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 133

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 133

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).

GEORGE C. KELLEY .- From boyhood associated with the oil indus- try, it has no phase with which Mr. Kelley is unfamiliar and he has filled practically every position from roustabout to superintendent. At the present time he fills a responsible place as production foreman on section 22 division of the North American Oil Consolidated, whose holdings on section 22, 32-23, comprise one hundred and seventy-five acres. Entering upon these duties in 1910, he since has witnessed a remarkable development in the company's properties. The lease has been developed with such rapidity that it contains fifty-five oil wells and from the fifty-three now active there is an average monthly production of seventy thousand barrels.

Although his earliest memories are associated with Ohio, George C. Kelley is a native of Kansas and was born in a sod-house in Lane county, June 2, 1887. His parents, John A. and Emma (Severns) Kelley, are now living on a rented farm in Allen county, Ohio, but the father has worked perhaps more in the oil fields than on a farm, and he is well posted in every detail of the oil business. The family comprised five sons and two daughters and the eldest of these, George C., attended the common schools in Ohio. In early youth he worked on a farm during the summer months, but later he gave all of his time to the oil business, which he learned in every detail. His father being employed as a pumper on a lease at Spen- cerville, Ohio, he was taken on the same lease and taught to be useful in many ways. From a roustabout he worked up to be a well-puller. From the age of fifteen until nineteen he continued in the Spencerville district, thence going to Oklahoma, where he worked at Tulsa during much of the next two years. Besides his experience in the Oklahoma oil fields he was employed for a time in the Muncie oil fields in Indiana and the Robinson

1318

HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

oil fields in Illinois. For six months before coming to California he made his headquarters in Ohio and at Spencerville he was united in marriage with Miss Myrtle Hogue, daughter of W. M. Hogue, formerly of Spencer- ville, but now employed on section 16 of the North American. Mr. and Mrs. Kelley have one son, Paul, born in 1910. By correspondence with Mr. Kurtz of the North American, Mr. Kelley had secured a position as tool-dresser in the Midway field, so he left his eastern home and came to Bakersfield, arriv- ing at his destination November 1, 1909, ready to begin work without delay. There was then only one well on the lease that was making oil, but since then the development has bech remarkable and the upbuilding of the division has been constant, much of this progress being attributable to the energy of Mr. Kelley in his capacity of production foreman. Since coming to the west he has bought a ranch of thirty acres in Merced county.

FRANKLIN C. KELLEY .- At Mendon, Mercer county, Ohio, Franklin C. Kelley was born November 15, 1875. The name in America was established by his great-grandfather. After a voyage of six months on a sailing-vessel this original immigrant, who came from Dublin, Ireland, landed in New York during 1760 and eventually became a pioneer of Knox county, Ohio. In young manhood he married Henrietta Shritchfield, who lived to be ninety-eight years of age. Among their descendants was a grandson, Caleb A. Kelley, who now at the age of seventy-seven years is living, retired from agricultural labors, at his home in St. Marys, Auglaize county, Ohio. All of his children were born of his first marriage, which united him with Eunice Griffin, a native of the vicinity of Mendon, Ohio. The children are as follows: Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Murlin, a farmer near Mendon, Ohio; John, formerly an oil man, but now farming near Spencerville, Ohio; Francis, a farmer near St. Marys, Ohio; Lenora, who married Edgar Hawkins, a farmer near Celina, Ohio; Foster, who is engaged in farming near Mendon, Ohio; Joseph, formerly a farmer, but now engaged in the oil industry in the Robinson fields of Illinois; and Franklin C., the youngest member of the family and the only one to settle in California. The family, however, has another representative in the Midway field, for George C., son of John Kelley and nephew of Franklin C., is now engaged as production foreman on the section 22 division of the North American Oil Consolidated.

