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 155

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 155

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A brief experience with a manufacturing company in Los Angeles after his arrival in that city in 1910 was followed by the employment of Mr. Engelke with the Premier Automobile Company as machinist in their garage. From that place he came to Maricopa in January, 1912, and secured employ- ment two miles north of that town, as machinist at the Monarch camp of the Union Oil Company. While working on the celebrated Lakeview lease he formed the acquaintance of F. F. Hill, general superintendent of develop- ment, and George Kammerer, superintendent of development in the Midway and Maricopa districts. By singular good fortune his real merits attracted the attention of these two widely known oil operators. Appreciating his skill as a machinist and his character as a man, they formed a partnership with him in the Taft garage, each gentleman buying one-third interest in the business, which has since been under the management of Mr. Engelke.

FRED C. SHERWOOD .- During August of 1909 Mr. Sherwood and his wife established their home in the place they still occupy and about the same time he was assigned to work as a driller on section 6, township 31, range 23. Since then he has engaged as a driller or as driller foreman with the C.C.M. Oil Company, commonly known as the Santa Fe.

Twenty-two miles from Erie, in Union township, Erie county, Pa., Fred C. Sherwood was born on a farm June 1, 1873, being the son of Bruce Sher- wcod, who for years has engaged in general farming and stock-raising. Primarily educated in public schools, he later attended the high school and Luce's Business College at Union City, Pa. Leaving home at the age of twenty-one, he went to West Virginia and found employment with an uncle in the oil fields of Jake's Run. For three months he was hired as a teamster, after which he was taught to dress tools. Several years later he turned from tool-dressing to drilling. At Fairmont, W. Va., November 29, 1898, he mar- ried Miss Celesta H. Barr, of Crossroads, Monongalia county, W. Va., and afterward he continued to work in the oil fields as a driller, remaining in West Virginia until 1907. For eighteen months he and his wife lived at the old Pennsylvania homestead and from there in December, 1908, they came to California. His first place of work in the west was in Cat cañon, Santa Maria oil field, where he engaged in drilling for the Brooks Oil Company. On leaving that field he came to the Midway August 1, 1909, and since then he has been with the Santa Fe, now being driller foreman in charge of four strings of tools. With his wife he holds membership in the Methodist Epis- copal Church at Taft and their oldest child, Hazel Sherwood, is now engaged as church organist. Two other children bless the household, Harry and Oren. Fraternally Mr. Sherwood is connected with the blue lodge of Masonry and the Modern Woodmen of America.

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AXEL LONSTROM .- Born at Stockholm, Sweden, February 7, 1872, and where his father, for years engaged in business as a manufacturer of powder, is now living in quiet retirement, at the age of seventy-two years. Axel Lonstrom at sixteen years of age started out to see something of the world. Having lived all of his life near the coast, he was familiar with the great ships that sailed the high seas and it was on one of these that he started out, and until nineteen years of age he was a sailor on English and American sail and steamships. One of his first voyages took him to the principal ports of the Mediterranean sea. Later he sailed from Marseilles, France, to Rio Janeiro, Brazil. Later voyages took him to New York City, the West Indies, Trinidad Island and London, after which he sailed along the coast of Great Britain and thence to Barcelona, Spain. On again crossing the ocean he traversed the St. Lawrence river to Three Rivers, ninety miles above Quebec, from which place he returned to London on the vessel Bucephalus. An English sailing-ship brought him around the Horn to San Francisco and there he engaged to accompany the whaler Sea Breeze in a whaling expedi- tion to the Bering sea and Artic ocean, where he remained for nine months.

At the close of the whaling cruise Mr. Lonstrom proceeded from San Francisco to Los Angeles and near there spent seven months on å ranch. From that he drifted into other work. The money so carefully hoarded was lost during an unprofitable period as owner of a Long Beach meat market. For a time he worked at ranching and breaking colts. With a number of companions he sailed from San Pedro for Alaska on a schooner they had bought for $6.000. For a time he engaged in mining at Kotzebue sound, and indeed, he prospected and mined throughout almost every part of that great and unknown country. Many of his experiences were thrilling and some even dangerous, nor were there any rich discoveries to repay him for the hardships and privations. After he had remained in the far north con- tinuously from 1898 to the fall of 1909 he came down to Seattle, but in the spring of 1910 he returned to Nome. Again in the fall of 1910 he sailed down to Seattle, only to return to Alaska for the summer of 1911, but when in the fall of that year he again departed from Nome, it was with the intention of remaining in the United States, and since then he has been engaged in the oil industry in Kern county, working on various leases until the spring of 1912, when he was promoted to be yard foreman of the Central Midway division for the General Petroleum Company. Since coming to Taft he has identified himself with the Loyal Order of Moose.

