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 118

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 118

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While still in the Thompson law office, during the July session of the district court of appeals, Mr. Siemon was admitted to the bar in 1908, and in the following year he finished his work at the law school. While employed as law clerk he had acquired a thorough knowledge of stenography and type- writing and his skill in the art proved of great advantage to him in his work in law offices. Possibly his most important and most helpful position, from the standpoint of experience gained, was that of salaried assistant for one year to Oscar A. Trippett, general attorney for many extensive interests in South- 4S

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ern California, and special attorney for the California National Bank, the Home Telephone Company, the William R. Staats Company, the Lowe Gas Company and other corporations. The prominence of Mr. Trippett in trial cases gave Mr. Siemon an opportunity to appear in court on motions, etc., and he also became an expert in the preparation of briefs, so that when he opened an office in Bakersfield he was thoroughly qualified to attend to the interests of clients in every department of the law. Since establishing himself in this city he has been associated with W. W. Kaye, with offices in the Hop- kins building, and the firm has become well known throughout all of the San Joaquin valley. Six months before he came to this city he had married, in July, 1909, Miss Inez Bennett, of Whittier, Cal., and they have a pleasant home in Bakersfield, brightened by the presence of a daughter, Josephine, and a son. Bennett. The family hold membership with the First Methodist Episco- pal Church, in which Mr. Siemon officiates as a steward and in addition he has been for many years an active adherent of the Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation, in which organization he rendered intelligent and constant assistance during the period of his college and university attendance.

Mr. Siemon is taking an active part in furthering the work of the Good Citizenship League of Bakersfield

E. S. FOGG, M. D .- Northern Kern County is fortunate in having located in its midst the person of Dr. Fogg, a man of much professional ability, high ideals and strong moral worth. He is well and favorably known, not only among his patients and wide range of practice, but among the men of his profession in the county. His birth occurred in Cumberland County, N. J., August 28, 1867, and he is the youngest child of a family of eight children born to Joseph H. and Rebecca W. (Davis) Fogg, both having been born in that county. On his paternal side he is descended from an English family, members of which came to Philadelphia in its early settlement and were Quakers. On the maternal side be is of Welch extraction.

His parents were farmers so that.early in life Dr. Fogg learned the rudi- ments of farming, receiving his preliminary education in the public and high school at Shiloh, N. J. After completing the high school he took the scientific course at Alfred university in western New York, where he remained two years. During this time he became acquainted with Dr. Mark Shepherd and the association with him decided him to study medicine when he should have acquired the necessary credits to enter medical college. He next spent two years in the scientific department at Milton college, Rock county, Wis., and then entered the medical department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and was graduated in July, 1897, with the degree of M. D. For one year he attended the Philadelphia Polyclinic Hospital and then began the practice of his profession in Bridgeton, N. J., a place in his native county where he continued with marked success until 1910. During this time he was surgeon to the Bridgeton hospital for about ten years. Coming to California in 1910 he located in Wasco in the fall of the same year and here he has met with deserving success as a physician and surgeon, having attained a large and lucrative practice throughout the northern and northwestern part of Kern county. He is the local surgeon for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad.

The marriage of Dr. Fogg to Miss Emma Bullock was celebrated in Shiloh, N. J., his wife being a native of Derbyshire, England, and they have one child, Katherine. Fraternally he is a Master Mason.

E. K. BLOOD .- When the eastern states were giving up some of their finest young people to aid in the settlement of the vast regions to the west, Daniel H. and Susan (Turner) Blood, natives of Ontario county, N. Y., joined the tide of westward emigration and betook themselves to the then wilds of Michigan. Clinton county had few settlers when they arrived to take

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up residence there. One of their first steps was the locating of a claim and the securing of title to land, from which they endeavored to develop a farm. Near them sprang up a tiny village, which Mr. Blood named Victor in honor of his native town of Victor in New York. At that place in 1856 occurred the birth of a son, E. K., who was next to the youngest in a family that com- prised twelve children, eight of whom are now living. In boyhood this youth had few advantages. The country was new, schools widely scattered, the towns small and industries stagnant. The new tide of progress had not yet begun which was to make of Michigan one of the greatest states in the union. Theirs was the pioneer task of working in the midst of discouraging difficulties and earning a livelihood by the most strenuous and unceasing exertion.

