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 115

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 115

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Castro

Wms Castro

1205

HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

in teaming to the oil fields, driving an eight-horse team. Later he bought two lots in Kern and erected a cottage, making his home there and engaging in general farm work near the town. At first he specialized with alfalfa and later he also operated a dairy. The purchase of forty-six acres under the Mill ditch proved an excellent investment. This land, situated about one and one-half miles from Kern, was under irrigation and in alfalfa, from which he secured five or six cuttings each year. In 1911 he bought four lots on Grove near Baker street, Bakersfield, and erected a livery barn where he now conducts a feed and sales stable, also sells hay and grain. Since becoming a citizen of this county he has supported Republican principles in national elections. Fraternally he holds membership with the Foresters of America.

H. H. BROWN .- Indiana claims Mr. Brown a native son; his birth occurred in Ripley county, that state, about fifty miles south of Indianapolis, on June. 1, 1860, and here his early youth was spent. At twenty-two years of age he removed from there to Kansas, where he remained for four years en- gaging in agricultural pursuits and accustoming himself with the many details and habits of that life. In 1891 he came to Kern county, Cal., and taking up a homestead in the Button Willow country, proved up on it, and this was the field of his labors for six years. In 1907 he purchased his present place of twenty-nine acres on Union avenue, about two miles from Bakersfield. Suc- cess has come to him in every project, and this has been largely due to his untiring effort in his undertakings, his clever manipulations of them and his unusual executive ability, which has served him well in his building operations especially, where he has had great need of those characteristics to bring about favorable results. The Brown block in East Bakersfield, which he has built, is a brick structure, 65x75 feet, three stories in height, and the arrangement is such as to make twelve apartments, of three and four rooms, four stores and basement, the stores being given over to mercantile firms. In addition he has built six cottages in East Bakersfield which are well-built and modern in every way, their general appearance being most artistic. On his farm, which he calls the Locust farm, Mr. Brown has found time to devote himself to the poultry business on a large scale, handling mostly thoroughbred Leghorns and the Silver-Laced Wyandottes, his poultry holding a wide and enviable reputation. In 1881 Mr. Brown was married to Miss Emily Hamilton, who was born in Jackson county, Ind., and to them were born six children, five now surviving, viz .: Pearl married A. J. Ferguson, a farmer in the Panama district, six miles south of Bakersfield, and they are the parents of three chil- dren, Fay, Fern and Harold. Ralph married at Denver, Colo., Miss Clara Fisher ; he served as soldier in the Philippines. Stanley is mailing clerk in the postoffice at Bakersfield. Harold and Helen are attending the high school at Bakersfield. Mr. and Mrs. Brown are members of the Baptist church at Bakersfield, and in politics Mr. Brown is a stanch Republican.

CLARK DAVIS MORRIS .- The development of the Morris ranch of eighty acres lying on section 31, township 30, range 28, is due to the pains- taking and intelligent labors of Clark D. Morris since first he acquired the property about 1904 and established a home thereon. The neat appearance of the tract, with its meadows of alfalfa and its orchard of assorted fruits, indi- cates the systematic oversight of the owner, while his love of comfort and order appear in his substantial residence and outbuildings. Prior to the removal to this property he lived three miles to the north and three years before that he had experimented with dry farming near Rose station, to which point he had removed from his native county in Missouri. The family of which he is a member became established in Missouri perhaps one hundred years ago and his parents, Joshua B. and Elsie (Baker) Morris, were lifelong residents of that state. Their family comprised seven children, five of whom attained mature years, namely : John F .; Clark Davis: Clay B., who died at

1206

HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

about twenty-five. years; Julia, Mrs. R. L. Edwards, of Bakersfield; and Alice, wife of Albert Whitmer and a resident of Palo Alto, this state.

