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 128

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 128

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FAUSTINO MIER NORIEGA .- Born in Santander, Spain, February 15, 1856, when fifteen years old Mr. Noriega left his parents' home and became errand-boy in a nearby city, but when tired of his work came to Cali- fornia in 1872, his choice of location being influenced by the fact that his god- father, Vincent Noriega, lived in Tulare county. The journey here was an event to the untraveled boy and consumed many weeks, for he immigrated first to . New York, and from there came to the coast by way of the Isthmus of Panama, reaching San Francisco October 4, 1872. His first experience of importance was not calculated to impress him favorably with his adopted country, for upon stepping off the train at Oakland he broke his ankle. Recovering, he was taken by friends to Visalia, and in December of the same year he came to Kern county. By working with his cousin at sheep herding he in time man- aged to save enough money to take up land on his own responsibility. He homesteaded eighty acres and pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres just west of Famoso, which he afterward sold to the Kern County Land Com- pany. In 1879 he became identified with this company as a sheep driver. In 1882 he entered the employ of Miller & Lux and was foreman of their sheep department until 1893. During this time his operations as buyer and seller were conducted on a large scale and he had from thirty to forty men under his charge. That his services were satisfactory in the extreme is evidenced from the fact that he remained with the same employer for twelve years.

In December, 1893, Mr. Noriega came to Sumner, now East Bakersfield, and erected on Sumner street the Ivaria hotel, now called the Noriega, for which he was obliged to borrow $3,500, and of which he is still the proprietor. He also erected the new brick hotel Pyrenees on Kern street which cost $9,000, and besides is the owner of other houses and property in the town. His inter- est in sheep continued unabated, as for many years he was half owner of about eight thousand sheep which during the winter were grazed on the plains and in the summer were driven to the mountains of Inyo and Mono counties. He owns one hundred and sixty acres at Saco, about eight miles from Bakersfield. which is devoted to the raising of alfalfa and is under the Beardsley canal, and besides this he owns range land for his stock. Mr. Noriega was one of the organizers of the First Bank of Kern and has been a member of the board of directors and its vice-president from the beginning.

On February 14, 1893, Mr. Noriega married Louise Inda, a native of

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Basses-Pyrenees, France, and they have five children, Martha Lena, Julia, Christena, Frank and Albert. About 1899 Mr. Noriega erected a large mod- ern brick residence on Baker and Oregon street which the family now occupy.

JOHN RICHARD WILLIAMS .- An early period in the colonization of Virginia found the Williams family associated with the Old Dominion and Henry F. Williams was born in Prince William county, that state, being a son of John Williams, a lifelong resident of the commonwealth. When a mere lad the former acquired a thorough knowledge of carpentering and fol- lowed the same in Washington, D. C., from which city in November of 1848 he started for California. At that time no news had been received in the east concerning the discovery of gold, but he had been interested in the west from the reports of General Fremont containing accounts of its climate and soil. With the idea of coming west firmly fixed in his mind he secured passage on the steamship Falcon, which left New York December 1, 1848, for the Isthmus of Panama. There were no passengers bound for California except a few gov- ernment officials, four missionary clergymen and four young mechanics, he being one of the latter. When the ship reached New Orleans en route to Chagris, news of the discovery of gold having reached that point, the ship was there filled to overflowing with men whose sole object was to hunt for gold, with no intention of settling permanently in the west. At Panama a wait of several weeks was necessary before the arrival of the steamship Cali- fornia, which, crowded to the point of suffocation, finally conveyed the ardent Argonauts to San Francisco. Upon landing almost everyone of that vast throng rushed for the gold diggings, but the young carpenter, who had brought with him a complete set of tools for cutting down lumber and build- ing houses, did not swerve from the resolution he had made before he learned of mining affairs.