Coming to California during 1893 and settling at Bakersfield, where later he built a residence on Dracena avenue, Mr. Blood began to work at his trade under Frank Hicox. For two years he continued with the same employer and during the latter part of the period he acted as foreman on jobs. Later he worked for James Rich and Mr. Ashton. About 1899 he began to take con- tracts for building. Since then he has built numerous public structures and private residences, including the Noriega block in East Bakersfield at No. 525 Sumner street, the barns for the Union Ice Company in Bakersfield, the Gregory building, Ideal Livery Stable, home of J. B. Wrenn and residence of Arthur Crite as well as many others. For three years he was employed on contracts in Monterey county at Carmel by the Sea, where he built stores and cottages and aided in the early construction work in that popular resort. From the time of attaining his majority he has voted the Republican ticket and his interest in national issues has been that of a progressive, loyal citizen. In religious belief he is connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church and has been unvaryingly generous in contributions to such work as well as to gen- eral philanthropic projects. Before leaving Michigan he had married Miss Carrie Chapman, a native of that state; she died at Bakersfield, leaving an only child, Laverne. Afterward he was united in marriage with Miss Minnie Wilhite, a native of Missouri, and by this union there is a daughter, Agnes.

EDWARD F. BRITTAN .- Born in Adams county, Iowa, October 2. 1881, Mr. Brittan received a good common-school education there, and at the age of about eighteen he removed to Montana with his parents, L. A. and Olive J. (Moore) Brittan. The parents settled on a large farm near Boze- man, Montana, and there the father engaged in the real estate business while the boys took care of the farm, raising many cattle. Edward F. became a student in the Montana Agricultural College at Bozeman and finished the sophomore year, coming then to California and securing employment in the vicinity of Los Angeles. For one year he was employed as an officer in the Whittier reform school, but resigned that position in order to take up the study of law in the University of Southern California. In order to pay his way through the law school he secured a clerkship in the law office of Wood- rutt & Mc( lure, with whom he continued for two years after he had been admitted to the bar in 1908, and his service in their employ proved of the greatest assistance to him through the gaining of a wide experience in their large practice. Coming to Bakersfield in 1910 he opened a law office in the Havden building and upon the completion of the Brower building engaged an office in this block, where since he has given his attention to a general prac- tice. Mr. Brittan was elected chairman of the Republican Central Commit- tee of Kern county in 1912, in which capacity he is still serving. In October, 1912, he was united in marriage with Miss Edna H. Smith, daughter of Bedell Smith, deputy county clerk of Kern county.

ERSKINE BEMUS .- During the colonial period of American settle- ment the Bemus family crossed the ocean from England and settled on the Atlantic seaboard in New England. Later generations aided in the coloniza-

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tion of New York and in Genesee county, that state, occurred the birth of S. J. Bemus, son of Asael, a fifer in the war of 1812. Throughout much of his life he followed the occupation of an architect, first in Dunkirk, N. Y., and later in Corry, Erie county, Pa., where he passed from earth at an advanced age. In young manhood he had married Laura Richardson, who was born in New York and died in Pennsylvania. Of their three children the eldest, Erskine, was born in Dunkirk, Chautauqua county, N. Y., August 25, 1849, and received public-school advantages in his native county and in Erie coun- ty, Pa. In the fall of 1864 when only fifteen years of age he offered his services as a volunteer in the Union army, was accepted as a private, and at Meadville, Pa., was mustered into Company E, One Hundred and Third Penn- sylvania Infantry, with which he went to the front. The greater part of his service was in North Carolina. At the expiration of the war he was honorably discharged at Harrisburg, Pa., in June of 1865, and returned to his home with a ineritorious record for fidelity to his country and gallant service in the army. In later years he has maintained an intimate association with the Grand Army of the Republic and is now actively connected with Hurlburt Post.