When eighteen years of age Franklin C. Kelley began as a roustabout in the St. Marys (Ohio) oil field. In that district the average depth of the wells was from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred feet and, as old-fashioned methods of well-pulling were still in vogue, he was assigned to the task of driving a horse for such work. For seventeen years he continued with the J. H. Van Wormer Oil Company at St. Marys and meantime he rose from one position to another. When eventually he resigned it was for the purpose of coming to California and joining the force of the North American, in accordance with an agreement made with Mr. Kurtz. November of 1909 found him at Moron, from which point he immediately went to section 22 division and began his duties as a roustabout. After seven weeks he was transferred to the section 16 division. Since then he has come to the front as a production man. The two leases, sections 16 and 22, produce an average of one hundred and fifteen thousand barrels per month and this places him among the foremost production superintendents of California. On section 22 there are fifty-three and on section 16 twenty-six producing wells with George C. Kelley as production foreman with the former lease and Keith LeGar as production foreman with the latter division, the general superintendent being William C. McDuffic, a resident on section 16 division. President Titus resides in San Francisco, which .city is also the place of residence of the vice-president, Duncan McDuffie, and the secretary-treasurer,

1319

HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

C. L. Nance. While living in Ohio Mr. Kelley married Miss Josephine Lewis, by whom he has two children, Lenore May and Guy A. Since com- ing to the west he has invested in farm property and now owns a tract of twenty acres in Merced county.

CHARLES E. ALLEN .- The Allen family has been identified with horticultural activities in the Santa Clara valley from the very infancy of the fruit industry in that locality. As early as 1862 L. S. Allen, a native of New York state, settled among the pioneers of the valley and put out one of the first prune orchards planted in this entire valley. In the ensuing years he had his share of discouragements and successes, but no adverse circumstance has lessened his deep affection for the valley and its people, and he is still living on the old homestead, hale and hearty, notwithstanding seventy-three years of life with its struggle and hardships. His wife, now deceased, was Miss Emma Meeks, a native of lowa. A brother-in-law, E. L. Bradley, had the distinction of planting the first prune orchard ever set out in the Santa Clara valley and the entire connection of the family with that part of the state has been long and honorable.

Out of eight children who attained maturity and who formed the family of L. S. Allen, seven are still living, the fourth, Charles E., being the only one to engage in the oil business. The others live in or near San Jose and have devoted themselves to ranching. Near San Jose, where he was born September 15, 1880, Charles E. Allen passed the years of boyhood upon the home ranch. Fair educational advantages were given to him and he was graduated from the San Jose high school with the class of 1900. For a time thereafter he assisted his father in horticultural work. The excite- ment caused by the discovery of oil attracted him to the Kern river field during May of 1902, at which time he secured employment with the Standard Oil Company and was detailed to a pipe gang engaged in the construction of the line from this field to Richmond. In a short time his ability was recognized by his promotion to the position of foreman and as such he had the supervision of a gang numbering one hundred men. The company sent him to Coalinga in 1904 to take charge of field work and to assist in the construction of pipe lines. Returning to the Kern river field during 1906 he engaged for a year as gauger and then became general foreman for the Standard, in charge of the construction of pipe lines and the building of stations. In the next few years he worked at all the stations along the line to Point Richmond and had charge of the building of the station at McKit- trick, returning in 1909 to the Kern river field, where since he has been retained as chief gauger for the company. During 1909 he married at Oakdale, Stanislaus county, Miss Jessie Johnson, by whom he has one daughter, Margaret Dorothy. Coming to the west from Nebraska, where her father, Dr. W. H. Johnson, had been a well-known practitioner in the city of Lincoln, Mrs. Allen had received in that place excellent educational advantages and had been identified with the Christian Church, while since coming to Bakersfield she has also been a member of that church.

FRANCIS M. POWELL .- The Missouri division of the Associated Oil Company, under the field foremanship of Mr. Powell, has reached an average monthly production of approximately eighteen thousand barrels net and thus ranks among the important organizations doing business in the Kern river fields. The holdings of the company lying on section 29, town- ship 28, range 28, consist of the following: Alva, ten acres with four produc- ing wells; Hecla, ten acres with three producing wells; Bolena, ten acres with six producing wells; Gillellen, ten acres, four wells; Vernon, twenty acres and six wells; Missouri, twenty acres, seven wells; and Richmond, ten acres with three wells, making a total of thirty-three producing wells. The field superintendent, who moved into the Kern river fields January 22, 54

1320

HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

1909, became identified with the Associated three days after his arrival, at first filling a position as well-puller and after six months being promoted to the well foremanship. A year later he was made field superintendent, which post he has since filled with recognized efficiency.

