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 135

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 135

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H. J. HATH .- Considerations of health brought Mr. Hath to California when twenty-four years of age and since then he has lived in Kern county. A native of Michigan, he was born September 1, 1878, in Clinton county, seven miles north of Lansing and seventy miles east of Grand Rapids. His father, James M., for years a farmer in Clinton county, died there in 1900.

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and the mother, Lovina (Burdy ) Hath, still remains at the old homestead. The parental family included eight children and of these H. J. was next to the youngest. Like the other children, he was early taught to aid in the work on the home farm and during winter months attended a country school. Later he had the advantage of a course of study in a business college at Lansing. During 1901 he was united in marriage with Miss Stella M. Dunn, of Shia- wassee county, Mich., and they have two children, Elno and Thelma.

Realizing that he could not hope to live long if he remained in Michigan he came to California in 1902 and here he has had the satisfaction of com- pletely regaining his strength and has done well from a business standpoint. so that he has had no reason to regret his removal to the west. After coming to this county he worked in the Southern Pacific shops at Kern for seven months and then came to the Kern river oil fields, where ever since he has been employed, at first as a day laborer and since August 1, 1911, as fore- man of the machine shop on the lease of the Kern Trading and Oil Com- pany. Ever since boyhood he has displayed mechanical ability and has pre- ferred work with machinery to other forms of labor, so that he finds his present position congenial and suited to his abilities. In political affiliation Mr. Hath is a Republican and fraternally he is identified with the Woodmen of the World. In 1912 he was elected trustee of the Petroleum school district, in the Kern river field, where is being erected an elegant $10,000 school house, the finest structure of its kind in the field.

MRS. SARAH GLENN .- One of the early pioneers of California, whose many experiences of untold hardship and deprivation are often retold to the many friends and relatives who now surround her, is Mrs. Sarah Glenn, now making her home with her daughter, Mrs. Morris Borgwardt, of Bakers- field. She was born November 21, 1835, near Nashville, Tenn., daughter of Neal and Charity (Hall) Dennis. She was the fifth of her parents' family of eight children born in Tennessee, three others being born in Texas, and she was twelve years old when brought to Texas, ox-teams and horses fur- nishing the means of transportation and travel, and a settlement was made at Belton, Bell county, that state, where the father followed farming. Mrs. Glenn was but fourteen when she was married to James Madison Glenn, who was born in the southwest February 22, 1821. The couple crossed the plains in wagons drawn by ox-teams to California and her eldest son, John Glenn, a cattle man at White River. Tulare county, was born on the journey, which took seven months and three weeks. In this company crossing the plains, which took place in 1854, were the Dunlap, Arnold and Brite families and they shared in many exciting and terrible encounters. At the head of the Gila river, the Glenn band was overtaken by Apache Indians, and it was only through the kind intervention of Adolph Moore that bloodshed was averted. However, a member of the band, by name Jim Houston, brother of Mrs. Dunlap, was shot by the Indians in trying to recover twenty-three head of horses which had been stolen. The first stop was made at Los Angeles, where the Glenns remained during 1854-55 and then went to Visalia, where the year 1856-57 was spent, and later they lived at the upper crossing of the San Joaquin river. Then returning to Tulare county, they lived for a year on the Kings river, whence they went to Linn's valley and later moved to Havilah. Upon their return to Linn's valley they settled here and Glennville was named after Mr. Glenn, who followed his trade of blacksmith, building the first shop of that kind in the vicinity. He con- tinued to follow this trade and conduct the blacksmith shop at Glennville until his death, which occurred in 1883, and at his death there passed away one of the most sturdy and energetic pioneers California has ever known. Six children survived him. John A. is a cattleman at White River, Cal. Charity became the wife of William Melburne, and now resides at Terra Bella. William is at Oxnard, Ventura county. Virginia Lee is the wife of

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Frank C. Beale, of Visalia. Neal is a gardener of Los Angeles. Etta is the wife of Morris Borgwardt, of Bakersfield, who is the custodian of the Emer- son school. Mr. and Mrs. Borgwardt have two children, Sibyl, who is a freshman in the Bakersfield high school; and Henry Lawton, who is in the Bakersfield grammar school.