On the home farm in Montgomery county, Mo., about seventy iniles west of St. Louis, Clark Davis Morris was born December 9, 1859, and his educa- tion was received in the country schools of the locality. During 1888 he married Miss Lucile S. Garrett, a native of the same county as himself and a daughter of Wilson and Mary (McMahan) Garrett. Very early in the colonial settlement of the new world the Garrett family became established in Virginia, where William B. Garrett was born in 1795, and where the birth of his wife, who bore the maiden name of Mary Ockmon, occurred August 27, 1805. With the occupation of agriculture William B. Garrett harmoniously united the trade of a millwright and after he removed to the prairies of the middle west he built the first mill in Callaway county, Mo. Among his children was a son, Wilson, a native of Virginia and an early settler of Montgomery county, Mo., having taken up land in that region when all of the surrounding country was in the primeval state of nature. In early manhood he married Mary McMahan, daughter of John F. and Polly (Blackwell) McMahan, na- tives of Kentucky, the former born June 29, 1804, and the latter November 18. 1806. After the death of Mr. Garrett, which occurred in Missouri, his widow came to Kern county and now resides with her daughter, Mrs. Morris. Be- sides this daughter, who was sixth in order of birth among the sons and daughters, she had eight children, named as follows: Lydia, who passed from earth at the age of eighteen years ; Henry L., a resident of St. Louis, Mo .; Mary A., living at Bonneterre, St. Francois county, Mo .; John F., who died in 1910; Emma C., whose home is in Montgomery City, Montgomery county, Mo. : William B., of Choctaw, Okla .: James M., living in Kern county ; and Benjamin C., of Bakersfield. Although now (1912) seventy-eight years of age, Mrs. Garrett retains the full possession of her physical and mental faculties and enters fully into the activities of the world around her, being especially interested in and devoted to her grandchildren, whose happiness and welfare are ever dear to her. Mr. and Mrs. Morris became the parents of six children and four of these are now living, Elden G., Howard B., Fletcher M. and Lucile.

Politically Mr. Morris votes with the Democratic party. Although reared in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal Church and identified with that denon- ination in Missouri, he and his wife became prime movers in the organization of the Greenfield Congregational Church, which was established on Sunday, May 12, 1912, with twenty-one names on the list of charter membership. For the present these members and others of the community who worship with them are holding religious services in the Greenfield schoolhouse and enjoy the ministerial oversight of Rev. Mr. Reiley as pastor.

MILES R. MARTIN, JR .- The acquisition of one hundred and sixty acres of raw land two and one-half miles northwest of McFarland marked the be- ginning of the identification of Mr. Martin with this portion of Kern county, whither he had come in 1909 and into whose possibilities and resources he has since investigated with gratifying results. From the first his impressions con- cerning the county have been favorable. During January of 1913 he became the owner of the quarter-section he now operates. The need of water was im- perative. Immediately after buying the raw tract he sunk two wells and in- stalled an electric pumping plant which yields him over one hundred and ten inches of water. The entire quarter section has been leveled and he is rapidly sowing the whole acreage to alfalfa. Modern improvements are being made and the place presents a well-tilled appearance, with every prospect of becom- ing one of the most valuable alfalfa ranches in this part of the county.

Born in Clarion county, Pa., September 13, 1873, Miles R. Martin, Jr., is the son of the late Miles R., Sr., who was a native of New Jersey and resided

1207

HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

near Newark, that state. Through a considerable period of prosperous activity he was in business as a wholesale coal merchant. Later he became an oil operator in the Clarion field in Pennsylvania, where a brother, Mahlon C., had preceded him, the latter becoming also largely interested in railroads as well as in manufacturing. One of the greatest enterprises attempted by the two gentlemen was the building of a street-car line in Bogota, South America. At the age of fourteen years Miles R., Jr., entered the office of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad as supervisor's clerk at Lima, Ohio, where he continued for several years. Going east to New York City, he engaged as clerk with the United States Rubber Company and continued for ten years in the same office. Upon resigning he returned to Pennsylvania to look after the business interests of his father and for two years he remained in that state. During 1905 he went to Bogota, South America, and entered upon the duties of acting general manager of the Bogota City Street Railroad, of which his father was treasurer and his brother the general manager. During the absence of the brother in Europe and elsewhere he served as manager for two years, after which he came to California in 1907 and took up mining pursuits at Hart, San Bernardino county. In that locality he bought, developed and sold mines. Some of his interests there he still retains. While living in that part of the state he was made a Mason in Needles Lodge No. 326, F. & A. M., and later he was raised to the Scottish Rite Consistory in Bakersfield. His marriage took place at Paterson, N. J., in 1904. and united him with Miss Frances May, a native of Elizabeth, that state, and a daughter of William F. May, a manu- facturer conducting business in New York City.

