquarters in this city, Mr. Carroll has been closely identified with one of the popular and prominent organizations of his home town. Through his own personal energy and capability he has been instrumental in forwarding the success of the club enterprise. Work- ing in harmonious relations with the house committee consisting of Messrs. F. Gunther, C. A. Newman, Sam Sweitzer and N. R. Solomon, and ably seconding the executive leadership of the local president, he has promoted the welfare of the fraternity and enhanced the success of the club through his sagacious judgment as house manager. Having earned his own liveli- hood from the age of thirteen years and having been in practically every section of the west, he has gained a wide acquaintance and everywhere he is known as a wide-awake, hustling and genial citizen, typical in tempera- ment of the breeziness of the coast and reflecting in mental attributes the qualities belonging to men of the west.

Born in the city of St. Louis, Mo., April 1, 1854, reared and educated in that place, Mr. Carroll had to stop school at the age of thirteen in order to earn his own livelihood. As a messenger for the Western Union Tele- graph Company he learned his first lessons in the business world. After a time he was promoted by the company and at the age of seventeen he was acting as chief tracer for the St. Louis office, but the failure of his health forced him to resign, thus abandoning a career that gave every promise of success. During 1872 he arrived in San Francisco. Removal to the west had been influenced by the hope of regaining his health through a change in climate. In that city he secured employment as clerk in a hotel. However, the anticipated physical benefit was not realized and he acted upon a sug- gestion that he try the air of the mountains. During 1874 he spent some time at Silver City. Idaho. Later he spent several years on a cattle ranch near Grant's Pass in Oregon. By riding the range as a cowboy he not only gained physical benefit, but in addition acquired a thorough knowledge of the country and of the stock industry. Other occupations associated with a frontier environment were followed from time to time. When gold was dis- covered in the Klondike he went to Alaska with a crowd of prospectors. but the trip gave him no returns aside from a knowledge of a most inter-

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esting country. When other strikes were made in the United States and Canada he was among those who sought the new mines, but none of these expeditions proved profitable from a financial standpoint.

Facility of expression and an ability to state facts in an interesting and concise manner had taken Mr. Carroll into the journalistic field at an early age and frequently he acted as correspondent for San Francisco dailies from mining camps in California and Nevada. During 1891 he came to Visalia, Tulare county, to take up journalistic work in connection with the Visalia Times and while in that town he acted as correspondent for the San Fran- cisco Call. After five years in Visalia he joined the first rush of miners to Randsburg in 1896, since which time he has been a resident of Kern county, although there have been intervals of absence from the county in the interests of enterprises at other places. Since coming to Bakersfield he has been engaged as correspondent to various city papers and also has been prominent in local politics as a leading Republican. During 1901 he became a member of Bakersfield Aerie No. 93 of the Eagles. At this writing he is serving his fifth term as secretary of the lodge and by virtue of that office he is in charge of the Eagles Club, besides which he has been induced to serve as an associate editor of the Eagles' magazine.

On the second floor of the Niederaur building, at a cost of $12,000, the Eagles have fitted up a club-house that is one of the "show" places of Bakersfield. The visitor first passes into a lobby and reception room, fur- nished in weathered oak, with massive davenports, desks, chairs, rockers and a center table with all the leading newspapers and magazines, the whole being provided for the comfort of the members and visiting brethren. The ladies' parlors and dressing room are furnished in mahogany and birdseye maple. Handsome pictures adorn the walls and the electric light chande- liers are works of art. In the buffet there are card tables and a collection of steins that is growing in number and interest, also a bulletin board con- taining the names of applicants for membership as well as letters from absent brothers. A billiard room adjoins the buffet and in a corner thereof is a den, a favored place for members, for from its balcony one can sit in ease and comfort, looking up and down the streets and watching the hurry- ing crowds as they pass. The secretary's office is the headquarters of Mr. Carroll. The lodge room, 75x60 feet in dimensions, has a seating capacity of six hundred and is provided with a fine Emerson piano. An eagle with outstretched wings stands on the altar in the center of the hall and a paint- ing of the same bird gives an artistic effect to the ceiling of the room. When dances are given the hall is transformed into a ball room, over whose polished floor the devotees of the dance glide merrily at the frequent social functions given by the club. To complete the comforts of the place a banquet hall has been built with a capacity of two hundred and connected therewith is a kitchen containing every modern equipment known to the culinary art. The Eagles have every reason to be proud of their luxurious quarters and the people of Bakersfield, irrespective of fraternal affiliations, evince the highest gratification in the public spirit that has resulted in the acquisition of the handsome and modern club rooms.

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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 113

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