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 122

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 122

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LEWIS CASS WORTHINGTON .- Descended from an old southern family that became established in Virginia during the colonial period of our national history. Lewis Cass Worthington was born in Oregon. Ogle county, Ill., in 1848, and is a son of the late John and Nancy (Drummond) Worthington. Primarily educated in the public schools of Ogle county, he later enjoyed the advantages of study in Mount Morris Seminary, an old. influential and leading educational institution of northern Illinois. After being graduated from the seminary he left Mount Morris and returned to the home farm, later being interested in agricultural pursuits in Illinois for a few years. During 1874 he came to California and secured employment in the building of the west side canal at Los Banos. Merced county. In a short time he was promoted to be superintendent of construction and from that he became superintendent of canals and ditches at Madera. The same line of work kept him busy in that county for some time and there he

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filled important contracts with trustworthiness and fidelity. When less activity began to be manifested in the building of canals he turned his at- tention to ranching, although he never wholly abandoned the work of building canals and irrigation systems. About 1894 he came to Bakersfield and became interested in the teaming business as well as in contracting, since which time he has become widely known as an authority and an expert in all canal and irrigation work. Several of the modern irrigation systems of California have been built wholly or in part by him. The Stevenson sys- tem he built in its entirety. The San Joaquin and Kings river canal was pushed to completion through his energetic oversight, and in addition he built a part of the Turlock and Madera systems, as well as sixty-four miles of the Sutter-Butte system of canals.

Since the death in Bakersfield in 1907 of Mrs. Worthington, who was a native of Oregon, Ogle county, Ill., and bore the maiden name of Alice R. Mix, Mr. Worthington has made his home in this city with his daughters and has continued to superintend his varied local and outside interests. His eldest daughter, Lois Worthington, M. D., now the wife of Frank Davis, was graduated with the degree of M. D., from Cooper Medical College De- cember 8, 1897, and since then has engaged in professional practice, her office being now in the Producers' Bank building in Bakersfield. Prominent in the profession, she maintains a warm interest in the work of the American and California State Medical Associations. Socially she has been influential in the organization of Native Daughters at Bakersfield. The second daughter, Jean Worthington, D. D. S., now the wife of Jack Bennett, an oil operator with headquarters at Bakersfield, is a graduate of the dental department of the University of California and now has a dental office in her home city. The youngest daughter, Mazie Worthington, D. D. S., a graduate of the dental department of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in San Fran- cisco, now has a suite of rooms for dental practice in the Producers' Bank building in Bakersfield.

Dr. Lois Worthington, who is a native of San Leandro, Alameda county, became the wife of Frank Davis in Bakersfield October 15, 1906. Since March of 1902 Mr. Davis has lived in Bakersfield and meanwhile has filled a responsible position as yardmaster with the Santa Fe road. Born at Marca, Macon county, Ill., he is a son of John T. Davis, a native of Illinois and now residing in the Randsburg district. A farmer by occupation, he came to California during the '80s and settled at Rosedale, where he devel- oped a tract of raw land. Later he removed to Tehachapi, entered a claim and improved a farm. Upon selling that place he took up a desert claim in the Mojave desert, where at the age of seventy-eight he is still actively at work as a farmer. Of his five living children only two settled in California. The eldest of the five, Frank, was born May 4, 1864, and at the age of eighteen years secured work as a brakeman on the Illinois Central road. Later he worked in a similar capacity with other roads, after which he was promoted to be a conductor on what is known as the Big Four road out from Urbana, Ill. His first trip to Bakersfield occurred about twenty-five years ago and he spent a short time in the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. On returning to Illinois he was employed as yardmaster in the Peoria vards of the Peoria & Pekin road, but resigned the position to settle permanently in California during the fall of 1901 and after a few months with the Santa Fe at Fresno he was transferred to Bakersfield as yardmaster for the same road.

