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 145

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 145

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Mr. Powell was born May 15, 1883, in Bluefield, Mercer county, W. Va., where he grew to manhood. He is a nephew of N. C. Carrington the exten- sive fruit-grower of Fresno, whose ranch is situated sixteen miles south and west of the city of Fresno. In 1903 Mr. Powell came west to seek a field for his efforts, and for six years he was engaged on fruit farms. In April, 1909, he came to the Kern River field where he became employed in the San Joaquin division of the Associated Oil Company, in June, 1911, being given the respon- sible position of well foreman. With the exception of six months, when he engaged with the Adeline Oil Company, at Maricopa, Mr. Powell continued actively connected with this division, making rapid advancement, and the development of this new industry in this part of the country has taken all of his time and attention. Mr. Powell is unmarried. His future is bright before him and his exceptional character, fine sense of honor and brilliant mental and physical ability are the best assets the young man of today could wish for to form a basis of his life's career.

CHARLES G. BECK .- The experience of Mr. Beck in the civil service has been one of slow but steady rise and in November of 1910 he was pro- moted to be superintendent of the Kern branch of the Bakersfield postoffice.

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To him belongs the distinction of being the first carrier of rural delivery in Kern county. It was in 1905 that he was appointed to the rural postal ser- vice, at which time he mapped out and opened route No. 1, and it still retains practically the same lines as established by him at that time.

A resident of Kern county from the age of eleven years, Charles G. Beck was born at Lebanon, Boone county, Ind., March 24, 1879, being a son of E. F. and Mary (Cook) Beck, natives respectively of Kentucky and Indiana. Prior to the Civil war the father had gone north to Indiana and there he enlisted in Company G, One Hundred and Thirty-fifth Indiana Infantry, with which he went to the front and in which he served as corporal until the expiration of the struggle. Although he took part in many engagements he was wounded only once, that being in the battle of Lookout Mountain, where he was injured in the knee. After he had been honorably discharged from the army he returned to Indiana, settled on a farm in Boone county and devoted his time to the tilling of the soil. After many years he disposed of his interests in that county, came to California, and in 1890 settled in Kern county, where he identified himself with the Rosedale colony. Taking up a raw tract of land west of Bakersfield, he devoted time and attention closely to the improvement of the place. Meanwhile in 1897 he was bereaved by the death of his wife, but he continued at the old homestead until the fall of 1911, when he sold the property, retired from farm work and removed to Oakland.

The eldest of four children, Charles G. Beck accompanied the other members of the family from Indiana to California and arrived in Kern county during December of 1890, after which he attended the public schools and then the Kern county high school. His schooling completed, he gave his entire time to the work of the home farm, until 1905, when he entered the government service. Meanwhile at Visalia, September 2, 1900, he had married Miss Dora Tellyer, who was born in Oregon and by whom he has one son, Harold. During the two years of his association with the rural free delivery he prepared for the examination for civil service, passed the same with credit, received a postoffice appointment and in February of 1907 became a clerk in the Bakersfield office. For a time he served as general delivery clerk, but later he was promoted to be registry and money-order clerk, and from that position he was transferred to the superintendency of the Kern branch of the Bakersfield postoffice. Every department of his association has been benefited by his close attention, intelligent devotion to duty and painstaking care with even the smallest details. Since moving to Bakersfield he has bought residence property at No. 618 Monterey street and here he and his family have a comfortable home.

JEAN B. RAYMOND .- A decided preference for stock-raising pursuits and particularly for the sheep industry doubtless results from the environ- ment of Mr. Raymond's early life, which was spent near the foothills of the snow-clad Alps mountains in the province of Hautes-Alpes, France. The village of Orcierre, where he was born October 4, 1867, was a small but thrifty community whose prosperity had its source in agriculture, and there his father, Jean, engaged in stock-raising until his death. The mother, who bore the maiden name of Judith Sarrzin, was likewise a native of Hautes-Alpes and a life-long resident of that part of France. There were five children in the family, but only two now survive.

