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 137

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 137

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CHARLES A. MAY .- The May Transfer and Storage Company, Incor- porated, forms one of the stable business concerns of Bakersfield, where under the enterprising management of the brothers, Charles A. and George S. May, the business has been developed from a very unimportant affair to a concern of large transactions. To meet the demands of the business the proprietors have erected a substantial and commodious transfer building and their stor- age capacity is equal to every demand that can be made upon it. Other activities have engaged their attention at different periods. Like their father, they have tried their luck in the mines and have gained little from them excepting experience. Like him, also, they have had identification with stock-ranching, but of recent years they have found it profitable to concentrate their energies upon the transfer and storage business, which now receives all of their time and intelligent supervision.

The secretary and treasurer of the company, Charles A. May, was born in Placer county, Cal., May 27, 1873, and at the age of one year was brought by his parents to Bakersfield, where he has lived much of the time since infancy. His father, George May, a California pioneer in 1850, became a mining partner of George A. Hearst during the early days and while thus associated he sank the Yellow Jacket shaft, the first in the now famous Comstock mine. For a time he had mining interests in connection with Senator Jones of Nevada. During the era of gold mining in Kern county he prospected here and did work in connection with the Big Blue gold mine at Kernville. Although a man of great energy and an excellent judge of mines, they brought him no success financially and eventually he abandoned the occupation for that of agriculture, taking up a home- stead sixteen miles south of Bakersfield at the old Tracy Crossing. There he built and for some years maintained a ferry. Next he operated a cattle ranch in the mountains at Walker's Basin and until his death, which occurred in 1898, he devoted his attention wholly to stock-raising and farming.

From an early age Charles A. May earned his own livelihood, for his father was unable to aid him in securing a start in the world. Any occu- pation that offered honorable work and fair wages became an object of interest to him. For some years he engaged in teaming to the oil fields and mines and during 1896 he tried his luck at mining near Randsburg in the eastern part of Kern county, but the goddess of fortune did not smile upon his efforts. As early in 1896 he and his brother, George S., embarked in the transfer business at Bakersfield, where they built a warehouse on the corner of Union avenue and Humboldt street. After his first marriage,

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which occurred in 1900 and united him with Miss Alice Yost, of Montana, he removed to that state and for four years lived at Red Lodge, Carbon county. During the four years of his residence in Montana he filled numer- ous important contracts, including the sinking of a three-compartment shaft one thousand feet deep for the Anaconda Mining Company. Upon return- ing to Bakersfield he became a teaming contractor for the Southern Pacific .Railroad Company, but more recently has devoted his entire attention to the transfer and storage business. In 1907 his first wife died leaving two children, Halcyon and Marshall. During December of 1911 he. was united in marriage with Mrs. Florence Bradley, of Salt Lake City, and they established their home at No. 127 Humboldt street, Bakersfield. In politics he votes the Republican ticket. Fraternally he holds membership with the Modern Woodmen of America. Having passed so much of his life in Bakersfield, he feels an especially deep interest in this city and in the surrounding country, and patriotism and loyalty have characterized his citizenship.

CLINTON BUFFUM CRAWFORD .- The founder of the Crawford family in California was Daniel Peers, who was born at Spring Hill, Nova Scotia, November 10, 1847, and came to the United States as soon as he became old enough to earn a livelihood. After his arrival in Boston during 1865 he found employment in factories in and near that city. In 1868 he came to California, spending the first year in San Francisco, where he held a position as cashier in a bank. While making his headquarters in that city he met and married Miss Anna Carter Taylor, who was born in Indianapolis, Ind., September 15, 1850, and at the age of four years was brought to the west by her parents. The family traveled via Panama and the four-year-old girl was carried across the isthmus on the backs of natives. Her education was received in the schools of San Francisco and she made her home in that city until her marriage. During 1872 she accom- panied her husband to San Luis Obispo, where their son, Clinton B., was born May 30, 1873. Some years later the family removed to the southern part of the state and bought land at Olive, then in Los Angeles county, but now a part of Orange county. The father still owns business interests, also an orange grove, at Olive, where he is a well-known and honored citizen.