A year in school followed the return from the war and in 1866 Mr. Bemus removed to Ohio, first living in Ashtabula and later in Urbana. At an early age he took up the study of architecture and ever since he has followed the occupation. For seventeen years he was the leading'architect in Sidney, Shelby county, Ohio, where he designed and superintended the erection of an opera-house, school-house and many private residences as well as a num- ber of churches. Meanwhile during 1897 he spent six months in Pasadena and thus became interested in California. After his return to Ohio he resumed occupative work at Sidney, but he never ceased to reflect with pleasure upon his western experiences and eventually he closed out his Ohio interests, removed to California in 1909 and took up the work of an architect in Bakers- field. His ability as an architect appears in the Labor Temple building, the Bakersfield garage, the Barlow, Baer, Jamison and Beggs residences, and other buildings of unusual attractiveness. Since coming to Bakersfield he has officiated as president of the board of trustees in the Baptist Church and has been a leading local worker in that denomination. Fraternally he holds membership with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. While living in Urbana, Ohio, he married Miss Lucy Fisher, who was born in Defiance, that state, and died at Sidney in 1908. Throughout her years of maturity she had been an earnest member of the Baptist Church and a liberal giver to charit- able movements. Surviving her are six children, namely: Temperance, Mrs. Given, of Sidney, Ohio; Mrs. Clara McLeod, of Bakersfield; Mrs. Beatrice Steffa, of Los Angeles; Alice, who owns and conducts the Sweet shop in Bakersfield ; Denton, a cement contractor in Sidney, Ohio; and Harry, who is engaged in the building business in Bakersfield.

JOHN A. PICKLE .- From the time of his arrival at the McKittrick oil fields during November of 1902 up to the present time, with the sole excep- tion of two months spent in the Coalinga oil fields, Mr. Pickle has been em- ployed on the quarter section which includes the ten-acre lease of the Kern River Oil Company and the lease of one hundred and fifty acres owned by the Jewett Oil Company. Since July of 1909 he has filled the position of superintendent of the latter company, whose large lease now has fourteen wells, ten of them producers, with a monthly average of eight thousand bar- rels. The company takes its name from the president, Philo Jewett, of Bakers- field. The vice-president. H. A. Blodgett, and the secretary-treasurer, A. Weil, also are Bakersfield capitalists.

As early as 1851 the Pickle family established itself in California. During the fall of that year John F. Pickle, a native of Alabama, came across the country with a herd of cattle and settled on a tract of raw land in Sonoma

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county. Later he lived for brief periods in Mendocino, Santa Barbara, San Diego and Orange counties, and now, hearty and robust for a man of eighty, he is making his home at Ukiah. All of his twelve children attained maturity and only one is now deceased. From their father they inherited a robust constitution and under his training each was prepared for life's responsi- bilities. John A. was born in Mendocino county April 30, 1879, and attended school in his native county and Santa Barbara county, followed by one term in the public schools of San Diego county. From the age of thirteen years until nineteen he aided in the cultivation of farm lands operated by his father in San Diego and Orange counties, and afterward for four years he helped to cultivate a farm in Mendocino county, from which he came to the oil fields of Kern county to enter upon an occupative identification that has reflected credit upon his intelligence and industry. During 1905 he was married at Santa Rosa, Sonoma county, to Miss Lulu Gavin, of Potter valley, Mendocino county. Besides owning a city residence at Santa Rosa he has purchased a tract of forty acres near the Rosedale colony in Kern county, where he is improving a small farm and bringing the land under excellent cultivation. In politics he votes with the Democratic party. Fraternally he is connected with the Improved Order of Red Men at McKittrick.

PINKNEY J. WALDON .- Near Enterprise, Ind., P. J. Waldon was born March 11, 1837, a son of Isaac and Lucinda (Bennett) Waldon, the latter of whom died in Indianapolis, Ind. The former, a lifelong farmer. removed from Indiana to Missouri in 1839 and remained in that state for five years, returning to Indiana in the spring of 1844 and settling at Rising Sun, Ohio county, where he died in the fall of the same year. Of his family of four daughters and five sons there now survive two daughters and three sons. The third in order of birth, Pinkney J., was two years of age when the family went to Missouri and seven when they returned to Indiana. As a boy he lived in Ohio and Switzerland counties, which adjoin each other, lying near the state of Ohio and the Ohio river. Owing to the early death of his father he had no educational advantages, but was forced to support himself by farm work from boyhood. During the first raid by Morgan in 1862 he enlisted as a member of an Ohio regiment of state militia and served as guard along the Ohio river until receiving an honorable discharge. During April of 1863 he started overland for the west and crossed the plains with a mule team. Stopping in Nevada, he secured work in the mines at Virginia City and continued there for five years.