The eldest of the family and the only one to establish a home in the United States was Jean B., who at the time of attaining his majority in 1888 bade farewell to the associations of the French farm and came to California to earn a livelihood. The village of Sumner (now East Bakersfield) was his first location and from here he went to Delano to work under a sheep- raiser. After two years in that locality he went to Fresno, where for a year he was employed by a sheepman. With his frugal savings he bought a bunch of sheep and started out for himself. For seven years he made his

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

headquarters in Fresno and meanwhile ranged his sheep in that county and in Tulare. Upon selling that flock in 1897 he came to Kern county, bought another flock of sheep, grazed them on the surrounding ranges and estab- lished his headquarters at East Bakersfield where subsequently he erected a residence at No. 518 Humboldt street. At this writing he owns a valuable flock of twenty-five hundred head of sheep, besides his residence and other property (mainly business) in East Bakersfield.

Mr. Raymond has given stanch allegiance to the Republican party, and fraternally he belongs to the Foresters. His marriage in East Bakersfield, April 24, 1905, united him with Miss Mary, daughter of Auguste and Mary (Bicais) Galvin, and they have two children, Bertha and Jean. Born and reared in Hautes-Alpes, Mrs. Raymond was third in order of birth among six children and passed the years of childhood upon a farm owned by her father, who in addition to being a capable farmer, also has served in the office of road supervisor in the French province, where he still makes his home.

MRS. BELLE CARDER ECKERT .- Significant of twentieth century progress in the west is the prominence accorded women in agricultural, com- mercial and industrial activities and their successful achievements in enter- prises of large importance. Not the least successful or capable among the women of the great San Joaquin valley, where a goodly number of ladies are operating farms, is Mrs. Eckert, who since the death of her husband has continued to cultivate the valuable property purchased by him some time prior to his demise. The tract of sixty acres of highly improved land lies in the Buena Vista district, eleven miles southwest of Bakersfield. By means of irrigation from the Buena Vista canal alfalfa is raised in large quantities, thus furnishing an abundance of feed for the dairy herd maintained on the farm.

A resident of Kern county since 1895, Mrs. Eckert previously had made her home in Texas, Arkansas and Arizona successively. Her father, William J. Carder, a native of Ohio, was the son of a blacksmith and learned that trade in early life, later also taking up the trade of a carpenter. During 1860 he removed to Missouri. While residing in that state he enlisted in a Missouri regiment and served in the Civil war until its close. Later he went to Kansas and settled in Clay county, where he married Miss Rosana Duncan, a native of Kentucky. After a brief sojourn in Kansas, also in Barry county, Mo., he settled in Dallas, Tex., and engaged in blacksmithing. During the residence of the family in Dallas a daughter, Belle, was born, she being the third among six children. Later the family went to Arkansas and there Mr. Carder died ; his widow now makes her home with Mrs. Eckert. The latter was educated in the public schools of Dallas, Tex., and Bluffton, Ark., and in 1890, in Cook county, Tex., became the bride of William Robert Town- send, a native of that state. Near Phoenix, Ariz., the young couple engaged in farming and there Mr. Townsend died in 1893. After closing out his af- fairs the widow left Arizona and settled in Los Angeles, whence in 1895 she came to Bakersfield. In this city she married John Eckert, a native of In- diana, who died on the home farm in 1910, leaving to Mrs. Eckert the estate which she had aided him in securing. By her first marriage she has two children, Edward and Anna Townsend, and the former is now aiding her in the management of the place. The family attend the Methodist Episcopal Church and Mrs. Eckert is a generous contributor to the missionary enter- prises of that denomination. Her political sympathies are with the Repub- lican party.

MARK WILSON .- A member of an old family of the west and himself a native Californian, Mr. Wilson was born in Visalia November 17, 1886, and received a fair education in the schools of that city. On the completion of the grammar course he studied for two and one-half years in the high school of Visalia. but left school at the age of fifteen years in order to earn

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his own livelihood. By chance the first position he could secure was with the Southern Pacific Railroad Company as an assistant in the warehouse and baggage-room. At the end of three months he was allowed to enter the telegraph office of the same road for the purpose of learning telegraphy. The work interested him deeply and he took hold of it with such ardor that by the time three months had passed he was qualified for a position.