JOHN BRECKENRIDGE BRITE .- The Brite family, of which John Breckenridge Brite is a member, has been so closely identified with Kern county, as to give its name to one of that county's fertile valleys, and Brites Valley has been the center of their industries for many years. While his parents were in Southern California, whither they had gone because of ill- ness in the family, John B. Brite's birth occurred in El Monte, Los Angeles county, December 20, 1866. He is the son of John M. Brite, the pioneer settler of the Tehachapi region, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this publication. John B. Brite received the education afforded by the local public schools of his vicinity, attending until he was sixteen, when he went to work for his father, continuing thus until he was twenty-one. For four years in partnership with his three brothers, he ran the home ranch, and it was finally divided among them, John B. becoming owner of three hundred and twenty acres, which he has since cultivated and where he has made his home. Aside from ranching, Mr. Brite was in the livery and blacksmithing business in the town of Tehachapi in 1902, but his large land interests engaged most of his time and he found it necessary to give them his entire attention. Consequently he disposed of the business and returned to his farm.

Mr. Brite at present is owner of twelve hundred and eighty acres of land and has about seven hundred acres of it under cultivation, the produc- tion of which finds a ready market. It has been proved that the land under cultivation is well adapted for fruit, vieing with any in the Tehachapi region, but the chief production on Mr. Brite's land is wheat and barley. He owns a combined harvester and in connection with his tilling the soil he raises thoroughbred Poland China hogs, having about four hundred head on his place. He has some fine cattle, using his father's old brand, the half moon and capital J.

In January, 1909, Mr. Brite was married to Belle Smith, a native of Pennsylvania, and they have made a pleasant and hospitable home in the valley.

HENRY SANGUINETTI .- One of the oldest superintendents now op- erating in the Kern river fields, and one who has seen great changes take place in this locality, is Henry Sanguinetti, who at present superintends the works of the Linda Vista. Piedmont and Sesnon Oil Companies, and is man- ager of the Oakland Water Company, being also superintendent of the Broadway Oil Company.

Mr. Sanguinetti was born in Vallicita, Calaveras county, Cal., where his father, John Sanguinetti, settled upon coming to America. The latter was one of the "forty-niners" who were attracted to this part of the world by the report of the discovery of gold. Reaching this state, he worked in the mines and later took up farming, and here he and his estimable wife, Rosa (Campa) Sanguinetti, lived and raised their family of five children, four sons and one daughter. The mother is now living, at the age of eighty- three years, on the old homestead of Calaveras county, where Mr. Sanguin- etti's three brothers and sister also reside.

Henry Sanguinetti was born August 16, 1867, and his public school education was supplemented by a course at the Stockton Business College, from which he was graduated. He worked with a construction gang in Calaveras and Amador counties, building stamp mills, flumes, hoists and all structures pertaining to mine operations. In 1886 he came to Kern county and did repair work on the Long Tom Mine about twenty-five miles north of Bakersfield, and in 1889 came to Bakersfield to engage as a contractor and

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builder. It was in the spring of 1900 that he decided to go to Alaska, where he was employed in building the Snattesham stamp mill, situated about thirty miles northeast from Juneau. This took him a year, after which he returned to California, coming direct to the Kern river oil field, having been sent hither by Frank Littlefield, who operated the Snattesham stamp mill, and here he has since remained. Mr. Sanguinetti has drilled about thirty- six wells, and in his work has proven himself a man of great constructive genius and a capable draftsman.

Before going to Alaska, in 1900, Mr. Sanguinetti was married to Miss Marie Meinecke, of Vallicita, Cal., whose parents were pioneers of Cala- veras county, of German descent. Before her marriage she was a teacher in the schools in her native county, and with her husband has always taken a deep interest in school affairs. He helped to organize the Toltic school district, and now serves as clerk of the board of trustees. Mr. and Mrs. Sanguinetti have three children, Marie, Dorris and Henry, Jr.

Mr. Sanguinetti is a stockholder in the Linda Vista, Piedmont and Broadway companies, and he now reaps the benefit of his stanch integrity and unfailing effort in their conduct.