At Newhall, Los Angeles county, Cal., Mr. Powell was born April 10, 1883, being the son of John F. and Dora (Lake) Powell. The mother died April 29, 1901, at the age of forty-seven. The father, a Bostonian by birth, came to the Pacific coast in 1873 and settled at Los Angeles. Although now seventy-three years of age, he is active physically and mentally, maintains a warm interest in the development of Los Angeles county and in his home town of Newhall serves as a justice of the peace as well as mining recorder. Since the death of his wife his comfortable home at Newhall has been presided over by his daughter, Florence Marie, besides whom he has two other children, Francis Matthias and Alfred Clyburn. The elder son com- pleted the studies of the Newhall grammar school when about fourteen and then began to earn his own way in the world. March 17, 1897, he became a roustabout for the Pacific Coast Oil Company in the Newhall field, and he continued at that work until November 1 of the same year. An uncle, Alexander Mentry, being superintendent of the Pacific Coast Oil Company, gave him a position in a minor capacity at the water station pumping plant. In a short time he was given charge of the engines, pumps and general water system.

On New Year's of 1901 the Pacific Coast Company sold out to the Standard and on the 15th of April of that year, Mr. Powell was transferred to the production department. For one year he remained in the general production department of the Standard, which transferred him April 15, 1902, to the Kern river fields in order that he might assist in putting in the eight- inch pipe laid by that organization from the Kern river fields to Point Rich- mond on the bay. December 13, 1902, the Standard transferred him to Newhall, where he was assigned to work in the production department and there he remained until August 31, 1906. Meanwhile he had felt the need of better educational advantages and when he resigned his position he entered the Southern California Business College as a student in the com- mercial department, graduating August 2, 1907. In addition to this course of instruction he had taken an English course in the International Corre- spondence Schools at Scranton.

While working in the Newhall field Mr. Powell formed the acquaint- ance of Miss Reath Prall and they were married August 14, 1904, in Santa Paula, Ventura county, her home town. They are the parents of one child, Florence Helen. During her residence in Santa Paula Mrs. Powell was an active worker in the Methodist Episcopal Church. After his marriage Mr. Powell was employed as field foreman with the Union Oil Company in the Santa Paula fields, but that position he resigned December 31, 1908, and a few weeks afterward came to the Kern river fields, where he has since been connected with the Associated and where he and his family occupy the foreman's house on the Alva lease, on section 29, township 28, range 28.

E. D. HIGLEY .- Continuous application has marked the activities of Mr. Higley from early life. When yet a mere lad he became self-supporting and at the age of eighteen he had gained a skill in carpentering such as is not always possessed by those having years of experience in the occupation. Starting out with scanty education and no money, assuming domestic obli- gations at an early age, he was handicapped in his first efforts. A native of Nebraska, born in Lincoln county March 7, 1880, he was familiar from his earliest recollections with the isolated frontier, the broad ranges lying beyond the then confines of civilization. Nor did removal to North Dakota broaden his outlook upon the world, for the homestead there stood aloof

1321

HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

from the great inarkets of the country and had little to offer in comfort or opportunity. At the age of eighteen he married Miss Ella Ree Mckay, a young lady living in Wells county, which adjoined his home county of Kidder. The little home started upon the plains of North Dakota was barren of comforts, yet within its walls there was much of joy and con- tented work. As the land was brought under cultivation and ere it had become a source of income, the young homesteader carned his livelihood as a carpenter.