There was need of a telegraph operator and clerk in the little office at Oil City, Kern county, a new station started for the convenience of the oil operators. Mr. Wilson was assigned to the place and at the age of only eighteen became assistant agent. During February of 1908 he was trans- ferred to East Bakersfield as ticket clerk, from which he was promoted to be cashier of the freight house in the same city, but in March of 1909 he was ordered back to Oil City, where the work had increased in importance as the shipments had been enlarged in volume. When but twenty-one years of age he was appointed station agent, being not only one of the youngest men to occupy such a position in the state, but also one of the most intelligent and popular. When the depot was moved from Oil City to Waits, during the month of September, 1912, he came to take charge of affairs at the new post. On July 14, 1909, he was united in marriage, at Mill Valley, Cal., with Miss Emma Louise Jasper, of Bakersfield, and they are the parents of one son, J. Ward Wilson. Since coming to Kern county, Mr. Wilson has allied himself with Bakersfield Lodge, No. 266, B. P. O. E., and has maintained an interest in the general activities of the organization. Broad-minded, ac- commodating and energetic, he has the friendship of the oil shippers in the Kern river field, and enjoys the distinction of shipping more oil from his station as an initial point than any other agent in California, while in addition the records prove that since he became station agent he hás shipped out more oil than any other agent in the entire United States.

JOSEPH V. MORLEY .- Near Land's End, in the county of Cornwall, England, Joseph V. Morley, now a well-known citizen of Kern county, was born August 1, 1854. He was the son of Joseph and Mary ( Bradford) Mor- ley, the former a land agent and farmer. His boyhood was passed in public schools and when he was sixteen years old he had spent one year at a college. After working for his father for a time he took up other employment and when he was twenty years old resumed his studies in surveying for two years. Later he was employed by his father until in 1884, when he came to the United States, to the home of a banker, Mr. Lanning, who was a friend of his father's, residing near Leavenworth, Kans. For a short time he was employed on farms near that city, but in January, 1885, he came to Kern county, Cal., where for a few months he was engaged as a laborer. In March of that vear, however, he found employment with Carr & Haggin, which later became known as the Kern County Land Company, by which firm he was employed twenty-one years. He was soon advanced to a fore- manship which he held fifteen years. In 1906 he began farming and dairying on leased land and moved to various parts of the county in the prosecution of this business. Beginning with two cows, he now owns seventy-five head of stock. In 1910 he moved to his present ranch of fifty-four acres, then unimproved and situated three miles south of Bakersfield. This is all now under cultivation to alfalfa and grain and is known as Morley's dairy, as he is a wholesale and retail milk dealer.

On February 22, 1898, Mr. Morley married in Bakersfield Miss Eva G. Colton, who was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, September 7. 1869, daughter of F. H. Colton, who is represented elsewhere in this volume. Mrs. Morley was brought to California by her parents in 1875, and received her education in the public schools and at the San Jose State Normal. For ten years she taught in the public schools of Kern county two years and a half of this time in Bakersfield. She has borne her husband sons named Joseph, Vivian,

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George and William. Mr. Morley affiliates with Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M., with Bakersfield Lodge No. 208, I. O. O. F., and is a charter member of the Independent Order of Foresters.

WILLIAM G. SILBER .- The proprietor of a barber shop on Baker street, Bakersfield, William G. Silber is one of that city's enterprising citi- zens. He is a member of an old and respected German family, his branch coming from Saxony, Germany. Gottlieb Silber, grandfather of William G., served in the Austro-Prussian war, and was in his time a popular business man in the city of Leipsic, Germany, where his son, Gustav Emil, was born in 1854. The latter also became a soldier in his native country, and served three years in the One Hundred and Sixth Regiment of Infantry in that army. He was married in Chemnitz, Saxony, in 1878 to Laura Helena Clausnitzer, who was born there. Her father, August Clausnitzer, came to Tulare county, Cal., in 1885, and there he died.

In 1881 Gustav Emil Silber brought his wife to America, settling in Ve- rona, Pa., where they remained until 1889, at that time coming to Delano, Kern county, Cal. Here he followed farming and died in 1903, his wife then removing with her family to East Bakersfield, where she now resides. She is a Methodist, and is an active member of the Fraternal Brotherhood. Her children, who all make their residence in East Bakersfield, are as follows: Elsie, Mrs. R. G. Libby; William G .; Clara Johanna, Mrs. W. R. Lowe; Minnie, Mrs. F. S. Sparks; Mattie, Mrs. George Towers; and Eddie R., a machinist in the employ of the Standard Oil Company.