With packmules for the carrying of supplies Mr. Waldon came to California on horseback in 1868 and settled in Kern county, where he took up land in the Canfield neighborhood. Lack of water prevented him from securing satisfactory returns from his quarter section. A company of twenty-six farmers, of whom he was one, promoted and organized a concern for the building of the Buena Vista ditch. With the securing of an abund- ance of water he put his farin largely into alfalfa, although he also raised grain on a portion of the tract. After selling the place in 1877 he spent several years in the hog-raising industry on lake Buena Vista, where he was very successful. With a partner he drove fourteen hundred head of hogs across the mountains to San Luis Obispo county. On the way many of the animals died, but they were able to clear considerable money through fattening the balance on acorns and then selling them at an excellent figure. Later he bought land that now forms a part of the Bellevue ranch and there he engaged in raising grain and alfalfa. When the property was sold he became interested in alfalfa-raising on the Blodgett ranch, but this proved an unfortunate enterprise. Three different crops of alfalfa were drowned in overflows of the river and he was left almost financially ruined. En-

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deavoring to make another start, he turned his attention to Standard-bred horses and while he raised some fine specimens of equine flesh, the market dropped, all thorough-bred stock depreciated in price and he was left with nothing, after years of hard work and tireless industry.

A brief experience on a ranch in the Rio Bravo district was followed by the removal of Mr. Waldon to Kern in 1898, his object in coming to town being the education of his children. Trading his land for a block on Flower street he built a house and established his family there. For eight years he served faithfully as janitor of the school-houses in Kern. Meanwhile his children had been educated and four of them were holding good positions, so he resigned as janitor with only $105 as capital. It was his good fortune to find one hundred and sixty acres of alkali land that no one wanted, but appreciating its possibilities he secured it in haste. At first he used it for pasture and for that purpose he built a substantial fence around the entire tract. Later he took up an adjacent desert claim of one hundred and sixty acres, of which he has since sold eighty acres, so that he now owns two hundred and forty acres in one body. In national principles he supports the Democratic party.

In Bakersfield he was married to Miss Mary Ann Dunn, who was born in County Carlow, Ireland, came to California in 1882, and to Kern county in 1884. Six children were born of this marriage, namely: Frederick, a con- crete worker of Bakersfield: Belle, a teacher in the East Bakersfield schools; May, who is employed as a bookkeeper in Bakersfield; James I., a partner in the Bakersfield sheet metal works; Edward, who is engaged as a well-borer ; and Wesley, who is with the firm of Reilly and Brown in Bakersfield.

HON. WILLIAM BYARD TIMMONS .- The Timmons family, to which the Hon. William B. Timmons belongs, has been represented in this country by sturdy warriors, every generation having produced a patriotic soldier who gave valiant service to the cause they were upholding. Elijah Timmons, great-grandfather of William B., was resident in Maryland and served during the Revolutionary war; his son, Stephen, was born in Mary- land, but afterward settled in Ohio, where he enlisted in the war of 1812 in the Kentucky Riflemen and saw service with Jackson at New Orleans. Rev. James T. Timmons, son of Stephen, was born in Pickaway county, Ohio. A minister in the United Brethren Church, he was a pioneer preacher in Indiana, later in Illinois and then in Missouri, where he passed away. During the Black Hawk Indian war he served in the same regiment as did Abraham Lincoln and was actively engaged throughout that trouble. He married Sarah Oxford, who was born in North Carolina, daughter of John Oxford, a pioneer of Tippecanoe county, Ind., who served in the North Carolina line in the war of 1812 and was also with Jackson at New Orleans. He was a farmer by occupation. Mrs. Timmons passed away in Missouri.

