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 140

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 140

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After having worked as a day laborer in Palermo, Italy, from the age of fifteen until he was seventeen, Gaudenz Weichelt then returned to his native place at Graubunden, Switzerland, and in a short time started for the new

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world. April 1, 1891, he arrived in Bakersfield. The following day he secured employment as a day laborer on a dairy farm situated on Union avenue, remaining there about a year. Later he was employed on two other dairy farms, the last one that of Chris Mattley. Meanwhile he had saved his wages with frugal care. His next venture was the renting of land two and one-half miles southwest of Bakersfield, where he started a dairy farm and engaged also in stock-raising. With his savings he bought twenty acres three miles southwest of Bakersfield. Moving to the new farm, he embarked in the dairy business. Later he added to the tract and now owns sixty-six acres in one body, under the Stine canal, well adapted for an alfalfa and dairy farm. From that farm he drove a retail milk wagon through the city and built up patronage that proved profitable although requiring constant attention. Dur- ing January, 1908, he closed out the dairy business, leased the land and moved into Bakersfield to engage in business on the corner of Nineteenth and K streets. Of recent years he has been financially interested in the Sun- shine Oil Company and also in the Seabreeze Oil Company.

In 1896 he married Miss Martha Ruefenacht, a native of Jalde, Russia, and a daughter of Gottleib and Freda (Metzger) Ruefenacht, born in Bern, Switzerland, and near Heilbronn, Wurtemberg, Germany, respectively. Dur- ing the year 1893 Mrs. Ruefenacht brought the family to California and settled in Bakersfield. Mrs. Weichelt died August 30, 1904, leaving four children, Walter, Freda, Elsie and Martha, and with them Mr. Weichelt makes his home on the corner of Nineteenth and Myrtle streets. Politically Mr. Weichelt has been stanch in his allegiance to Republican principles, while in fraternal relations he is identified with the Eagles and the Hermann Sons, and he and his family are members of St. Johns Lutheran Church. Deeply interested in the free-school system, he served for some years as school trustee in the Stine district and during the term of his official service the site for a school was selected and a new building erected. Of industrious and persevering tem- perament, he has found in California an opportunity for material advancement which his native land could not offer.

JOSEPH VACCARO .- Born July 25, 1868, in San Francisco, Cal., Joseph Vaccaro is the son of early settlers in Kern county, who upon coming to this country first settled in San Francisco, thence moving to this county. In 1885 he also came here and procured work with the Miller & Lux Land Company, working for them in all parts of the country, and learning the many par- ticulars concerning the tilling of the soil and the conduct of a productive farm. He familiarized himself with these details and his ability was soon recognized. In 1901 he was called to become superintendent of the Alameda ranch, owned by R. E. Houghton of San Francisco. During the summers he has from twenty to twenty-five men working under him on the ranch, in the winters having from six to ten, and so systematically is the arrangement that the work moves quickly and smoothly to the ultimate gain of the owner and the complete satisfaction of all concerned.

Mr. Vaccaro is unmarried and devotes all of his time and attention to his duties. Fraternally he is a member of Bakersfield Aerie No. 93, Order of Eagles. He takes no active part in public affairs, but his interest is ever for the promotion of better conditions in his community.

JESSE DECATURE BRITE .- Among the native sons who have risen to prominence and have been appointed to fill responsible positions is Jesse D. Brite, who was born in Brites Valley, Kern county, February 27, 1885, the son of James M., and grandson of John Moore Brite, the pioneer settler of the Tehachapi region and from whom Brites valley receives its name. His father is an old and honored settler and stock-raiser of the valley. Jesse was brought up on the farm and learned the stock business, receiving his education in the local schools and Brownsberger's Business College in Los Angeles,

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where he completed the course in typewriting and stenography. He then entered Heald's Business College at Stockton and after completing the course entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad at Tehachapi as a clerk, which position he held about four years.

On being appointed postmaster at Tehachapi by President Wilson July 10, 1913, Mr. Brite resigned his clerkship and assumed the duties of his office August 30, 1913. With his usual tact he is filling the position to the satisfac- tion of the citizens.