EDWIN L. FOSTER .-- Significant of the importance of Bakersfield is the fact that it has attracted to local professional circles men of breadth of thought, energy of temperament and acuteness of reasoning faculties, among whom not the least conspicuous or influential is Edwin L. Foster, attorney-

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at-law. Like the majority of the professional men of the community, he is on the sunny side of life's prime, with a future of growing possibilities before him and with a present reputation that comes from a profound knowledge of the law. not only as related to California, but also as applied to other states and the general government. When he assumes a case his clients realize that his vast fund of legal knowledge, his personal probity and his resourcefulness are enlisted in their favor, and they repose in him a confidence won by a knowledge of the skill with which invariably he has conducted all of his cases. Having once given himself to a case in the courts, he becomes a persistent fighter for his client and gives the closest attention to every detail connected with the affair. In support of progressive projects he is equally capable and persistent and the city has in him one of its most able citizens and public- spirited men.

Prior to removing to California with his parents in 1885, Mr. Foster lived in Macoupin county, Ill., where he was born at Brighton, July 8, 1871, and where he had received his elementary education. After coming to the west he completed his high-school course and also took a thorough course in the law. Admitted to practice in the superior court of California in 1898, he at once established himself for professional work and has since practiced in this state, with the exception of a few years spent in the east as an attorney in Massachusetts and New York City. Through his education, which to some extent was acquired in Massachusetts, and also through a residence in the east in the years 1902-1905, he gained an excellent knowledge of conditions in that part of the country and has found the information of value to later activities. Since coming to Kern county in February of 1905 he has risen to prominence among the attorneys of Bakersfield, where he maintains his office in the Anderson building at No. 16691/2 Chester avenue and where he has proved a distinct and influential acquisition to the professional element of the community.

HON. CHARLES LEMUEL CLAFLIN .- For generations uncounted the bright aspiring minds of the youth of every locality have turned toward the law as offering an opportunity for the exercise of their unquestioned talents and as affording a desirable avenue to future success. In choosing the law as his life work Judge Claflin was influenced by a decided preference for the profession and by a recognition of talents of his own admirably qual- ifying him for such activities. That his choice was wisely made thirty years of successful practice have proved beyond question. Since he came to Bakers- field he has risen to leadership among the members of the Kern county bar and has built up a large practice whose basic strength is his own exceptional ability and unwavering integrity. As the senior member of the firm of Claflin & Owen, he has established a large corporation practice, has been chosen to attend to the law business of the First Bank of Kern and the National Bank of Bakersfield and exerts a wide professional influence founded upon his thor- ough knowledge of the law.

Judge Claflin was born at Lebanon, Van Buren county, Iowa, August 17, 1858, received a public school education, studied law in an office at Keosauqua, Iowa, came to California in 1880 and the following year was admitted to prac- tice in Modoc county, where he began upon professional work. During 1882 he was elected district attorney of Modec county and held the office for one term. In 1890 he was elected superior judge of Modoc county. For six years he continued on the bench and won recognition through impartial service and wide knowledge of jurisprudence. Upon retiring from the office January 1, 1897, he resumed private practice, remaining in Modoc county for three years, and thence removing to Bakersfield in 1900 at the time of the great oil boom in Kern county. In his removal to Bakersfield he was accompanied by his wife, whom he had married in Modoc county in 1884 and who was Miss Nellie

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Welch, of Nevada county, this state. Their family consists of six children, namely : Harlan W., Charles L. Jr., Anita E., George E., Harry L., and Theo- dore R. Besides the family residence in Bakersfield and other city property, Judge Claflin owns farming lands and also has acquired interests in the oil fields, the entire investment representing an aggregate of large value. Pro- nounced in his allegiance to the Republican party, he nevertheless seeks no offices at its hands and the positions which he has filled came to him, not through political influence, but in recognition of his superior qualifications and splendid type of citizenship. The years of maturity he has devoted to the law and as a counselor he exhibits ripened judgment, while as an advocate he shows a profound knowledge of legal technicalities. Indeed, in every de- partment of the profession his talents are manifest and his standing assured.