CHARLES L. TAYLOR .- Significant of the abundant opportunities of- fered by Bakersfield to men of business ability and untiring energy is the suc- cess already achieved by Charles L. Taylor as proprietor of Taylor's bargain store at No. 1333 Nineteenth street on the corner of K, an establishment built up through his own painstaking industry and tireless devotion to business. That there is "no royal road to success" his own history indicates, for it has been only by indefatigable industry and keen sagacity that he has laid the foundation of a large business and has gained a rank among the progressive merchants of the city. Selecting as his specialties articles of small value, he built up an establishment known as the five and ten-cent store, in which he carries a full line of glassware, crockery and stationery, also many styles of neckwear and underwear, jewelry and hosiery, with such other articles and notions as may usually be found in stores of the kind. The tremendous sales enable him to buy at the very lowest prices. The goods are moved rapidly and thus everything is new, in excellent condition, pleasing to the most fas- tidious. An amount between $18,000 and $20,000 has been invested in the stock of merchandise.

The proprietor of this large business is a native of Ohio and was born at Winchester in the southern part of that state March 10, 1868. From an early age he has been self-supporting and always his interests have been along general lines of merchandise. As a youth in Ohio he clerked in general stores and acquired a knowledge of dry-goods enterprises. The first mercantile ven- ture that he made was at Antrim, Ohio, where he conducted a general store. When he came to California in 1900 he selected Bakersfield as his headquarters and secured employment in the laundry at this place, where he held a trust- worthy position for four years. During 1905 he organized and opened a five and ten-cent store out of which he has developed his present large establish- ment, which each year shows a healthy growth in its trade and a satisfactory enlargement in patronage. Many regard his success in business as phenome- nal, but it is rather the anticipated result of his energy, sagacity and keen business talent.

Mr. Taylor is at present engaged in erecting a new brick two-story build- ing (plans by Architect J. M. Saffell), on Chester avenue between Seventeenth

1208

HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

and Truxtun, 531/2x100 feet. Ground was broken March 15, 1913, and it is expected that building will be completed by September 1, 1913. The entire first floor will be occupied by Taylor's bargain store, and the second floor will be devo:ed to offices.

While the store has taken much of Mr. Taylor's time, attention and capi- tal, he has had other interests, notably the Tejon Oil Company, of which he is vice-president, and in which he owns a one-eleventh interest as a stockholder. The members of the concern are principally residents of Bakersfield, the wells being located only six miles from this city. The company is a dividend-payer and has excellent prospects for a growing success. Five years before coming to the west Mr. Taylor married Miss Ola Beggs, of Antrim, Ohio, and they are the parents of one son, Raymond, born in 1900. The family hold member- ship with the Bakersfield Presbyterian Church and contribute generously to religious movements. In fraternal relations Mr. Taylor is connected with the Elks, Woodmen and Workmen. In politics he is a Republican.

GEORGE H. SALLEE .- The superintendent of the Volcan Oil and Refining Company has spent the greater part of his life in California, but claims Missouri as his native commonwealth and Kentucky as the home of his paternal ancestors during the pioneer era, while his maternal progenitors were members of an old family of Roxbury, Mass. His parents, Jasper N. and Lucinda (White) Sallee, for years worthy and industrious members of the farming population of Missouri, eventually established their home in California and embarked in stock-raising and general farming in the far west. At this writing they have retired from active cares and are living comfortably and happily at Dinuba, Tulare county, the father being quite rugged notwithstand- ing his seventy-two useful years of existence. The family consisted of two sons and six daughters. The second child, who was likewise the second son, George H., was born in Knox county, Mo., on the last day of the year 1870 and attended the country schools near the home farm in that state. After he came with his parents to California in 1883 he also attended the public schools of the state, but for the most part in boyhood he helped his father with the farm work. While yet a mere lad he did a man's work in the care of the stock and the tilling of the soil. The early home of the family was in Amador county, where he helped to improve and place under cultivation a tract of one hundred and sixty acres.

When twenty years of age George H. Sallee removed from Amador to Tulare county, where he became interested in fruit culture, making a specialty of a vineyard and also raising peaches and pears, in which way he aided his father in securing a financial foothold as a horticulturist. While residing there he formed the acquaintance of Miss Jeannette Mc Wherter, with whom he was united in marriage in 1903. Three children bless their union, George Mc\V., Fay and Fern. Mrs. Sallee is a sister of George McWherter, a prosperous fruit-grower in Fresno county, and a daughter of Elias and Jeannette (Ben- nett) McWherter, the former deceased in 1901 and the latter, at the age of sixty years, still living at the old homestead in Fresno county.