In Hackberry, Mohave county, Arizona, occurred the marriage of Jesse Brite and Miss Eva Cofer, who was born there and is the daughter of A. F. Cofer, a large cattle man of Hackberry. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Brite have been born two children, Chester C. and Viola. Fraternally he holds membership with the Arroyo Grande Lodge, M. W. A. He has always been much interested in and an active local worker of the Democratic party.

MRS. ADELINE PESANTE .- Among the pioneer residents of Old River who have contributed to the material upbuilding of the community and raised a large family to be men and women of credit to the county we find Mrs. Pesante, who was born in the town of Andeer, Canton Graubunden, Switzer- land, the daughter of Christian and Katherina (Engle) Lehner. The father was a contractor and farmer. The daughter, Adeline, was reared in the beau- tiful Alps region, receiving her education in the public schools of that vicinity, and there she was married April 4, 1880, to Peter Pesante, who was born in the same village July 18, 1858, the son of a farmer. Naturally he learned that pur- suit, which he followed in that country until 1883, when he came to California to select and establish a home for his family in the region of which they had heard such good reports. The family joined him in 1885. They resided in Salinas until 1886, when they moved into Kern county and he entered the employ of the Kern County Land Company on the Lakeside ranch, remaining there until his death in 1889. Mrs. Pesante, left with four children, continued to reside at Lakeside and was employed there until her second marriage to a brother of her former husband, John Pesante, born in 1863. Soon afterwards they purchased the twenty acres near Old River, where he farmed until his death in 1907. Since then she continues to reside on her ranch, which is well improved and is run under the supervision of her son.

By her first marriage she had four children, as follows: Christian, who is a farmer in this county ; Peter, an employe on the Southern Pacific Railroad ; Lena, Mrs. Small, who resides in San Francisco; and Dina, in the employ of the San Joaquin Light & Power Corporation in Bakersfield. Of the second marriage there were six children, namely: Adeline, Mrs. Christian Ruedy, of Panama ; Mary, Mrs. Zillig, residing in Arizona; John, Everett, Florence and Irving, who are still at home. Mrs. Pesante takes much pleasure in having been able to care for and train her children to habits of industry and self- reliance. Having been reared in the Protestant faith, she is a member of St. John's Lutheran Church in Bakersfield.

PETER TUCULET was born in Spelet near Bayonne, Basses Pyrenees, France, May 12, 1875. His father, also named Peter Tuculet, has been a farmer and stockman all these years and still resides on his little farm in the lofty Pyrenees with his wife, Frances. To them were born ten children, nine of whom are living, Peter being the fifth in the order of birth. From a lad he made himself useful on the farm and learned the stock business as it was done in the Pyrenees of France. Two of his brothers having located in Kern county. Cal., he also determined to see the land of which he had heard such glowing reports and setting out at the age of seventeen he arrived in Kern county in 1892. Immediately he found employment with a sheepman herding the flocks in Kern, Inyo and Mono counties for eight years, when he purchased a band. A year later he sold his flock to engage in mining in the

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Amelia district, being employed in the Gold Pick and also the Amelia mine until 1907. From that time until 1909 he was foreman of stone quarries at Victorville, and then returned to Bakersfield, since which time he has been foreman of the Noriega ranch, a position he is filling with his customary zeal.

Mr. Tuculet was married in East Bakersfield in 1900 to Miss Joanna Mier, a native of Spain, and to them have been born six children, as follows : Peter, Manuel, Joseph, Marie, Dominic and Frank. Both Mr. and Mrs. Tuculet are members of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in East Bakersfield.

G. J. ALDRICH .- A resident of California since 1909, Mr. Aldrich claims Ohio as his native commonwealth and was born at Weston, Wood county, November 21, 1888, being a son of the late D. L. Aldrich, for years a druggist at Cygnet, Ohio, but deceased in 1909. The mother, who bore the maiden name of Flora A. Hoover, was born in Weston, Ohio, and now makes her home at Lima, that state. The family comprises three sons, the eldest of whom, Harry F., is employed as a drug clerk at Toledo, O., while the youngest, Rob- ert Lloyd, is engaged as a tool-dresser with the Syndicate Oil Company in the Midway field. The second son, George J., attended school as a boy, helped his father in the drug store during vacations, and at the age of seventeen left school and store in order to engage in the oil industry in the Lima fields for the Standard Oil Company. From the pipe-line gang he was raised to be a gauger, which position he filled about eighteen months. Meanwhile he was married at Adrian, Mich., to Miss Mina Clark, of Cygnet, Ohio, and soon after his marriage he moved to California, where he has since engaged in the oil business. For ten months he worked on the pipe line of the Standard at Orcutt in the Santa Maria field. When the Producers Transportation Com- pany built their line through to the coast he was employed in the capacity of engineer for three months, after which he became an engineer for the Asso- ciated Oil Company. A short visit at the old Ohio home was followed by his return to the west and the resumption of work with the Standard, in whose employ he came to the Signa station as a fireman and during September of 1912 received a merited promotion to be engineer. In his work he has had the cheerful and wise counsel of his wife, who is a woman of gentle Christian character, a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and a house- keeper whose attractive home radiates good cheer, as does also her kindly hospitality and amiable disposition.