The eldest of a family of ten children born to his parents, of whom nine are living, William Byard Timmons was born September 4, 1833, in Milford, Tippecanoe county, Ind. Until sixteen he remained with his father learning the rudiments of agriculture and attending the common school, which was a log house with slab benches. He then went to near Lexington, McLean county, Ill., and did farm work, at the age of twenty-one starting out for him- self and farming in McDonough county. He remained there until 1857, removing then to Scotland county, Mo., to farm there. True son of a noble soldier, at the call to arms he volunteered and enlisted for service in the Civil war, being sworn into service July 6, 1861, and becoming a private in Com- pany B, Twenty-first Missouri Volunteer Infantry. Unflinching courage, brave effort and patriotic devotion to duty soon won him the attention and admiration of superior officers and he rose to rank of sergeant, serving the first two years in Missouri. In 1861 he was detailed as a scout under General Pope

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in northeast Missouri, and during this service had many narrow escapes. When Pope was ordered to Tennessee, Mr. Timmons was one of three selected from the old regiment and detailed as scouts to report to General McNeal, and under the latter he saw scouting service in Missouri until 1863, going then to his regiment already in Tennessee. He veteraned with the regiment in 1864, serving until a year after the war, and was mustered out of service at Fort Morgan, Ala., in 1866. He received his honorable discharge in St. Louis.

Judge Timmons returned to his farm in Scotland county after the war and continued to live there until the year 1887 when he came to Kern county and homesteaded a tract one mile west of Delano. This he improved and engaged in stockraising, principally cattle and horses, but in 1910 he disposed of his ranch and the stock and has since lived retired in Delano. He served as postmaster of Delano for four years, being appointed by President Harrison and in 1906 was elected justice of the peace of the Fourth township of Kern county, being re-elected in 1910 and he has his office in Delano. Judge Tim- mons married Miss Vashti A. Koontz, who was born in Illinois, and to the union were born ten children : Sarah, Mrs. Baldwin, resides near Bakersfield. Jesse is a farmer near Long Beach. Rose, Mrs. Wilson, resides in Idaho. Adeline, Mrs. Slocum, lives in Scotland county, Mo. Frank lives in Yuma, Ariz. Emma, Mrs. Woosley, is a resident of Delano. Cora is Mrs. Spaulding of Los Angeles. Eva, Mrs. Dresser, of Los Angeles; Zorada, Mrs. Penaro, of Oakland, and Everett, of Delano, complete the family The revered and hon- ored father is a member of Delano Lodge No. 356, I. O. O. F. and in politics unites with the Republican party.

HON. WILLIAM E. SIMPSON .- The records of the Simpson family indicate Canadian ancestry and Robert E. was a native of Hamilton, Ontario, but in young manhood removed to Illinois to take up work at the trade of blacksmith, which he followed for years in Galesburg. After he had removed from Canada he married Miss Margaret Mason, a native of Joliet. Ill. They became the parents of six children, all of whom are still living. The eldest of the six. William E., was born in Galesburg, Ill .. April 12, 1889, and at the age of eleven years accompanied the family to California, where his father, settling in Kern county, found employ- ment in the Bakersfield iron works for the next nine years. Meanwhile he also worked as a machinist's helper and apprentice and in that way earned enough to pay his expenses in the Kern county high school, from which he was graduated in 1909 with a high standing.

It had long been the ambition of Mr. Simpson to secure an education in the law and three months after he completed the high-school course he matriculated in the law department of the Leland Stanford, Jr .. Uni- versity. During the course in that institution he earned the means for all expenses. Each summer he worked in the oil fields of Kern county or found employment in the Bakersfield iron works. The vacations also were utilized as periods for the earning of necessary money for the course. The fact that, in spite of the time devoted to outside work, he was graduated in May of 1912 with an exceptionally high standing proves not only determination of character and resolution of purpose, but also an unusual capacity of intellect and superior powers of mind. Immediately after his graduation from the university and his admission to the bar of California he opened an office at Bakersfield. where. September 3. 1912. he was honored by nomination at the Democratic primary as a member of the assembly. At the election, November 5. following, he received a majority of seventeen hundred and fifty, and is now representing his county, the fifty-sixth assembly district. in the fortieth session of the state legislature.

On December 31. 1912. Mr. Simpson married Ethel Robesky, of Bakers-

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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 118

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