As early as December of 1901 Mr. Sallee came to the Kern river fields and secured employment as a boilerman for the Nevada Oil Company. Six months later he transferred to the Peerless, with which company he continued for six years, meanwhile working in every department except that of drilling. By constant study and practical application he developed into an efficient worker and his services were called into requisition as superintendent by the Del Rey Oil Company. After eighteen months with the Del Rey he entered the employ of the Volcan in 1909. At that time the organization was known as the Cleveland Oil Company, but through bankruptcy of the proprietors the plant reverted to its original owners, the present officers being as follows : C. H. Wagner of San Diego, president ; S. S. Johnson, postmaster at National

1209

HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

City, vice-president ; Mr. Nolan of San Diego, secretary ; and the People's National Bank of National City, treasurer. Mr. Sallee is a Mason, belonging to the blue lodge, chapter and commandery at Bakersfield.

CHARLES CLARENCE PIERCE .- Mr. Pierce claims Indiana as his native commonwealth and Lake county as the place of his birth, which occurred January 12, 1859. During 1872 he came to the Pacific coast in com- pany with his parents, Isaac B. and Emily (Hayward) Pierce, and settled in Santa Barbara, where his education, primarily carried on in Indiana schools, was completed through the grammar grade. Upon attaining the age of seven- teen years he left high school, where he had studied for several terms, and then took up the task of earning a livelihood. At first he worked for his father, but at the age of twenty-one he left the home place and removed to the Tejon canyon, where he remained for six years, meanwhile buying land of E. D. Parks and also acquiring a ranch of three hundred and twenty acres that had been owned by Joe Short. In many respects the location was unsatisfactory and he was led therefore to dispose of his holdings, whereupon in about 1888 he bought from H. A. Blodgett a farm of one hundred and twenty acres, ad- joining Bakersfield on the west, and he has so improved it as to make it a source of a growing income and an object of admiration to those familiar with the work of its transformation into a profitable holding. For some eight or ten years he engaged in the dairy business and meanwhile built up a herd of milch cows of known quality and breeding. Since relinquishing his dairy interests he has engaged in the raising of grain and alfalfa. Eighty acres were sown to alfalfa which gives him a meadow of superior excellence and large yield, there being from five to seven tons cut to the acre, with four and some times five cuttings a year. Forty acres are in grain, which usually give a gratifying yield. Mr. Pierce has located a desert claim of two hundred and forty acres, six miles north of Bakersfield on the Glennville road, where he has developed water, sinking a well to the depth of four hundred and twenty feet. This gives an abundance of water for growing of citrus fruit, to which the soil and location is well adapted.

The marriage of Mr. Pierce took place December 23, 1880, and united him with Alice Maude Hunt, who was born in Chicago, Ill., June 29, 1862, and received her education principally in the schools of that city. At the age of fifteen years, during October of. 1877, she came to California with her parents, Joseph and Mary (Deming) Hunt, and established the family home at Santa Barbara, where she continued to reside until her marriage. There were five children in the family, namely : Grace A., who was graduated from the Kern County high school and passed away at the age of twenty years; Herbert L .. of Coalinga ; Clifford E., at Taft ; and Jennings J. and Irene M. Mr. Pierce is a school trustee and belongs to the Woodmen of the World.

JUDSON DAILY MARSH .- The eldest of three children, of whom the youngest, Homer, is with an automobile firm at Tecumseh, Mich., and the second, Genevieve A., is a trained nurse in Seattle, Wash., J. D. Marsh was born at Hillsdale, Mich., July 2, 1879, and is a son of Embery F. and Rosa (Berry) Marsh, natives respectively of New York and Michigan, and the former now employed by the Peerless Oil Company in the Kern river fields. It was not possible for the youth to secure desired educational advantages, for he became self-supporting at an early age. After having served an apprentice- ship of three years under Frank Van Riper of the old iron works at Hillsdale and having been employed also for three years in the Alamo gas engine works in the same town, he went to Jackson at the age of twenty-one and secured a position with the Jackson Automobile Company. Under William Deal, who is still engaged as a machinist and manager with the company, he helped to build the first gas automobile ever turned out by the firm. Later he spent six months in the employ of the Cook Manufacturing Company, builders of gas engines.

1210

HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

Returning to Hillsdale, he had charge of the tool room at the Alamo for one year and of the testing room for a similar period. Upon his return to Jackson he engaged in experimental work for the Lockwood Ash Motor Company and during the two years of his identification with the firm he developed a marine motor that eventually became very successful, bringing the company a wide reputation.