MRS. LOUISA J. CARVER .- Throughout an identification of more than sixty years with California it has been the privilege of Mrs. Carver to witness the remarkable development of the state, the building of railroads, the starting of towns, the opening up of ranch lands and the foundation of the remarkable material prosperity which makes the sunset state a favored region of destiny. The atmosphere of romance lingers around her eventful life, yet in the actual passing there has been less of romance than of unquestioned adherence to duty and a courageous endurance of the hard- ships incident to frontier existence. No memory of girlhood stands out more clearly in her well-stored mind than that of the crossing of the plains dur- ing the summer of 1850. The family had lived on a ranch near Jefferson City, Mo., where she was born and where at an early age she had been trained to a knowledge of housewifely arts and practical farm duties. Her father, Hiram Hughes, a pioneer of brain and brawn, with the sturdy physique of the frontiersman, had left his native Tennessee for Missouri at the age of seventeen years and settled near Jefferson City with his parents, who were farmers and stockraisers. Some years after going to Missouri he married Lucinda Johnson, a native of Kentucky. On their Missouri farm two children came to bless the home, the younger being Napoleon, who be- came a cattleraiser and died in Linn's valley many years after coming to California.

The elder of the two children, Louisa J., was a young girl on the threshold of womanhood at the time the family crossed the plains. March 9, 1850, they started on the long journey as members of an expedition that numbered seventy-two men and thirty-one wagons. Ox-teams were used to draw the wagons and in addition Mr. Hughes started with sixty head of loose cattle. but unfortunately he lost the greater number of these on the 10ad. The report of trouble at Salt Lake City led them to deflect their course from that point, so they traveled via Sublet's Cut-off and on the 31st of August arrived at Hangtown (now Placerville). In common with the majority of the early settlers Mr. Hughes at first earned a livelihood in the mines. After some years he embarked in the stock business in Tuolumne county. From there he removed to Stanislaus county. Eventually he came to Linn's valley and bought a raw tract of land. The development of the ranch engaged the remaining years of his activity and he resided there until his death at eighty-one years of age. His wife lived to be eighty-three.

During the long journey across the plains the young girl had acci- dentally met on one occasion a youthful Argonaut, Joel Carver, who was crossing the plains with a large expedition from Missouri, but not connected in any way with the Hughes party. By chance the young couple met a second time in Sonora in 1851 and were again introduced. Their acquaint- ance ripened into affection and they were married in Calaveras county Feb- ruary 27, 1853, after which they settled on a stock ranch in Stanislaus county fifteen miles from the present site of Oakdale. Mr. Carver was born

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in Springfield, Ill., January 27, 1832, the original Carver homestead having stood within two miles of the state capitol. During boyhood he accompanied his parents to Missouri and settled near Neosho, but in 1850 he again sought a location further west, this time traversing mountains and deserts to en- gage in mining and ranching in California.

The year 1869 brought Mr. and Mrs. Carver to Linn's valley as pioneer stockraisers. Arriving here, he continued to use the brand adopted by him in Stanislaus county, but finding a similar brand in use in the valley he was compelled to change. Thereupon he adopted the brand H with a bar over it, which Mrs. Carver has continued to use up to the present time. In all of his work she proved a most efficient helper and they worked together hap- pily and successfully until his death in 1885. The care of the house and of the children did not represent the limit of her wonderful energies. Hour after hour she would ride on the range helping in the care of the stock and the rounding up of the cattle. No difficulty daunted her ardent spirit. No hardship depressed her optimistic soul. To such as she success cannot fail to come. That it came to her is the legitimate result of her splendid execu- tive ability, keen foresight and unwearied perseverance.

The old Dunlap place of four hundred acres formed the first purchase of the Carver family in Linn's valley. Realizing that the range would soon be taken up so that cattle could not roam at large, Mrs. Carver understood that the only successful way to conduct a cattle industry was through the ownership of vast areas. Acting upon that conviction, she began to fortify her business by purchasing large tracts. From the railroad she bought the Coyote ranch, a tract of forty-four hundred and eighty acres, lying just northwest of Woody, Kern county. This great ranch lies in one body and is fenced, besides being well watered by large springs and affording early feed for fattening cattle in the spring. Across the county line in Tulare county Mrs. Carver later purchased the Coho ranch of thirty-two hundred acres in one body, fenced, and amply watered by a branch of White river. The large property is utilized for a breeding ranch. At Bull Run meadows she also owns nineteen hundred and twenty acres in a body. located in the Forest reserve, so that she is able to avail herself of the government privilege of renting thousands of acres from that vast range. The home farm on Upper Poso creek in the upper portion of Linn's valley has been increased and now comprises five sections or thirty-two hundred acres. About four hun- dred acres are rich meadow lands and, being irrigated from Poso creek, yield an abundance of hay and feed. The property is well improved with a commodious and comfortable residence as well as the buildings necessary to the proper management of a great ranch. On all of the ranches a spe- cialty is made of raising Shorthorn Durham cattle.