No wharf had been built for the accommodation of passengers or the unloading of cargoes. The passengers crowded the small boats that conveyed them to the beach from the ship, anchored in the bay. Mr. Williams waited until the second day, when the crowd having diminished he was able to take his tools with him. Immediately after landing he secured a job, which was to fit up a small postoffice for Charles L. Ross, who had been appointed the first postmaster by the postal agent, Hon. William Van Voorhies, an appointee of President Polk and a fellow passenger of Mr. Williams on the steamship from Panama. As he fitted up the first postoffice for San Francisco, Mr. Williams might justly be called one of the founders of the town. That honor he claimed for himself throughout all of his later years. As soon as he had saved enough money he built a carpenter shop, the first in the city, and over it he hoisted his sign in large letters, this being the first sign of any kind in the town. The shop was located on the east side of Montgomery street between Washington and Jackson streets. Sometimes it was necessary to elevate the little shop on stilts, for the waters of the bay would come up to it and cover it to a depth of several feet. The location proved convenient for the landing of lumber and other materials when brought in lighters from the ships lying at anchor in the bay. There being no wharf at which the vessels could discharge their cargoes, it was necessary to float them ashore at high tide in small barges, of which there was great need for more. That fact being apparent to the young carpenter, he decided to supply the deficiency and cast about for a partner with money. He was fortunate to win the consideration of Hon. Henry T. Robinson, who had been a fellow passenger on the ship and had brought money with him. Later he was elected a state senator from Sacra- mento to the first legislature and also became prominent as a member of the constitutional convention. He agreed to advance $500 for materials to con- struct a barge, which Mr. Williams would build, and the latter constructed the boat on the beach near what is now the intersection of Montgomery and 52

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Jackson streets, and from that spot floated it into the bay at high tide. The venture proved successful. The barge was rented at $50 per day until it had paid for itself. Then it was sold to a sea captain, Mott, for $2,000 and the new owner handled it with large profit. The cost of landing freight from ships at that time was almost as great as the freight charges are now from Boston to San Francisco.

The next venture of Mr. Williams proved even more successful than the first. Wishing to build another barge and having the means to do so alone, he found that it was impossible to secure lumber of the desired quality. Then he conceived the idea of going to the nearest body of timber land and manu- facturing by hand the necessary timber. Capt. W. A. Richardson owned or controlled a timber tract near Sausalito and he consented to the establishing of a logging camp on his land, also agreed to haul on his schooner any sup- plies. needed. A competent ship carpenter was made foreman at $16 per day and he hired his assistants at $10 per day, with an additional man as cook and man of all work around the camp. Camp supplies and implements were ordered from the store of C. L. Ross & Co., and the expedition boarded Rich- ardson's schooner at Clark's Point for Sausalito. Mr. Williams trusted every- thing to his foreman and did not go near the camp. In less than three weeks Captain Richardson brought the party back in his schooner with the barge in tow, filled with the waste and surplus material around the camp, all of which was of such value in his construction work that the venture proved highly profitable. The barge was given in charge of Captain Johnston, with an option to buy one-fourth interest for $1,000; and he managed it so well that it paid $150 per day until it had nearly paid its full cost. Then it was sold outright tor $4,000. The same day it sold at that sum a full rigged barque lying at anchor in the bay, which had been deserted by the crew, sold for only $3,000, all of which was due to the fact that there were no buyers for barques at the time, but barges were in great demand, for as yet the first wharf (known as Long wharf) had not been built. All things considered, Mr. Williams always believed this to be the most successful venture of his life, and yet he was then scarcely twenty-one years of age. Ilis first full day in San Francisco, March 2, 1849, had been the twenty-first anniversary of his birth. Many more years of usefulness were given him in the city he loved so well and when he passed away March 16, 1911, it was shortly after he had celebrated his eighty-third an- niversary.