L. D COULTER .- Born in Mckean county, Pa., September 25, 1884, he was reared in the oil fields of his native commonwealth and received a com- mon-school education, supplemented by attendance at the academy in West Sunbury, Butler county. The beginnings of the oil work became familiar to him while he was yet a boy. From the first he gave indication of special aptitude for the occupation. At the age of twenty he was doing work of considerable responsibility in the Butler county fields. Much of his work in the east was done in West Virginia, where he was employed at St. Marys for some time as a tool-dresser and where he gained a reputation for skill and efficiency. After four and one-half years in West Virginia he sought a larger field for his activities and since 1909 has been connected with the industry in California, where for some eighteen months he worked at Coalinga before identifying himself with the Midway field. Merit alone caused the rise of Mr. Coulter from roustabout through the varying grades of work to the posi- tion of foreman with a concern of great prestige and large interests. Since coming to the Midway field he has engaged as production foreman on the Shale, Oakburn and Brunswick divisions of the General Petroleum Oil Com- pany. While in West Virginia he was identified with the Knights of Pythias at Glover Gap and since coming to the west he has been associated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Taft and the Eagles at Coalinga. In 1912, a year after his marriage, he was deeply bereaved by the death of his

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wife, who was Miss Sarah Robards, member of an old Kentucky family and a lady of such culture and gentleness as to win and retain the friendship of her large circle of acquaintances.

F. J. BURNS .- The oil industry in Kern county has an able representative in the person of F. J. Burns, superintendent of the Dominion Oil Company and identified with other organizations engaged in the business of development in this district. While the upbuilding of the Dominion's lease of forty acres on section 15. 31-22, with its four wells averaging a monthly production of twelve thousand barrels, has been his principal task, it by no means represents the limit of his energies, for in addition he started the King George Oil Company in 1911 and also drilled down two thousand feet on the Bobby Burns lease at McKittrick and has had other interests more or less successful. A resident of McKittrick, he served as justice of the peace from November, 1912, until April. 1913, when he resigned in order to devote his entire time to the oil business.

Near Woodbridge, Suffolk county, England, F. J. Burns was born Feb- ruary 26, 1875, the son of John Franklin and Elizabeth Burns, the latter of whom died one week after the birth of her son, F. J., while the former died the following year. There was only one other child, a brother ten years older than F. J. ; he became a surgeon in the British army and was sent to Egypt, where he was shot and killed while attending to wounded soldiers on the battle- field. The father was a country gentleman and owned Marleybone Court, an estate comprising about eighty acres. The family was both prominent and financially prosperous, and a nurse and governess were kept for the special care of the children, who after the death of their parents were the special charge of relatives holding the estate in trust for their use.