Believing he could better his condition in California Mr. Higley brought his family to the coast in 1906 and has since been employed in the oil fields. It is his intention to soon establish the family home at Waits, Kern county, so that his work may not take him far distant from his wife and four children, Eunice, Gurdon H., Lois Amy and Elberta. After coming to this locality he worked with different companies, including the Southern Pacific (six months), Canfield (five months) and Merrill Crude (two months), after which he was employed by Captain Black for eighteen months in the building of oil derricks. For two months he worked in the Sunset and Midway fields, but with that exception he has limited his labors largely to the Kern river fields. For a time he conducted a livery business, located upon the lease of the Bald Eagle Oil Company in the Kern river fields, but recently he sold out his interest to his partner, W. B. Austin, who continues the business at the same location, while Mr. Higley gives his entire time and attention to contracting and building. His specialty is the building of derricks, in which he has become so expert that his services are in constant requisition. In fraternal relations he hold membership with the Woodmen of the World and the Modern Woodmen of America.

S. H. MARTIN .- The foreman of the Sterling division of the Asso- ciated Oil Company, who likewise holds a position as superintendent of the Sovereign Oil Company on section 31, township 28, range 28, has been familiar with the oil industry from his very earliest memories. The incum- bent of his present responsible positions since 1907, he meanwhile has pro- moted the financial welfare of both organizations and has guided every detail with a careful eye and keen discrimination. The Sterling owns one hun- dred and sixty acres, but leases forty acres to the Vesta Oil Company and twenty acres to the Sovereign, the balance of their tract containing forty- one producing wells. The Sovereign shows ten producing wells. Both companies are equipped with every modern convenience for the prosecution of the work and conduct all affairs in a model and business-like manner.

Born in Venango county, Pa., July 14, 1880, Mr. Martin is a son of David E. Martin, now of Kern county, the present superintendent of the Oakland Midway Oil Company on the west side. Business changes took the family from one point to another and the son, primarily educated in Pennsylvania, later had excellent advantages in tlie Los Angeles high school and in a commercial college of the same city. After he had graduated from the business college he devoted himself wholly to the oil business, of which he previously had gained an expert knowledge. His father, who had come from Pennsylvania to take charge of the department of drilling for the Union Oil Company at Santa Paula, Cal., went to Missouri, where he became superintendent of the Whitney Water Supply Company at St. Louis. During 1896 he came again to California and settled in Los Angeles, where his son, who previously had assisted him in his work with the St. Louis organization, became yet more helpful to him in the work of dressing tools for drilling.

When only nineteen years of age S. H. Martin engaged as a driller with the Central Oil Company of Whittier, Cal., and for four years he con- tinned in the same place. From there he went to the lower part of Old

1322

HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

Mexico near the Pacific ocean and engaged in drilling for oil at Pochutla, state of Oaxaca, where he was employed for eight months. Meantime he acted as geologist for the Pacific Coast Oil Company of Mexico. From Mexico he transferred his labors to Lower California, where he drilled a well ior a company capitalized at Birmingham, Ala. Returning to the United States he engaged in drilling with the California Oilfields, Limited, at Coalinga, and later had similiar work at McKittrick, Kern county, where he drilled on the Reward lease. After having held a position as driller with the Union Oil Company in Ventura county, he went to Los Angeles county and started work on the Gilman property at Sherman. Having engaged in the oil industry in so many different places and with so many varied com- panies, he was well prepared for successful effort when finally he came to Kern river fields in 1905. After two years as a driller in 1907 he became superintendent of the Sterling and Sovereign, which he since has managed with success. Since coming to Kern county he was married at Bakersfield to Miss Ethel Fall, of Globe, Ariz., by whom he has two sons, David and Joe. In fraternal relations he holds membership with the Elks at Bakersfield.

HENRY ERICKSON .- The superintendent of the Junction Oil Com- pany in the Kern river fields is of Pennsylvanian birth and Scandinavian descent. Born at Oil City, Venango county, Pa., June 19, 1880, he was sixth in order of birth among the nine children comprising the family of John and Caroline Erickson, both of whom were born in Sweden, but at early ages became residents of Pennsylvania. The family lived upon a farm near Venango and the son began to assist in the tilling of the soil as soon as old enough to handle machinery and horses. Scanty educational privileges came his way, for from boyhood his was a struggle for self-support. In spite of the handicap of lack of schooling he has become a man of broad general information. When twenty-one years of age he left the farm for the oil fields near his home and ever since then he has been connected with the oil industry. After a brief experience as a pumper he was promoted to be a tool-dresser, in which he soon became quite skilled. After a year at Oil City he went to Indiana and soon became field foreman for the Ohio Oil Company at Marion, where he continued for three years.