While in the main the career of Mr. Williams was very prosperous and he accumulated large holdings, yet he was not without his reverses, the most serious of which was connected with the contract for the building of the Second street cut. Through a technicality he lost $250,000 and was left a bankrupt. However, to a man of his indomitable determination and great faith in San Francisco, continued disappointment was impossible and in time he retrieved those losses. As agent for the Pacific Improvement Company he came to Kern county and laid out the town site of Sumner, which later was known as Kern and eventually was made a part of Bakersfield. With headquarters in San Francisco, he had the exclusive agency for property owned by that con- cern throughout the state. Through his efforts and as a result of the donation of part of his commission, he induced the Southern Pacific Railroad to build a depot at Sumner. Acquiring property at Kern, he aided in building up the town, although he continued to reside in San Francisco, where in the early days he was associated in enterprises with Huntington, Crocker and other pioneer magnates. For many years he served as secretary of the state Demo- cratic central committee and for a considerable period he was a school director in San Francisco. After coming west he was made a Mason, being the first to enter the order in the state, where later he rose to the Knight Templar degree. On the organization of the Society of California Pioneers he became

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one of its first members and ever afterward retained a warm interest in its reunions. While his holdings suffered temporarily from the great fire in San Francisco, that disaster did not diminish his faith in his beloved city and he always cherished the optimistic belief that after the completion of the Panama canal his own city would rank in population and importance close to London and New York.

During the pioneer period of California's history Catherine E. Duval, a native of Florida, came to the west via Panama and settled in San Francisco, where she still makes her home. In young womanhood she became the wife of Mr. Williams. Five sons and five daughters blessed their union, of whom the sixth in order of birth, John Richard, was born in San Francisco October 13, 1875. After graduating from Heald's Business College he became an assistant in his father's office. In order to manage the family holdings in Kern county he came here February 22, 1899, and embarked in the real-estate business, also bought lands and improved farms for alfalfa. With his father and C. J. Lindgren he built a private sewer system, which has been extended until now there are about six miles of sewer in Kern. The system is now owned by Williams Brothers, the interests of Mr. Lindgren having been bought, and about 1909 the firm of Williams Brothers was established by John Richard, Thomas C., Fairfax and Duval. Besides engaging in business as contractors and builders, they carry on a general real-estate business, also build up their own holdings, and own one hundred and sixty acres adjacent to Kern or East Bakersfield, suitable for addition purposes. At least nine residences have been built by them in this part of town. They maintain an office at No. 410 Hum- boldt street and control interests of great value and importance. In the fall of 1911 they with others organized the Bakersfield Water Company, which purchased and rebuilt the old Sumner Water Company's system. The com- pany sunk three new wells and installed a new pumping plant. This is now a modern and up-to-date water system with ample capacity to care for the needs of the community. Mr. Williams is president of the company.

Besides his other activities John Richard Williams still devotes consid- erable time to his large farm, which is now under irrigation and in part is devoted to alfalfa. although he also makes a specialty of horses and cattle. In national politics he favors Democratic principles. Chosen a trustee of the Kern library, he had served as its secretary for four years when the consoli- dation with Bakersfield merged the insitution into that owned by the larger city. For one year he served as city marshal, during which time he succeeded in straightening out vexatious matters relating to the collection of licenses. Upon the consolidation of Bakersfield and Kern in July, 1910, he became a member of the board of trustees and at the regular election held in April of 1911 he was re-elected for a term of four years, since which time he has acted as chairman of the public safety and light committee and has promoted many measures for the permanent upbuilding of the city. The Bakersfield Club numbers him among its interested adherents.

CHRISTIAN P. LARSEN .- Recollections of his boyhood home take Mr. Larsen back in memory to the fertile farm occupied by his parents in Laaland, Denmark. The father, Hans, who was a well-to-do farmer, died when his son, C. P., was six years old, and the mother, Martha, passed away when he was eighteen. Four children were born of their marriage and C. P. was born July 9. 1861. After the death of his father he was taken into the home of an uncle, who sent him to school and taught him to be useful and self-reliant. The little island of Laaland, where he was born. is one of the most productive of Den- mark's holdings; as land was held at a high figure and wages were small Mr. Larsen gave up the hope of becoming a landowner there and came to the United States. During 1879 he made the voyage and found employment in Cleveland, where he learned brick-making and followed the occupation for a

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considerable period. As carly as 1888 he came to California and became a worker in one of the brickyards of Los Angeles, but from there in 1891 he came to Bakersfield, his present home.