T. P. KELEHER .- A specialist in the important work of pipe line con- struction and connection is "Tim" Keleher, who holds a very responsible position as connection foreman of the pipe line department, Standard Oil Company, on section 1, township 32, range 23. Arriving at Taft September 1, 1910, he since has been identified with the development of the Midway field, and on the 1st of November following his arrival at this point he was tendered the position he since has filled.

Mr. Keleher was born in Toledo, Ohio, August 20, 1872, and is third among the six living children of Daniel Keleher, for thirty-five years a care- taker in the employ of the Michigan Central Railroad Company. While at- tending school in Toledo he gave his vacations to baseball and soon acquired skill in the game. After considerable amateur work he became a member of the Inter-State League. During the first two seasons he played with amateur nines at Toledo and smaller towns throughout the state. During the third vear, while playing second base with the South Bend Nine, he was injured in the arm in such a way as to incapacitate him for athletics. Forced to seek another occupation, he turned to the oil industry and secured a position with the East Ohio Gas Company. After two years in their service he went to the West Virginia oil fields, thence to Kentucky, working in gas and oil

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

fields for five years in those states. Next he spent two years in the Ohio oil fields mainly at Lima and Findlay.

Two years were spent by Mr. Kelcher in construction work on the oil line extending from Jamestown, Ind., to Martinsville, Ill., after which he engaged in construction work on the first large gas line out of Kansas City. From there he went to Oklahoma and for a year worked on pipe line con- struction at Tulsa. Returning to former headquarters he became an employe of the Ohio Oil Company and for almost six years had charge of their inter- ests at Martinsville. Upon resigning that position in 1910 he came to Cali- fornia and since has been connected with the Standard Oil Company at Taft. He is a member of the Catholic Church. While he had his headquarters in Illinois he was married. at Marshall, that state, to Miss Margaret Kelm, who was born and reared in Illinois, received an excellent education and from childhood has been an attendant at the services of the Methodist Episcopal Church. A daughter, Margaret Mary, blesses their union.

CHARLES S. TAYLOR .- Among the men who have taken an active part in prospecting and developing the mining interests of Kern and San Bernardino counties is Charles S. Taylor, superintendent of the Atolia Mining Company at Atolia. Tennessee is the native state of Mr. Taylor, he being born at Elizabethton, Carter county, June 21. 1871. His father, Jonathan Taylor, was a carpenter by trade and during the Civil war served in Com- pany B, Fourth Tennessee Volunteer Infantry. In 1876 he came to California, his death occurring in Fresno county.

Charles S. Taylor lived in Tennessee until 1884 when he came to Lemoore, Cal., where he completed the public school course. He then followed farm- ing until March, 1896, when he came to Randsburg and after eighteen months with the Butte Mining Company he was two years with the Y. A. M. & M. Co., after which he began prospecting and mining on his own account. Just after Churchill discovered the tungsten ore in 1905 he with ( thers located several tungsten claims at what is now Atolia, and also bought an interest with Mr. Ray. Together they began to open the Papoose mine which is now the site of the main plant of the Atolia Mining Company. Mr. Taylor was foreman of operations until January, 1906, when the Atolia Mining Com- pany of San Francisco purchased the Churchill, Ray, Taylor and other inter- ests and continued operations and development. Mr. Taylor was engaged as foreman and was afterward made superintendent of the mines. The com- pany have sixty-two claims and the mine is considered the largest and richest individual tungsten mine in the world.

In 1906 when the postoffice was located at Atolia he was appointed post- master and has held the position ever since. As one of the organizers of the Atolia school district he was a member of the first board of trustees and has been its clerk for three terms.