After he had graduated from the schools of Olive, June 30, 1890, Clinton B. Crawford remained at the old homestead and worked for his father until 1895, when he came to Kern county. Near Rosel station, on what then was the Toolwass district, he took up a homestead claim of one hun- dred and sixty acres, where he experimented with dry farming for a few years. The chief drawback was the lack of irrigation facilities. He was obliged to haul water from a distance of eight miles for domestic use. The hard work and lack of success incident to dry farming led him to move to a new location, but he still retains his farm in that district. Since 1899 he has lived on a farm in the old Goose Lake channel of Kern river, where at first he bought eighty acres and later purchased an adjacent tract of one hundred and twenty acres, thus giving him a farm of two hundred acres, five miles northeast of Button Willow. The land was in the primeval condition of nature at the time of his settlement here. The most difficult exertion was required in order to transform it into a productive condi- tion. The task has been attended with many discouragements, his heaviest losses being caused by the floods of 1906 and 1908. In 1903 he determined to specialize in the dairy industry and in order to secure the desired stock with which to start his herd he drove to Orange county and bought six head of thoroughbred Jerseys, which he hauled back by wagon, a distance of two hundred miles, being nine days en route. This was the first pure- bred Jersey stock brought into his locality, and he now has ninety head of

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pure Jerseys. The success of the dairy business proves that the industry can be made profitable in this part of the county, while the modern improve- ments on the farm indicate that he is a man of thrift, intelligence and pro- gressive agricultural spirit. The place is one of the best cared for in the entire district.

The Republican party has received the vote of Mr. Crawford in national as well as local elections and he has served as a delegate to local conventions .. He favors educational movements and served most acceptably as trustee of the Wildwood school district. His marriage took place in Bakersfield October 26, 1895, and united him with Miss Alpha Helen Sisson, by whom he is the father of four children, Naomi H., Daniel M., Roy M. and Bruce M. Mrs Crawford was born in Muscatine, Iowa, February 1, 1875, and at the age of ten years accompanied her parents to California, settling at Santa Ana, where she attended the public schools. She is the daughter of Martin H. Sisson, who for many years was a farmer in Kern county and now lives retired in Bakers- field. During the Civil war he served in a Wisconsin regiment. With her husband Mrs. Crawford has labored tirelessly to secure the development of their farms and to promote the welfare of their children, and in the com- munity she shares with him the regard of a large circle of acquaintances.

LYNN WILLIAM BAKER .- His father, J. K. Baker, was born in Indianapolis, Ind., where he was reared and educated. His first experience in the stock business was at Keokuk, Iowa, where he had located, and he became a breeder of standard and thoroughbred horses, which proved a successful venture from the start. In 1902 he located in San Jose, Cal., where he now is living retired, enjoying the fruits of his earlier labors. His wife was Rebecca Campbell, born in Ohio, and they became the parents of three sons, Lynn W. being the second oldest.

L. W. Baker was born June 23, 1885, in Keokuk, where he attended the common school until he reached the age of thirteen. In 1899 he went to Shoshone, Idaho, where he entered the employ of the Stockgrowers Mercantile Company, which position he filled for eleven months. For thir- teen months following he followed mining in Inkum, Bannock county, Idaho, working in the old Wildhorse mine there, and he then removed to Quincy, Ill., where he was enabled to take a course at the high school and also at the Gem City Business College, from which latter he was graduated in 1903. Returning to Keokuk he was an employe of a clothing firm for some time, in 1905 coming to San Francisco to enter the employ of the wholesale grocery firm of Garretson & Company. He remained with the latter company until 1910 when they sold out, and in February of that year he came to Kern county where he has since made his home in Bakersfield. Buying out the cigar busi- ness of which he is now proprietor he built up a flourishing trade. In 1912 with W. C. Taylor he built the Dreamland Rink, on Nineteenth and R streets, 62x 116, the largest pleasure hall in the county and a venture that has been a decided success. Methodical and painstaking he has proved himself an apt business man.