JOHN H. AUGSBURGER .- Born and reared in Ohio, John J. Augs- burger, the father of our subject removed to Indiana, devoted his active life to agricultural pursuits and died July 8, 1911, at the old homestead. Surviving him are the widow and six children. The former, who bore the maiden name of Fannie Hirschy, was born in Indiana, descended from Swiss forebears, and is still living on the old home farm in her native common- wealth. The place lies near the eastern Indiana oil fields in the vicinity of Geneva. The six children are as follows: Rebecca, wife of Charles Tremp, of Woodburn, Allen county, Ind .; Noah, a farmer near Linn Grove, Adams county, Ind .; Albert, who is engaged in farming near Bern, Adams county, Ind .; Ella, who resides with her mother; John H., who was born near Linn Grove, Ind., December 11, 1884, and is the only member of the family to remove from the old home state; and Elmer, who now has charge of the homestead near Linn Grove. The next to the youngest son com- pleted his education in the Linn Grove high school, where he took a course of three years. At the age of seventeen he engaged as a roustabout with the Standard Oil Company in the Geneva district. After two weeks as a roust- about he began pumping. From that he rose to be a tool-dresser and then a driller. Two years were spent in the Casey field, where he worked suc- cessively for several different companies. For the next two years he worked in the Glenn Pool field in Oklahoma, and during 1909 came from there to California, where he worked at Orcutt in the Santa Maria field. A year later, in 1910, he came to Kern county and for two years drilled in the vicinity of Maricopa. July 16, 1912, he became connected with the Kern Trading & Oil Company in the North Midway division of the Sunset field near Fellows. As lease foreman, with headquarters on section 23, 31-22, he holds a very responsible position with one of the greatest concerns operat- ing in this county, and has won the confidence, not only of higher officials of the corporation, but also of co-workers and other employes, all of whom unite in testifying as to his ability, intelligence and devotion to duty.

DAN McDONALD .- The birth of Mr. McDonald occurred in Boston, Mass., January 1, 1870, and he received a public-school education in his native city. During 1893 he became an employe in the shipyards at Newport News, Va., and later he drifted to the Southwest to identify himself with the vast region that was drawing on the east for men of energy and intelligence. For nearly a year, he rode the range in Oklahoma and Indian Territory for different cattle outfits. After leaving there he drifted into Montana and followed the same occupation with John Murphy on the Seventy-Nine Horse Ranch near Billings, but resigned at the time of the discovery of gold in the Klondike, intending to accompany an expedition to

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Nome. However, he had gone no further than Seattle, when he was taken seriously ill with pneumonia. When finally he had recovered his health he went to Butte, Mont., and engaged in mining. Next he engaged in mining at Brigham, Utah, and from that point proceeded to San Juan, Colo .; thence to Bland, N. Mex., from which place he went to Jerome and Bisbee, Arizona,

Employment in Los Angeles filled the years between 1898 and 1902. During April of the year last named Mr. McDonald came to Mojave, where ever since he has made his home. For six years he followed mining with the Exposed Treasury Company and the Queen Esther Company, after which he embarked in the liquor business, becoming proprietor of the Los Angeles House, since which time he has built an annex to the house. In addition he has erected a cottage in the same block, which he used in connection with the hotel. In Los Angeles he married Miss Lillie E. Taylor, a native of Eng- land. By the union he is the father of four children, Lillie, Mabel and Mary, twins, and Joseph. In politics he always has been stanch in his allegiance to the Democratic party. Fraternally he is connected with Bakersfield Lodge No. 473, L. O. O. M., and also with the Los Angeles Aerie No. 202, F. O. E.

NICK BRITZ is the son of John and Gertrude (Salm) Britz, both of whom were natives of Germany and are now deceased. The father was a farmer and a member of an old and much respected family in that country. Six children came to their marriage, four having survived the parents, and Nick, who was the youngest and only one to come to America, was born June 29, 1860, near Sarbruchen or Treves, in Rhenish-Prussia. He was brought up in his native place and sent to the schools there. meanwhile aiding his father on the home farm. In 1881 he came to the United States and after stopping in Pennsylvania for a while he went to Pueblo, Colo., at the time of the building of the Bessemer Steel Works there, being employed on the construction of the blast furnace. In December. 1882, he came to Cali- fornia and secured employment in the Hills Ferry hotel, later doing farm work, and in 1884 he came to Bakersfield, where he entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad Co. Not long afterward he was transferred to Los Angeles by that company and worked in the roundhouse at Colton and Lancaster. In 1889, he returned to Bakersfield, first entering the employ of the German hotel, then the Walters hotel, after which he decided to start in business for himself. He opened up a liquor business on the corner of K and Nineteenth streets in 1892, and later added the French Cafe, but this he later sold and has since continued the original business, in which Gaudenz Wei- chelt also has an interest. Besides this business Mr. Britz is interested in the Los Angeles Fire Insurance Company.