After a brief experience in the brickyard owned by H. A. Jastro Mr. Larsen was promoted to the position of foreman. When the yard was closed down two years later he was given the foremanship of Curran's brickyard, where he continued for nine years, finally resigning in order to take up con- tract work for himself. For a time he worked alone as a cement contractor, but more recently he has been a member of the firm of Weitzel & Larsen, manufacturers of woodstone for floors, builders of cement walks and curbs, and contractors for foundations and basements of buildings of all kinds. The firm conducts a large business.

Upon the organization of the Builders' Exchange Mr. Larsen became one of its members and still maintains a warm interest in the organization. Fra- ternally he has been a member for years of the Ancient Order of United Work- men. When he came to Bakersfield he was a single man, but on September 22, 1892, he was married to Miss Emma Agnes Tibbet, a native of this city and a daughter of Edward and Rebecca (Callahan) Tibbet, the former born in Ohio and the latter in Indiana. Many years ago Mr. Tibbet became a pioneer of Kern county, where he took up land, developed a ranch and engaged in general farming. Since his death Mrs. Tibbet has continued to reside at the old homestead situated on the Kern Island road. There are three daughters in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Larsen, namely : Clara Belle, Julia May and Frances Arline, of whom the eldest, a graduate of the Kern county high school, class of 1913, is now a student at the Fresno Normal.

ISAAC DENTON STOCKTON, M.D .- The association of the Stockton family with America dates back to the colonial period of our history. During the war of 1812 a young Kentucky physician and planter, Robert Stockton, served as an aide-de-camp to General Jackson and participated in the memor- able battle of New Orleans. Although a southerner by birth and education. he became an abolitionist and his desire to remove from an environment where slavery was practiced caused him to settle in Illinois shortly after his return from the war. Southern Illinois had very few settlers when he established a frontier home in one of its counties. The slaves he had inherited were freed by his voluntary act. So kind had he been to them always that they had no desire to leave him, so they built cabins near him and ministered to his needs as he did also to theirs, forming an harmonious little settlement of frontier farmers. In the struggle to establish a comfortable home he had the wise and constant co-operation of his wife, who was Phoebe Whiteside, a native of Kentucky and a niece of Gen. Samuel Whiteside, the pioneer Indian fighter in whose honor a well-known valley of Kentucky received its name.

Born in Southern Illinois in 1815 shortly after his father had removed thither, Isaac Denton Stockton grew to manhood on the frontier. During the Black Hawk war he served under Captain Gates and although but a lad he had the unique distinction of bringing in the last prisoner of that struggle, an Indian who had sought his life. Being a splendid shot, he was sent out on reconnoitering expeditions and many a narrow escape he experienced during those perilous times. Participation in frontier warfare did not lesson his am- bition to secure an education. After he had graduated from Shurtleff College at Upper Alton, Ill., with the degree of A. B., he entered the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, where he took the complete course of lectures and received the degree of M.D. Later he received the same degree from a New York city institution. His first professional experiences were difficult and try- ing, for they kept him in the south during long epidemics of yellow fever and smallpox. In recognition of his services the government tendered him a certificate that entitled him to practice medicine in every part of the United

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States. Settling in Williamson county, Ill., and opening an office, he soon became prominent in the profession. In addition to a large practice he oper- ated a coal mine and also established a wagon factory and blacksmith shop, where he made wagons for use on the Santa Fe trail. As he kept fourteen fires in constant use, it is evident that his business was extensive.

Accompanied by his family and driving a herd of cattle. Dr. Stockton traveled by wagon and ox-teams from Illinois to Kansas during 1854 and set- tled in Linn county, where he founded Mound City. There he took up land and also practiced his profession, besides taking a prominent part in public affairs. One of his closest neighbors, Dr. James Montgomery, later became a very desperate character during the border troubles and even at that time was so notorious that only Dr. Stockton's intervention prevented a duel between him and John Goodall. About 1855 the Doctor and "Gabe" Sutherland took three wagonloads of bells from Kansas to Texas and sold them at a fair profit. With a large sum of money they started to return to Kansas, but soon were held up by two desperadoes. Their lives were saved by their promptness in hiding behind trees, from which refuge they used their pistols to such good effeet that the robbers were finally routed. However, Dr. Stockton received seven wounds, one of these passing through the lungs and forming the imme- diate cause of his death in 1897. Three physicians ministered to him in a hotel at Austin, Tex., and after weeks of suffering he was able to return home. The sympathy for him was great and neither the hotel authorities nor the phy- sieians would accept a cent from him, although they had been untiring in their kindnesses.