In 1894 F. J. Burns sailed from Antwerp for Jersey City, landing in June of that year after an uneventful voyage. From the east he proceeded to Chicago and thence to Victoria, B. C., where he engaged to work as book- keeper in the office of the Pacific Coast Steamship Company. Later he be- came purser on the steamship Monmouthshire of the same line. For six months he filled that position, meanwhile visiting the ports of China and Japan, as well as many American ports on the Pacific coast. These voyages gave him a varied knowledge of much of the world, thus supplementing the information he had gained through his travels in England, Holland, Belgium and France, in company with his brother, Captain Burns, during the furloughs of the latter while acting as surgeon in the British army. Upon resigning as purser he came to the oil fields of California, bringing letters of introduction to leading oil operators in the Santa Maria field. For two years he engaged as superintendent of the Pinal and Brookshire Oil Companies and in 1909 came to McKittrick, where he has since organized the Bobby Burns Oil Company, the Scottish Oilfields Limited, the Carnegie Oilfields Limited and the Domin- ion Oil Company, the two last-named being in the North Midway field. After the Carnegie had been developed to a depth of thirty-nine hundred feet it was changed to a water well, then sold and is now being operated by a water company. The Scottish Oilfields developed a lease in the Elk Hills to a depth of forty-one hundred feet, but found no oil and therefore abandoned the holdings. The King George was organized and incorporated in 1911, but no attempt has as yet been made to drill and test the property. These various organizations have required much time and thought on the part of Mr. Burns, who entertains great hopes concerning the ultimate development and future value of the Dominion properties and believes this section of the county to be unsurpassed in its openings for oil operators. He is interested in public affairs and votes the Democratic ticket. For some years he has been a member of the Democratic county central committee. In addition he is a member of the Bakersfield Club.

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PETER MATTLY .- Many of the most enterprising men who have made a success of the dairy business in Kern county have come hither from the region of the Alps in Switzerland, and among them we find Peter Mattly, who was born in Zilles, Canton Graubunden, April 19, 1879. He was the son of John C. and Christene (Grischott ) Mattly, who were both descended from old families in Graubunden and were prosperous farmers, residing at their old home until they passed from earth. Of their four children three are living, as follows: Christian, who resides in Mono county; Peter, of this review, and Hill G., who is associated with Peter in the dairy business.

Peter Mattly was reared in his native place and received his education in the public schools. From a youth he learned farming and was early set to work, thus learning habits of industry, carefulness and economy. Having become interested in reports from the United States he concluded to cast his lot in the land of the Stars and Stripes, and with that end in view came to Montana in 1901, remaining one year. Then he came to Mono county, Cal., where with his two brothers he bought out their uncle, Leo Mattly, who was in the stock business. They continued raising cattle there until 1912 when he and his brother Hill sold their interest, and coming to Kern county formed a partnership with Chris Cayori and purchased the old Chris Mattly place of five hundred and sixty acres, where they are engaged in raising alfalfa and have a large dairy. To this business Mr. Mattly devotes all of his time. He was also interested in starting the Meadowland Creamery. In 1908 he made a visit to his old home in Zilles where he was married to Dora Cayori, the daughter of George and Menga Catrina Cayori. After their marriage he returned to California with his bride. Politically they espouse the Republican principles and in religious belief they are Lutherans.

MILLARD D. BENSON .- Embarking in the trade of a blacksmith M. D. Benson with a partner purchased from W. F. Hubbard the blacksmith shop at McKittrick, where he now conducts a growing and profitable business, using a gas engine for power and having in his shop every modern equipment for efficient work in his line.

The Benson family is of old eastern lineage. Dallas Benson, a native of Coudersport, Potter county, Pa., and a railroad contractor for some years during young manhood, established himself in Michigan for the purpose of pursuing his chosen business. While at St. Clair, that state, he married Miss Naydell Millward and established a home in that town. After the birth of a son, Millard D., which occurred at St. Clair, October 5, 1873, the family re- turned to Pennsylvania, the father establishing a home in his native town. After some years as a railroad contractor in that part of the country he took up agricultural pursuits and also engaged to some extent in lumbering. Until his death in 1892 he remained a resident of Pennsylvania. The widow after- ward became the wife of H. L. Holcomb, now a well-known resident of Bakers- field.

Upon the completion of the regular course of study in the Coudersport high school Mr. Benson took up lumbering in Pennsylvania. There also he learned every phase of the oil business. As a driller he proved to be excep- tionally capable. The discovery of gold in Alaska attracted him to that coun- try. During the spring of 1898 he went by steamer to Skagway and from there, crossing the White pass, to Dawson. After six months in the mining regions of the Klondike he was taken ill with typhoid fever. As soon as he was able to travel he followed the trail westward to St. Michaels, where he boarded a steamer for Seattle and then entered a hospital for recuperation from the fever. As soon as able to travel he came to Tulare county, where he soon regained his health. In the fall of 1899, at the opening of the Kern river field, he engaged as a driller for the Peerless Oil Company. Two months later, in December of 1899 he came to McKittrick, where he secured employment as a

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driller for the Grant Oil Company. Later tasks in drilling gave him a thorough acquaintance with the Midway, Sunset, Fellows and North Midway fields. Together with Mr. Iribarne in 1910 he bought the old Headquarters hotel and livery barn, but in 1911 he sold out to his partner. Later he bought a blacksmith shop, the largest in McKittrick, in which business he has Mr. Holcomb as a partner. After coming to Kern county he was married at Bakersfield to Miss Jennie Allen, a native of Kalamazoo, Mich. In fraternal relations he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Improved Order of Red Men.