Nick Britz was married in Santa Cruz, Cal., to Miss Josephine Matske, who was born in Berlin, Germany. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, Order of Eagles and the Order of Royal Arch. He is a Democrat.

J. R. LOCK .- An identification with the Associated Oil Company that began in November of 1909 and that kept him at the McKittrick holdings of the corporation for a considerable period, has since brought Mr. Lock to the company properties at Fellows, where he is now employed as head machinist, having charge of all outside work pertaining to the machinery at the com- pany properties one and one-half miles northeast of the town. Long experience as a machinist qualifies him for expert work in this important department of the devolopment work of the concern.

A Missourian by birth, Mr. Lock was born near Darlington, Gentry county, December 18, 1877. The farm where uneventfully were passed the years of boyhood and youth had been occupied by his father since 1856, when that hardy pioneer took up the land and began the transformation of the raw prairie into a remunerative, productive estate. Now unable to continue the heavy agricultural labors of his younger days, he has leased his farm of three hundred and eighty acres and is enjoying the comforts of old age. By his

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marriage to Eliza Williams, who died in 1894 at the age of forty-four years, he had a family of five sons and one daughter. All are still living with the exception of one of the sons. The youngest son and next to the youngest child, J. R. Lock, was reared at the old homestead and received a common- school education. Upon starting out to make his own way in the west, he left Missouri in February, 1898, and removed to Colorado. For a short time he remained at Pueblo. Afterward he found employment in the mines at Crip- ple Creek, where his first employment was that of fireman for the hoisting engine. Within one year he was promoted to be hoisting engineer, which responsible task he continued most successfully for a few years.

Upon coming to California in February, 1909, Mr. Lock proceeded to Fresno and for two years was employed in running the pumps at the St. George winery. From there he removed to San Joaquin county and secured work as foreman of the R. C. Sargent estate on a ranch comprising one hundred and fifty thousand acres. During three and one-half years he filled the position and had charge of a herd of five thousand head of cattle. In order to prepare so large a drove for the markets it was necessary to raise large amounts of alfalfa and grain and all of such work was placed under his charge.

While engaged as foreman on this ranch he met and married Miss Emma A. Blohm and they and their three sons, James S., Arthur R. and John H., now occupy a comfortable cottage on the property of the Associated near Fellows. From the ranch in San Joaquin county Mr. Lock came to Kern county and engaged with the old Amalie gold and silver mine near Caliente, where he had charge of the hoist for four years, and since giving up that work he has been continuously with the Associated. His attention is given wholly to the duties of his position. He is a member of Taft Lodge No. 593, L. O. O. M.

L. A. HIRSCH .- Merit and persistence are the qualities that have con- tributed to the rapid rise of Mr. Hirsch in the oil industry. Although still a young man, scarcely yet in the prime of manhood and with years of possible continued usefulness stretching before him, his knowledge of the oil business is not surpassed by that of men many years older than he and his intelligent application to the work forecasts increased results for the future. As lease fore- man of the American Oilfields Company, with headquarters on section 36, 31-22, he is identified with production work on one of the greatest properties in the state.

Descended from an old eastern family, L. A. Hirsch was born at St. Marys, Auglaize county, Ohio, March 22, 1887. received a fair education in the grammar and high schools of his native town, and at the age of eighteen years became a pumper in the employ of the Standard Oil Company. Ever since that time he has continued in the same occupation. Upon leaving Ohio he went to Illinois, still as an employe of the Standard, and for a time he worked in the oil fields at Westfield, twelve miles north of Casey. A later position with the Silurian Oil Company at Bridgeport occupied him for two years and four months, after which he came to California in September, 1910, and found employment on section 22 division of the North American Con- solidated. After a short period with that company, on May 6, 1911, he became lease foreman with the American Oilfields Company, and has since filled this responsible position with creditable efficiency. With his wife, whom he mar- ried in Bakersfield and who was formerly Miss Blanche Worman, of St. Marys. Ohio, he has established a comfortable home on section 36 in a com- pany residence.