The next district that attracted the young man was the oil fields of Illinois, where for thirteen months he engaged as foreman and pumper with the Campbell Oil Company at Casey. From Illinois he came to California and settled in the Kern river oil fields, where he secured work as a foreman with the West Shore Oil Company. A year later he was made foreman for the Section 5 Oil Company, remaining with them for eight months and then resigning in order to return to Pennsylvania, where he worked at Oil City tor six months. Upon his return to the western oil regions he secured employ- ment in the Santa Maria fields in Ventura county, where he had charge of the installation of gas engines for the Union Oil Company. Eight months later he returned to the Kern river fields, where for a short time he served as foreman of the Capital City Oil Company. September 15, 1910, he was chosen superintendent of the Junction Oil Company, a corporation composed prin- cipally of San Francisco capitalists. Eighty acres of land are owned by the company and the work of development has only begun. Of the eight pro- ducing wells six have been redrilled and the average net production is between five thousand and six thousand barrels per month. Having given his atten- tion to the details of the oil industry and to his own particular responsibilities, Mr. Erickson has not had leisure for participating in public affairs or local enterprises, but he aims to keep posted concerning all enterprises of worth to community or county. While living in Santa Maria he became identified with the Knights of Pythias at that place and since coming to Kern county he has joined the Loyal Order of Moose at Bakersfield. By his marriage to

1323

HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

Miss Hattie Irwin of Oil City, Pa., he has two children, Lawrence and Mary.

J. A. C. MILES .- Although a resident of California during the greater part of his life and since December of 1910 identified with the Kern river oil fields, Mr. Miles was born November 16, 1887, on a large sugar plantation of Hawaii. The death of his father, G. W. Miles, who had been a traveling sales- man, caused a breaking up of family ties and resulted in the fatherless boy being taken into the home of an uncle, William E. Miles, in San Francisco, where he was reared and educated. There were two younger children in the family and both of these still reside in Honolulu, Fannie Isabel being the wife of Paul Burns, of that city, while William E. conducts a dairy and stock ranch and a banana plantation in the same district. The mother, who bore the maiden name of Jennie K. Harvey and who at the age of forty-seven (1914). is still a resident of Hawaii, is a sister of the late senator, Hon. Frank Harvey, from the territory of Hawaii.

A thorough education secured in the San Francisco high school was supplemented by specialized work through correspondence courses in elec- tricity and electrical engineering, and in that way Mr. Miles laid the founda- tion of a broad expert knowledge inestimable in its value to subsequent endeavors. During early youth he became an apprentice with the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company of San Francisco and Oakland. From a very humble position he worked his way rapidly to a post of importance, and before he was twenty-three years of age he had been appointed chief installer. Through the influence of his uncle, William E. Miles, who is a man of prom- inence in the oil fields and now serving as secretary of the Apollo, 4-Oil and Amaurot Oil Companies, he secured a position as bookkeeper for these organi- zations in December of 1910, since which time he has been identified with the Kern river district, and here, at Oil Center, he was united in marriage with Miss Hazel Long, daughter of John Long, of Missouri.

M. J. PEARL -- Since the acquisition of its great holdings by the Kern River Oilfields of California, Limited, in 1910, as well as prior to that date with the old Imperial and 33 organizations, Mr. Pearl has been one of the trusted employes. Not content to be merely a good workman, he has always tried to do whatever came to his department better than he ever had wrought before. Not only is he active, alert and industrious, but in addition he has a genial temperament and his kindly spirit radiates cheer and carries encour- agement to other workers around him. He was the son of poor parents and was born at Williamsport, Pa., May 5, 1864, removing with the family to Kansas at the age of seven years and receiving a limited education in Topeka schools. Later through his own efforts he paid his way through St. Mary's College in Kansas. In the town of St. Mary's he married Miss Blanche San- nier and six years later moved to Flagstaff, Ariz., where he found employment with the Arizona Lumber and Timber Company.

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 133

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