In the interests of the Hall-Rittenhouse Heavy Duty Gas Engine Com- pany, a large corporation organized at Bucyrus, Ohio, Mr. Marsh finally perfected and built a large engine. Upon the completion of the model he be- came chief inspector for the firm while they were building the first twenty- five engines. Next he was sent out to erect engines in different parts of the country, his first work of the kind being at Elk Rapids, Mich., the next at Traverse City, that state, and the third at Oklahoma City. As an expert in the employ of the Buckeye Engine Company of Salem, Ohio, he next installed engines for that firm in Dodge City, Kan., Whitewater, Kan., Hutchinson, Kan., Guthrie, Okla., Mulvane, Kan., and Oklahoma City. From the last- named place he went to Kansas City to erect an engine of one thousand horse- power for the Missouri and Kansas Interurban Railway Company. Later he completed the erection of a gas engine at Joplin, Mo., next he was called to , Ponca, Neb., for a similar purpose, and then came to California to erect at Maricopa two engines of three hundred and twenty horse-power. From Mari- copa he was called to the Kern river oil fields to erect a gas engine of five hundred horse-power for the Peerless Oil Company, whose superintendent, A. J. Crites, quick to see and appreciate mechanical genius, immediately hired him as chief engineer. Since then he has installed another engine of the same kind. These two engines use natural gas from the oil wells on the Peerless lease for fuel and, with their aggregate of one thousand horse-power, are conceded to be the largest and finest gas engines in the field. When the chief engineer accepted his present position he brought hither his family, consisting of his wife (whom he had married at Hillsdale, Mich., in 1901, and who was Miss Lonise Weisel, of that city), and their children, Gladys, Norma and William.

WESLEY WASHINGTON HILLIARD .- Before coming to this state Mr. Hilliard was engaged in farming in Texas, where he was born at Cameron, Milam county, March 9, 1881, and where he grew to manhood on a farm. The family comes of old southern lineage. His parents, J. H. and Rosalia (Hop- per) Hilliard, were natives respectively of Florida and Texas. The former is engaged in stock farming in Runnels county, Tex., and the mother died in the Lone Star state about 1889. There were three children who attained mature years, namely : Wesley Washington, of California; Fannie, Mrs. S. S. Price, and William M., both living on farms in Mills county, Tex. At the age of about nineteen years W. W. Hilliard accompanied other mem- bers of the family to Mills county, in his native commonwealth, and there he assisted his father in running a stock ranch. From 1900 to 1904 he continued in Mills county, but in the latter year he came to California, arrived in Bakersfield on the 11th of December and on the 17th of the same month se- cured a position as a roustabout on the Central Point division of the Asso- ciated Oil Company in the Kern river field.

After an experience of six months as a roustabout and at the expiration of ten months spent in California, Mr. Hilliard returned to Texas and resumed general farming and stock-raising. However, the quiet round of agricultural duties no longer satisfied him and at the end of eighteen months he returned to the Pacific coast, this time first going to Seattle, Wash., and there working for one month. Wages were lower in that city than in Kern county, which fact caused him to seek California once more. The trip was made by boat to San Francisco and thence by train to Bakersfield, where

1211

HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

he arrived in May of 1907. Since then he has been connected in some way with the oil industry in Kern county. In the Kern river field he worked for the Imperial, Federated and Kern Trading and Oil Company. While with the last-named concern he devoted his time to tool-dressing. After two years as a tool-dresser, in 1910 he did his first drilling on the Cleveland Oil Com- pany's lease in the Kern river fields. Receiving an offer to enter the employ of the E. A. Hardison Perforating Company, he accepted August 1, 1910, and at first worked from the Bakersfield headquarters, operating on leases in the Kern river field. Meanwhile the west side was making a phenomenal development and his employers deemed it advisable for him to change his center of work to that stirring locality. During November of 1912 he and J. W. Wood began to operate on the west side, where his expert knowledge of a most difficult enterprise has given him the confidence of oil operators on all of the leases. Giving his attention closely to business duties, he has little time and less interest in public affairs, nor has he been deeply inter- ested in social or fraternal organizations, although during the period of his residence in Texas he united with the Mullin Camp, Woodmen of the World, and in addition he is a member of the Loyal Order of Moose No. 473, at Bakersfield.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

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 115

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