HERMAN AUGUSTUS WEFERLING .- The organization of the Te- hachapi Hay and Grain Company, effected in 1909 through the efforts of a number of progressive local men, has added another enterprise to the com- mercial activities of Tehachapi and has been pushed forward to a gratifying degree of financial importance through the capable management of Mr.

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Weferling, who assisted in the starting of the concern and has since acted as its superintendent. While Mr. Weferling is ably and efficiently conducting the large interests of the company his wife, formerly Mrs. Luella (Duty) Wiggins and a native of Texas, is devoting her attention to the management of her millinery store in Tehachapi.

Of German birth, a native of Braunsweich, Prussia, born August 21, 1867, Herman Augustus Weferling was next to the oldest in a family consisting of two sons and three daughters (all still living.) The parents, William and Louise (Bressel) Weferling, were born in Prussia and the father engaged in the sugar manufacturing business at Magdeburg on the Elbe. During 1868 he brought his family to America, proceeded as far west as Wisconsin and in Black Hawk county built one of the first sugar mills in the state. Coming to California in 1871 he worked for a time in a sugar factory, but soon went to Santa Cruz and near Soquel began to cultivate a farm. During 1880 he re- moved to Monterey county and bought a farm in Lockwood valley, where he remained until his death and where his widow still makes her home.

Reared in California and educated in the public schools of the state, Herman Augustus Weferling holds in highest honor the institutions of this commonwealth and is loyal to every movement for the permanent upbuilding of the state. At the age of twenty-one he left home to make his own livelihood. Coming direct to Kern county he located land in the Weed Patch and took up a claim under the homestead laws. Unfortunately a season of prolonged drought destroyed all of his crops and discouraged him to such an extent that he gave up the claim after two years. During 1890 he came to Tehachapi and secured a clerkship with Isidore Asher. Later he worked in the quartz mills. Since 1909 he has devoted his time wholly to the Tehachapi Hay and Grain Com- pany. In politics he is a Republican. The development of Kern county inter- ests him deeply. A firm believer in the opportunities offered by this section of the state, he adds another to the list of the progressive, liberal and public- spirited men whose citizenship has been of inestimable value to the county.

JEAN BURUBELTZ .- The death of Jean Burubeltz, on June 7, 1911, removed from East Bakersfield one of its oldest and best-known citizens, who had been identified with the interests of Kern county for thirty-five years, and who since 1901 had been the proprietor of the Hotel d'Europe of East Bakers- field. He was born in Lasse, Basses-Pyrenees, France, in January, 1852, and he grew up on the farm of his father, gaining the rudiments of his agricultural training under him. Coming to Kern county, Cal., at the age of twenty-one he engaged in the sheep business until 1890, when he sold out and went to Los Angeles, where he became interested in the hotel business. In 1901 he returned to Kern county and opened the hotel in East Bakersfield which he ever afterward conducted, and which his widow still continues with success. His death was a severe blow to many in his city, and he was mourned by a large circle of intimate friends. In politics he was a Republican.

On August 5, 1890, occurred the wedding of Jean Burubeltz and Miss Jeanne Erreca, who was born in Urapel, Basses-Pyrenees, France. She is the daughter of Pierre and Catherine (Mariluch) Erreca, the former now farming in France, while the mother is deceased. Pierre Erreca was engaged for some time in the stock business in Buenos Ayres, South America, but returned to France, where he purchased a farm and is now residing. He was the father of nine children, all living, of whom Mrs. Burnbeltz is the eldest.

Mrs. Jeanne (Erreca) Burubeltz came to the United States in 1883 and was married to Mr. Burnbeltz in Los Angeles, whence they came to East Bakersfield in 1901. She has five children, Michel, Carmen, Paul, Lawrence and Helen.

CHARLES RICHARD BRITE .- The name of Brite's Valley shall serve as a monument to the memory of John Moore Brite, a pioneer of '59 in this

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part of the state and in whose honor Brite's valley was named and a sketch of whom appears in this work.

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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 135

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