William G. Silber was but a lad when brought by his parents to Delano, Cal., and he was here educated in the public schools. Upon reaching man- hood he followed railroading for a while as locomotive fireman, then was engaged in the furniture business in East Bakersfield for a time, but finding it expedient to sell out he disposed of this business and started a barber shop on Baker street, where he is doing a profitable business. Mr. Silber married in 1909, Leola M. Weller, who was born in Howell, Mich., and they have two children, Naoma and Kenneth. He is a member of the Fraternal Brotherhood, also the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Engineers.

OSCAR A. HOLTHE .- Since the initial period of development in the Kern river oil fields the location and the industry have exercised a particular attraction upon young men with clearness of intellectual vision and capacity for work. It is not therefore an occasion for surprise that Mr. Holthe, with his su- perior qualifications as a mechanic and his liking for industrial activities, should have sought this place in preference to devoting himself to agriculture near the comfortable home of his parents. As he had no previous experience in the industry he began at the bottom. Upon coming to the oil fields in 1909 it was his good fortune to find employment with the Associated Oil Com- pany and he since has remained with the same concern, having worked during the first years as a roustabout and well-puller and later was made well-foreman. On the 22d of February, 1912, he was transferred to the Hecla lease and here he and his family have established a comfortable home. His jurisdiction as well-foreman extends through the entire Missouri division of the Associated Oil Company, including the lease upon which he resides, and both in his own company and among workers with other concerns in the field he has the popu- larity and the respect merited by his business ability and genial temperament.

Born in Minneapolis, Minn., May 18, 1883, Mr. Holthe was brought by his parents, Oscar and Ellen Holthe, to California at the age of nine months. The family settled in Tehama county and there the father, at the age of fifty- two years, stands among the prosperous and influential men of his community. Of the six living children in the family Oscar A., the eldest, was the only one to seek a livelihood in the oil fields and he turned to this line of work as offering an interesting avenue for progress in mechanics. Always interested in mechanical work, he selected such occupative employment in preference to

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agriculture, although he was reared on a farm and possesses a substantial knowledge of grain-farming and stock-raising. Prior to removing from Tehama county he there married, in August of 1905, Miss Mabel Ham, daughter of Matthew S. Ham, who then lived in Tehama, but is now a resident of San Joaquin county. They reside in a cottage on the Hecla lease with their three children, Helen Irene, Ira Ellsworth and Mildred Elaine. Mr. Holthe is a member of the Woodmen of the World at Bakersfield. In politics he is a Republican.

E. S. RHEA .- An honorable experience in the railway service in the northwest preceded the identification of Mr. Rhea with the oil industry in the Kern river fields, where for some years he has been retained in charge of the pumping station of the Kern Trading and Oil Company, being the older (in point of service) of the two pumpers regularly employed at the plant. In seeking the west as the locality of future labors, he came from Indiana, where he had passed the greater part of his early years and where he was born in Allen county near the city of Fort Wayne, October 8, 1884. While much of his school life was passed in or near Fort Wayne, he also attended for a time the schools of Corydon, Ky., and in the spring of 1901 was grad- uated from the high school of Auburn. Ind. During the summer following graduation he left Indiana for Washington and after arriving in Seattle secured employment with the Northern Pacific Railroad Company. being sent into the districts where construction work had been inaugurated. For three years he engaged as an assistant in the building of steel bridges for the company. The work was extremely hazardous and difficult, but he proved careful, capable and courageous, and his services were so satisfactory to the company that, at the conclusion of the construction work he was made a locomotive fireman. His first run was from Tacoma to Portland. Later he was put on the line from Tacoma to Ellensburg and finally was transferred to the main system between Tacoma and Seattle.

Owing to the fact that railroading lacked the desirability of work in a fixed position, Mr. Rhea resigned his position, although he was in line for promotion and was popular with those in charge of the road. After leaving Washington he spent four months in the Risdon iron works at San Francisco and in January of 1909 came from there to the Kern river fields, where in March following he was selected for the position he still fills. Before leaving Washington he married Miss Mary Pinneo, of Tacoma, in July of 1907, and since coming to the holdings of the Kern Trading and Oil Company he and his wife have made their home in a cozy cottage in Bakersfield.