A devout believer in the home mission of women, Mrs. Carver always made her home, her husband and her children the paramount issue in her active years, although such was the versatility of her talents that she could also engage in outside activities without neglect to more intimate duties. Four of her seven children are now living. The only son, Jeff Carver, is a stockman in Linn's valley. The daughters are Mrs. Lou Conner, also of the valley ; Mrs. Annie Huey. of Tulare county; and Mrs. Rose Danner, of Willows, this state. Ileme and ranch have not engrossed the entire thought of this remarkable pioneer. It has been her pleasure to keep in touch with the development of the state and to contrast its present height of develop- ment with the primeval conditions prevailing when first she saw the Pacific coast country. Nor does she live wholly in the past, interesting as its mem- ories are and eventful as was its record. Modern questions of suffrage and various movements to improve industrial and civic conditions receive her sympathetic, and in some cases active, interest. While always a Democrat

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politically, she has been content to play a passive role on all public ques- tions and her devotion to the development of county and commonwealth has been free from partisan spirit.

FREDERICK J. ECKHOFF .- A native of Baltimore, Md., Mr. Eckhoff is the son of John Eckhoff, who was born in Hanover, Prussia, and who became an early resident of Baltimore, Md. Thoroughly grounded in the knowledge of stock-raising he became a dealer in that line, filling con- tracts for the provision of stock, and he built up a good business. In 1846 he removed to St. Louis, Mo., locating just south of the city, where he con- ducted a small stock yards, there dealing in live stock. He had married Annie Berger, also a native of Hanover, and her death occurred in St. Louis. They became the parents of five children, four of whom now survive, Fred- erick J. being the second eldest.

It was on March 15, 1841, in Baltimore, Md., that Frederick J. Eckhoff first saw the light of day, and he was but five when taken to St. Louis by his parents. He had the advantage of attending the public schools in a large city and made rapid progress there, in the meantime helbing his father in his stock business. In 1865 he started across the plains to California, which had been the destination he had long had in mind. With horse and mules he came, taking the route via Salt Lake to Northern California, and after four months of hard travel arrived in Plumas county. The Indians were then on the warpath and the train had several serious combats with them and during the trip six of them were killed. Upon arriving in California for some months Mr. Eckhoff was engaged in mining near Quincy. From there he went on horseback via Carson City and Owens river into Arizona and then back into California again, arriving in Kern county December 25, 1869. He worked at mining for various parties in different places for some time making his headquarters at Havilah, Kern county, but finally entered into the project for himself. With others he was interested in the remodeling of the 5 Stamp mill at Clairville in the Piute Mountains, but this did not prove a profitable undertaking and he decided to give up mining as it was too unsatisfactory at that time.

In 1876 Mr. Eckhoff started in the liquor business in Kernville, and con- tinued successfully engaged in that work until 1888, when he located in Bakersfield and engaged in the same business in partnership with Thomas E. Owens, but later sold out to his partner. Mr. Eckhoff has done a little real estate business in connection with these interests. Mr. Eckhoff was married in Bakersfield, in 1907, to Miss Louisa Raaz, who was born in Oakland, Cal.