As one of the organizers of Bakersfield Lodge No. 473, L. O. O. M., Mr. Baker was most prominent, putting forth every effort to procure their charter and establish the lodge on a firm basis. At the first election he was elected as secretary and was installed at the first meeting February 4, 1911, when there were a hundred and seventy-five members in the lodge. It grew to large proportions and numbered over eleven hundred in its membership when he resigned the position in September, 1912, in order to devote his time to his various interests, as the duties of his secretaryship demanded more of his time and attention than he could spare from his business. Mr. Baker is also a member of the Eagles. He takes no active part in politics other than to vote independently for the local men whom he deems best fitted for office.

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JOSEPH CUDA .- In point of years of actual residence, it is doubtful if the celebrated Weed Patch of Kern county can boast an older settler than Joseph Cuda, who for a long period of useful activity has been a leading horticulturist of the locality and owns a finely improved ranch of eighty acres. The property and an adjacent tract of equal size were taken up by him as a homestead. Born near the city of Prague, Bohemia, June 28, 1864, Joseph Cuda was brought to America in infancy by his parents, John and Catherine (Pracil) Cuda. The parents settled in Nebraska between Omaha and Lincoln and there two sons and a daughter were born. Having no means, the children were obliged to become self-supporting as soon as old enough and therefore had no educational advantages. The information Joseph Cuda now possesses has been acquired by observation, experience and reading. Upon arriving in this state he settled on a farm in Kings county near Hanford, but a year later, in 1888, he came with his family to Kern county, where he took up a home- stead of one hundred and sixty acres in the Weed Patch. At the end of seven years he proved up on the land, one-half of which he sold, retaining eighty acres for his own homestead. There are two children, Frank and Helen. The son is engaged as a driller of oil wells.

To have seen the Cuda farm in 1888 and not again until 1912, a stranger might have considered that a miracle had been wrought. But the only miracle is that of hard work, which has transformed the sage brush into a fine fruit farm. Besides the valuable vineyard of four acres there is a tract of eight acres in figs now twenty years old, while during 1910 Mr. Cuda planted ten acres in the same fruit. Twenty acres have been planted to peaches of the finest varieties. Of this peach orchard five acres were put out in 1907 and fif- teen acres in 1908, the whole being now in thrifty bearing condition. The bal- ance of the farm is in corn and alfalfa.

JOSEPH F. MAREK .- The president of Horn & Co., of Bakersfield, J. F. Marek, is an Iowan by birth, but his earliest memories are associated with the frontier of Nebraska, where his father, John Marek, settled in 1876 and acquired a tract of raw land with the intention of converting it into a pro- ductive farm. The tract was situated in Platte county near Columbus, at the edge of the then confines of agricultural development and until his death he continued at that place. It was impossible to give to the large family of ten children any special educational advantages and each was obliged to become self-supporting at as early an age as practicable. The youngest of the ten, Joseph F., was born February 10, 1873, during the residence of the family in Chickasaw county, Iowa, and in boyhood attended country schools in Nebraska, but his present broad fund of information has been obtained principally by habits of close observation and reading and by his long identi- fication with the printer's trade. When only fifteen he began as printer's devil to serve an apprenticeship in the pressroom of the Humphrey (Neb.) Dem- ocrat and continued in the same place until he had mastered the trade. During 1891 he left Nebraska and came to California, where he followed his trade in a commercial printing office at Los Angeles. For twelve years he con- tinued in that city and during a brief part of that time he engaged in the printing business for himself. Coming to Bakerseld in 1903, he was for three years a type-setter on the Daily Californian.

After many years of active identification with the printing business Mr. Marek, believing that he would be profited financially by a change, in 1906 bought a cigar stand at No. 1308 Nineteenth street, where he remained until 1909. Next he purchased the stand at No. 1511 Nineteenth street, where he established Marek's Smoke House. Meanwhile he had embarked in the wholesale business, which had developed beyond his quarters and the limits of his capital. During August of 1912, associated with Messrs. B. H. Pendleton and T. J. Brooke, of Horn & Co., of San Francisco, he organized and incor-

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porated Horn & Co., of Bakersfield, to which new concern he sold the wholesale business, retaining, however, one-half interest in the company, of which he now is president and manager. The warehouse and office are located at No. 1513 Twenty-first street, from which point shipments are made. The distinction of being the first exclusive wholesale tobacco business to be established in Kern county belongs to the house of Horn & Co., of Bakers- field, and the credit for the rapid growth of the concern belongs to the man- ager, Mr. Marek. Since coming to this city he has established a home of his own, being united in marriage with Miss Edith Myers, a native of Kern county. Fraternally he holds membership with the Eagles and Woodmen of the World, while in politics he stanchly upholds Democratic principles and serves as a member of the Democratic county central committee.