DAVID SHEEDY .- Descended from an honored old Irish family, Mr. Sheedy was born in Gilboa township, Benton county, Ind., and grew to manhood upon a farm. As a boy he alternated his time between work in the fields during the summer days and attendance at school in the winter months, and while it was not possible for him to attend school throughout the full terms, yet he acquired a broad fund of information and could converse with ease and intelligence upon all subjects of importance. When he left the farm and started out to make his own way in the world he took up mercantile pur- suits. After a time he acquired the ownership of a general store at Lochiel, Benton county, and this he conducted until failing health forced him to give up a sedentary occupation and remove from the rigorous Indiana climate. He arrived in East Bakersfield (then known as Kern) in March, 1902, and on the 4th of October, of the same vear, his death occurred. There remains to family and friends the memory of his upright character and purposeful ambitions and the uplifting influence of his kindly deeds.

At Lochiel, Ind., in December of 1891, occurred the marriage of David Sheedy and Miss Nellie Kaar. One child blessed the union, Helen, a mem- ber of the Bakersfield high school class of 1913. Mrs. Sheedy's father, John

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Kaar, came to Kern county at an early date and became a leading business man of Kern, erecting a building on Baker street and starting the Citizen's Laun- dry. The business is still owned by the family and is managed by one of his sons, George S. (represented elsewhere in this volume). To this concern Mrs. Sheedy has devoted all of her time in the capacity of bookkeeper and from the first she was one of its stockholders. Keen business ability is one of her chief endowments and her services have been most helpful in the satisfactory prosecution of the business. Since coming to Bakersfield she has formed many friends among the best people and is particularly well known in East Bakersfield, where she makes her home and where she is a member of the Congregational Church. While her leisure hours are few she has found time to aid in church work, contribute to missionary enterprises and assist in charitable projects, and also has been able to interest herself in a number of fraternal organizations. For some years she has been connected with Bakers- field Chapter No. 125, Order of the Eastern Star, also the Pythian Sisters and Fraternal Brotherhood and is further identified with the Knights and Ladies of Security as a charter member and as vice-president of the order at Bakers- field.

E. CARROLL EMMONS .- The fact that he holds a position of great responsibility and trust, although one of the youngest men in the employ of the Honolulu Consolidated Oil Company, indicates that Mr. Emmons has the confidence of the officials of the concern and that he has made a record for efficiency in his own special line of work. To act as purchasing agent for so large a corporation is no slight task; that he discharges every duty with fidelity is evident to all familiar with his work as storekeeper on the lease situated on section 10, township 32, range 24, in the Midway field, where he superintends with dispatch and system the buying of all oil-well supplies as well as the maintenance of the commissary department. Practically all of his life has been passed in Kern county and the family has been well known here for many years.

When only fourteen months old Mr. Emmons was brought to Kern county by his parents, who settled in Bakersfield. He was born at Sisson, Siskiyou county, August 7, 1891, and in boyhood he attended the Bakers- field grammar school, graduating from the regular course of study. At the age of eighteen he became interested in the oil industry, to which he since has given his time and attention. Upon first coming with the Honolulu Oil Company in December, 1910, he was under the then superintendent, J. A. Pollard, as a warehouse man and by successive promotions has risen to be storekeeper and purchasing agent for the great corporation.

E. W. BAILEY .- Although the greater part of his busy and useful life has been passed within the limits of California, Mr. Bailey is an Ohioan by birth and was born at Wilmington, Clinton county, August 26, 1882. In carly life he came west with his parents, J. W. and Catherine (Hiney) Bailey, who settled at Whittier and sent him to the public schools at that town. When seventeen he secured employment in the Whittier oil field and within a year he had gained considerable experience in drilling, in which department of the oil business he has since gained more than a local reputation. After four years with the Murphy Oil Company he went to the Coalinga field and for a year engaged as a driller with the Union Oil Company. Next he took the contract to drill a well for George Roberts in the Coalinga field.

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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 145

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