ROLLIN LAIRD .- The present city attorney of Bakersfield belongs to an honored pioneer family of California and traces his genealogy to Scotland, whence one of the name crossed the ocean to America shortly after the close of the Revolutionary war. When the great unknown west first attracted worldwide attention through the discovery of gold Peter Laird determined to cast in his lot with the enthusiastic army of Argonauts bound for the mines of the coast. Accompanied by his family, in 1851 he came across the plains with a prairie-schooner and a drove of stock. In the care of the stock he was aided by his boy of seven years, John W. P., whose extreme youth did not prevent him from attempting to do a man's work in the long and fatiguing journey. The difficult tasks devolving upon father and son were rendered less arduous through the constant encouragement and cheerful aid of the beloved wife and mother, a woman of deep religious spirit and gentle char- acter. She bore the maiden name of Julia A. Pierce. While still a young woman, needed in her home and unspeakably dear to her family. she was taken from them by an unfortunate accident. The family had settled in Eldorado county and the father had engaged in mining at Mokelumne mines, where he established his wife and children in camp. One day in 1854, while Mrs. Laird was lying in a hammock, a mine blast occurred and she

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was killed by a flying rocket when one of the powder charges exploded. Her passing was mourned not alone by the immediate family, but also by the miners, to all of whom she had been a friend, benefactor and nurse.

After the Laird family had lived for some time at the old mining camps of Diamond Springs and Shingle Springs, about 1858 they moved to Sacra- mento county and became interested in the stock business. During the latter part of the '60s they removed to Inyo county. Peter Laird died at the home of his son, Judge J. W. P. Laird, at Bakersfield in January, 1910, at the age of eighty-nine years. John W. P. Laird was born at Mount Carroll, Carroll county, Ill., May 28, 1844, and in 1851 came across the plains from Missouri with his parents. Later he worked in the mines and on ranches. While engaged in the cattle industry he procured some law books from an old-time attorney in Sacramento and after the day's work was done he read law by the camp fire. Thus by dint of hard work, both manual and mental, he fitted himself for the career of an attorney. When he resolved upon a legal career he was considerably past thirty and in 1879, soon after he was admitted to practice before the California supreme court, he was elected district attorney of Inyo county, serving as such until 1886. During the first administration of President Cleveland he served as register of the Independence land office. His first ap- pearance as an attorney in Kern county occurred in 1890, when he came to Bakersfield as special prosecutor in the trial of W. T. C. Elliott for murder, the case resulting in mistrial, and Elliott was never acquitted or found guilty. Being well pleased with Bakersfield, Mr. Laird determined to estab- lish an office in this city and in May, 1891, he arrived here, being followed by his family in July. In the practice of law he formed a partnership with Jackson W. Mahon, then a young attorney just rising to prominence, now a superior judge of Kern county. The pleasant and profitable association was terminated after a few years by the election of Mr. Mahon to the bench. Later Mr. Laird formed a partnership with H. L. Packard and this con- nection existed until 1903, when he was appointed district attorney to suc- ceed the late J. W. Ahern, an able lawyer and a loyal friend. Such was the ability with which the vacancy was filled that in 1906 Mr. Laird was regu- larly elected to the office and in that capacity he was regarded as an able prosecutor and a fearless champion of the people's cause.

A recognized leader of the Kern county Democracy, Mr. Laird exercised a wide influence in the party councils and in 1900 was elected assemblyman on the regular party ticket. While a member of the house he served on the Pardee investigating committee during the Chinatown scandal in San Fran- cisco, taking a prominent part in the investigation. In the fall of 1910 the Democrats nominated him without opposition to represent the thirty-second district in the state senate. At the election Kings and Tulare counties gave large Republican majorities, which defeated him, although he carried his own county by a flattering vote. Upon the death of Judge Ben L. Brundage, less than a year before his own demise, he was a member of the committee on resolutions and in that capacity gave a deserved tribute to that honored California pioneer, whose career in the law was long and brilliant.

While living in Inyo county in 1872 Mr. Laird married Henrietta Mc- Laughlin, who had come to California ten years before and whose death occurred at Bakersfield during 1900. They were the parents of three sons, Ernest, Lester and Rollin, all residing in Bakersfield, where the eldest son is employed as court reporter and the youngest serves as city attorney. After the death of his first wife Mr. Laird married again and is survived by his widow, also by four step-daughters, namely: Mrs. A. K. Miller, of Berkeley ; Mrs. Ralph Knight, of Stockton ; Mrs. Oscar Reynolds, of Helena, Mont .: and Mrs. Ralph Toland, of Bakersfield. During the latter part of

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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 122

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