Resigning as a member of the Kansas territorial legislature early in 1856, Dr. Stockton started for California at the head of a large expedition of neigh- bors and friends, outfitted with three wagons with three yoke of good oxen to each wagon, also a large bunch of loose cattle which he had purchased at $12.50 per head. The route took the party via Forts Laramie and Bridges. The grass was excellent and when California was reached the cattle were in such good condition that they brought $60 per head. Being an old Indian fighter and understanding many of the Indian dialects, Dr. Stockton was placed in charge of the entire train and went well-armed, prepared for any emergency, but his train was not molested, although those ahead and behind suffered from the depredations of the savages. When he landed at Santa Rosa he found only one store. a blacksmith shop and a saloon. Seeing the place, Rebecca, a little daughter of the family, queried, "Mother. don't you think this will make a town some day?" Her optimistic prophecy has seen its ful- fillment.

One and three-fourths miles from Santa Rosa on the Guerneville road Dr. Stockton purchased one hundred and sixty acres at $1.25 per acre. While he practiced medicine he also began to improve the land. Forty acres were planted to fruit trees or vineyard. Twelve and one-half acres were put in grapes of sixty different varieties. The balance of the forty was planted to Gravenstein, Pippin and Russet apples, and he thus became one of the pioneer apple-growers of Sonoma county, now justly celebrated for its splendid out- put of that fruit. Eventually the land was sold for $200 per acre, but its value is now far beyond that figure. Coming to Kern county in the fall of 1872 he entered one hundred and sixty acres in the center of what is now the Lake- side raneh. He became the leader in the organization of the Farmers Canal Association and was one of the three directors. They perfected a ditch from the Kern river known as the Panama canal, taking its name from the Panama slough, the latter being used in part as a ditch. When completed it was a success and was the largest ditch in the county up to that time. Its operation interested capitalists, who took up the irrigation project on a more extensive scale. This has resulted in Kern county having the largest irrigation system in

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the world. Here Dr. Stockton engaged in raising sweet potatoes, often clearing $100 per acre. Exhibited at Philadelphia during the Centennial Exposition of 1876 was a sweet potato from his farm. It weighed twenty-five and one-half pounds and is supposed to be the largest ever grown. Five of such tubers would fill a barrel. In addition he sold alfalfa seed that brought him about $40 an acre. Eventually he sold the farm to his son, C. C., who in turn sold it and adjacent property, the whole forming a part of what is now known as the Lakeside ranch.

During the period of his residence in Williamson county, Ill., Dr. Stockton married Louisa Marion Spiller, a native of Tennessee and a daughter of Ben- jamin Spiller, an abolitionist who freed his slaves and settled among the pio- neers of Williamson county. Dr. and Mrs. Stockton were the parents of nine- teen children, sixteen of whom reached maturity and thirteen are now living. After the sale of their Kern county ranch the Doctor and his wife removed to Florence, Los Angeles county, where occurred the death of Mrs. Stockton. He then spent some time in the northern part of the state, after which he became a member of the household of his daughter, Mrs. Rebecca Chubb, on Kern Island. There he died in 1897, at the age of eighty-two years. In the days of the slavery agitation he had been stanch in his advocacy of the freedom of the slaves, believing their enslaved condition to be a blight upon the honor of our great country. From early manhood he aided in the work of the Chris- tian Church and while living at Santa Rosa he contributed generously toward the establishment of the Christian College there, assisted in founding the institution and gave it the benefit of his timely aid and practical counsel, as indeed he did with many other movements for the religious, educational and material upbuilding of his adopted commonwealth.

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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 128

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