GEORGE W. HATFIELD .- Since 1911 Mr. Hatfield has had charge of the station at Fellows and has had included, under his own field of super- vision, the station at Shale and Suplico, the end of the line. His eldest son, George E., has entered the railroad service as clerk in the freight department at Fellows.

The eldest in a family of eight children, seven of whom are still living, George William Hatfield was born at Ripley, Brown county, Ohio, February 24, 1862, and is a son of Dr. George E. and Minerva W. (Mefford) Hatfield, natives of that same Ohio county. Throughout active life Dr. Hatfield suc- cessfully followed the medical profession. Prior to his graduation from the Louisville Medical College and while he earned a livelihood by teaching school, he gave up educational work in order to serve in the Union army, becoming a member of the Sixty-third Ohio Infantry. With his regiment he went to the front and gave active service until the expiration of the term of enlistment, after which he resumed the work of a teacher. When he had completed his medical education and received the degree of M.D., he gave his whole attention to practice and from 1868 until the present day, at seventy-four years of age, he carried on professional work in Kansas City, Mo. There his wife passed away April 9, 1899, her remains being buried at Parkville, Mo.

From the age of five years George William Hatfield lived in Kansas City, where he received a public-school education. For some years afterward he was a student in Park College at Parkville, Mo., and in that same town he gained his first knowledge of telegraphy. For four years he was employed as agent and operator in Missouri, from which state he went to New Mexico. Beginning as brakeman on the run from Albuquerque to Winslow he worked his way to the position of conductor through merit and fidelity to duty. After he had been connected with the railroad work in New Mexico from 1885 until the fall of 1890, he removed to the state of Washington and, making Seattle his headquarters, engaged as brakeman and then as conductor for the North- ern Pacific and Great Northern Railroads successively. Later he was appointed agent at Lowell, the same state. During 1903 he came to California and re- entered the service of the Santa Fe, becoming cashier at Pasadena, which responsible position he filled for four years and ten months. Next he was as- signed to various places on the Valley division as agent and in 1911 came to Fellows to enter upon the duties which he has since discharged with the greatest capability. While still living in Missouri he was married at Union Star, that state, to Miss Ida Mary Harman, a native of Marion, Grant county, Ind., and a woman of education and ability, a devoted member of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church, now affectionately ministering to the welfare of the family. Six of the seven children are now living, namely : Helen M., George E., Milton, David, Richard and Byron. In the suburbs of Fresno Mr. Hatfield bought a tract of five acres and built a residence which he still owns. In politics he has always voted with the Democratic party. Fraternally he holds membership with the Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of the World.

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GEORGE OSCAR CALDWELL .- The old Caldwell homestead at Gas- breaux, Kings county, Nova Scotia, has been in possession of successive gen- erations of the same family for more than two hundred years, having been purchased and improved by the remote ancestors who crossed the ocean to America from England and founded the name upon the bleak shores of the northern Atlantic. At that place occurred the birth of George Oscar Caldwell January 18, 1847, there also were born his father, Hibbert, and grandfather. William, and there too had occurred the birth of his great-grandfather, who lived to be one hundred and eight years of age. The family had representa- tives in the Revolutionary war, but Mr. Caldwell is descended only in a col- lateral line from those soldiers of a day long past. Hibbert Caldwell married Miss Helen Church, who was born in Lunenburg county, Nova Scotia, and died on the peninsula that had been her lifelong home. At the same place occurred the death of the father when he had attained the age of seventy-four years. The Church lineage is not only interesting, but also indicates the valor of the family and the antiquity of the race. It was one of that name who crossed the ocean from Kingston, England, and settled in Rhode Island. there founding a village that in loyal affection for his old home he called Kingston. Each of his nine sons was taught to love their land and to exhibit toward colonial institutions a patriotic reverence. When the Revolutionary war began seven of the nine offered their services to the struggling band of patriots, were accepted and throughout the struggle fought with ardor, hero- ism and devotion. The branch of the family that settled in Nova Scotia has exhibited the same loyal fidelity to their Canadian country and their talents have been called into service on various occasions for the good of their province. The father of Mrs. Caldwell, Hon. Lot Church, served for twenty years as a member of the house of assembly at Halifax and during that long period aided materially in promoting and passing measures for the advancement of Nova Scotia. One of his grandsons, Hon. Charles E. Church, a man of dis- tinguished attainments and fine mental endowment, was a member of the senate at Ottawa for many years.