ROBERT J. MULL .- It has been necessary for Mr. Mull to earn his own support from boyhood. Although still a young man (born in 1885) already he has established and developed an important business. After some time devoted to work around oil wells, in 1909 he embarked in the livery business at McKittrick, where he built a barn and corral, purchased driving horses and buggies, and opened a stable that he still conducts with fair profit. In addition he makes a specialty of auto livery and also owns and operates a blacksmith and horse-shoeing shop, so that in the varied lines of activity he keeps busily and profitably employed.

When only one year old Robert J. Mull was left an orphan. During 1887 he was brought from his birthplace, Newport, Ark., to California, where he was taken into the home of an uncle at Merced. Later he lived successively at Santa Barbara and Bakersfield and attended the schools of those cities. A course in Heald's Business College completed his education. Upon leaving school he secured work in the Coalinga oil field, where he was employed as a tool-dresser. Coming to the McKittrick field in 1906, he continued here as a tool-dresser until 1909, when he embarked in the business that since has engaged his time and attention. Since coming to McKittrick he has become a member of the Yoko Tribe No. 252, I. O. R. M. Politically he supports Democratic principles. His family consists of wife and daughter, Evelyn. Mrs. Mull, prior to their marriage in Tulare, was Miss Hattie Stevenson, and is a woman of culture and education, a native of Licking, Mo.

FRED L. SMITH .- The tide of emigration that bore great multitudes of sturdy pioneers away from the shores of the Atlantic into the unknown regions of the interior found the Smith family transplanted from the east to the then undeveloped regions of Michigan, where William H. was born at Ply- mouth and where in youth he learned the trade of stonemason under his father. However, the young man was more fond of adventure and started cut to see something of the world. While in Louisiana he was induced to join the regular army and received an assignment to the Twenty-fourth United States Infantry, which was dispatched to Fort Missoula, Mont. Through the request of his mother he was honorably discharged, on account of being under age. He secured employment in Montana and after a brief period became manager of the grocery department of the Missoula Mercantile Company, continuing in the same position for fifteen years. Meanwhile he was elected county clerk and recorder of Missoula county and he won the election two terms, but during the last year of the second term he resigned in order to accept a position as chief of police of Missoula. Ten months later he gave up that post and embarked in the real-estate business, but soon afterward was appointed city clerk, which office he now holds.

Mr. Smith married in Montana Miss Alice V. Amiraux, a native of Maine, who had accompanied her family across the plains in a "prairie schooner" drawn by oxen. Upon reaching Montana her father, Henry A. Amiraux, located near Missoula and embarked in stock-raising and ranching. Later he was chosen to serve in the territorial legislature of Montana. There were three children in the family of William H. and Alice V. Smith and two of these survive. Youngest of the three, Fred L., was born at Missoula, Mont., November 3, 1882, and received his elementary education in his native town.

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After he had graduated from the Missoula high school in 1899 he entered All Hallow's College in Salt Lake City and continued in that institution for three years, receiving in 1902 a diploma from the commercial department. Upon his return to the old home town he entered the employ of the Missoula Mercantile Company as a bookkeeper. When his father was elected county clerk and recorder he was appointed chief deputy in the office and upon the resignation of the incumbent toward the close of the second term he was appointed to fill the vacancy. When a new incumbent had been elected he con- tinued as chief deputy for one year, after which for a similar period he man- aged a hotel in Missoula. Next he engaged in the cigar business in Wallace, Idaho. December 1, 1911, he came to Bakersfield, where he soon formed a partnership with E. J. Thompson in the running of the Oil Center stage between Bakersfield and Oil Center, a distance of seven miles.

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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 140

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