The eldest of the six surviving members of a family that originally num- bered seven, George Oscar Caldwell passed his early years upon a farm and aided, as best he could, in the struggle to maintain the younger children of the family. September 4, 1864, he was apprenticed to the trade of blacksmith, which he has since followed and in which he has acquired exceptional efficiency. The apprenticeship of four years was served at Lower Horton, Kings county. At its expiration in 1868 he came to the United States and for five years fol- lowed the trade in Boston. Returning to Nova Scotia in 1873, he established a shop at Great Village, Colchester county, and conducted a business at that place until 1879, when he sold out and came to the Pacific coast. From San Francisco he proceeded to Santa Rosa and established a shop on Mendocino street, where he continued for six years. From 1886 until 1892 he engaged in business at Cloverdale, Sonoma county, after which he spent seven years as a blacksmith in Neenach, Los Angeles county, and there built up a trade extending throughout the entire Antelope valley. A desire to see something of the great northwest caused him to drive through California and Oregon as far as Salem, in the latter state, where he followed his trade for two months and spent his leisure hours in investigating the country. However, Oregon did not impress him favorably and he was glad to return to California, where in 1899 he chose Kern county as the center of his future activities. Excitement over oil discoveries was then at its height and he spent two years on the west side field as an employe of Jewett & Blodgett, after which he worked for the Edison Power Company. Since the spring of 1903 he has been engaged in the shops of the Kern County Land Company, being in point of years of associa- tion with the business the oldest blacksmith in their employ.

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Since coming to this county Mr. Caldwell has erected the residence which he now owns and occupies at No. 2315 Palm street, Bakersfield. The com- fortable home is presided over by his wife, whom he married at Newton, Mass., and who was Miss Susan Findlay, a native of Colchester county, Nova Scotia, and a daughter of William and Isabella (Thompson) Findlay, representatives of old families of that province. Eight children were born of the marriage, but three daughters, Helen, Isabella and Margaret, died in infancy, and a son, Sylvester, died in Bakersfield at the age of thirty-five years. Of the four survivors Oscar lives in Los Angeles county and William in Colton, Mrs. Julia Woods makes Bakersfield her home and Mrs. Bessie White is a resident of Wasco, Kern county. In national politics Mr. Caldwell supports the Repub- lican party. While living in Santa Rosa he became very prominent in the activities of Santa Rosa Lodge No. 54, I. O. O. F. Before leaving Nova Scotia he was made a Mason in Corinthian Lodge No. 63, F. & A. M., at Great Village, and after he came to California he identified himself with Curtis Lodge No. 140, F. & A. M., at Cloverdale. He is a stanch believer in the growth and prosperity of Bakersfield and is an ally of all measures for civic advancement and local upbuilding.

WILLIAM C. PERRY .- From the organization of the Mammoth Oil Company Mr. Perry has been a stockholder and since June 1, 1913, he has engaged as superintendent of the lease. There are four producing wells of 23 gravity oil on the lease. Besides the connection with this growing con- cern he has been a stockholder in the August Oil Company from the time of its organization and for two years or more he engaged as superintendent of the company's lease at Maricopa. Although still a young man, he has had an extended experience in the oil industry and has acquired a thorough acquaint- ance with many of the western fields.

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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 137

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