In Kingman, Ariz., occurred the marriage of Mr. Taylor with Mrs. Ger- trude (Nelson) Schoonmaker, a native of Ohio, and they have two children, Charles S., Jr., and Robert Lawrence. Fraternally he was made a Mason in Tehachapi Lodge No. 313, F. & A. M., and he is also a member of Los Angeles Consistory and Al Malaikah Temple, N. M. S. With his wife he is a member of the Order of Eastern Star.

ANDREW J. FOUST .- Whatever of success has crowned the efforts of Mr. Foust and whatever of goud he has accomplished in the world may be attributed to the possession on his part of determination of will, honesty of purpose and integrity of character. With these attributes and the aid of his capable wife he has risen to a place of independence.

The Foust family is of German extraction. As early as 1845. when Iowa presented a vast stretch of uncultivated acreage and Des Moines was merely a log fort, E. M. Foust, who was born in Indiana in 1832, accom-

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panied other members of the family to the state and settled on a claim about ten miles south of Des Moines in Warren county. Ever since then he has lived on the same land. Meanwhile he has seen the state developed into a great commonwealth and the improvement of his own property has kept pace with the growth of the state. His first wife, who bore the maiden name of Sarah Bishop, was born in Indiana and died on the Iowa farm in Decem- ber, 1854, leaving an only child, Andrew J., whose birth had occurred on that same homestead January 2, 1854. As a boy this son worked early and late. When not needed on the farm he was sent to the neighboring school. At the age of fourteen he began to work for farmers in the community and continued as a hired hand until he established a home of his own.

The marriage of Mr. Foust November 13, 1879, united him with Miss Elector L. Bishop, a native of Somerset, Iowa. The eldest of six children, Mrs. Foust was a daughter of Levi and Caroline (Ferrel) Bishop, natives respectively of Indiana and Missouri. At the age of nine years in 1845 Levi Bishop accompanied his father, Joshua Bishop, from Indiana to Iowa, and settled not far from the capital city of Des Moines, then an insignificant village of logs, fortified to afford protection from the Indians. Throughout all of his active life Mr. Bishop engaged in general farming in Iowa. At the opening of the Civil war he entered Company H, Thirty-fourth Iowa Infantry, in which he continued at the front until the failure of his health and his honorable discharge. After returning home he served as lieutenant of a company of Iowa Home Guard. Eventually he removed to Fowler, Cal., where he remained until death and where his widow still makes her home.

A condition of health so serious as to arouse fears for the life of Mrs. Foust led her husband to close out his farming interests in Iowa and remove to California in February, 1888. The change proved beneficial and Mrs. Foust was soon restored to health. Nor did the removal prove disastrous from a financial point of view. On the other hand, Mr. Foust has been prospered in the west. Immediately after his arrival in Kern county he homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres in the Weed Patch, put up a house, sunk a well, established his home there and at the expiration of five years proved up on the claim. Later he bought eighty acres of school land four miles from the home- stead. In order to improve the new property he removed thither, after which time he made a special feature of the stock business until June, 1913, the date of his removal to California avenue. In politics he has been a stanch Republican. On the organization of the Vineland school district he was made a member of the first board of trustees and upon removing to the farm of eighty acres he aided in organizing the Mountain View school district, of which he served as trustee for many years. In religion they are members of the Christian Church. Their eldest son, E. L., who died in 1903, had been engaged as a steel construction engineer and had designed many steel buildings in San Francisco. The other sons, E. B. and L. E., are respectively boss rig builder and superintendent of construction for the Associated Oil Company at Fellows. The third child and only daughter, Mrs. Virna Fill- more, is a resident of the Weed Patch, where her husband, H. H. Fillmore, is engaged in farm pursuits.

GEORGE W. URIE .- George W. Urie was born in Chelsea, Mass., August 15, 1864, and was the son of John and Elizabeth (Orell) Urie, natives of Paisley, Scotland, and England, respectively. The father learned the dyer's trade in Paisley and on coming to the United States followed the trade in the woolen mills in Massachusetts. George W. was brought up and edu- cated in Massachusetts. When eighteen years of age he removed with the family to Appleton, Wis., where he learned the dyer's trade under his father, but five years later was obliged to give it up on account of his health. He then began the study of telegraphy in Rockford, Ill., and held positions with

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

the Illinois Central Railroad in different parts of Illinois and Wisconsin until 1901 when he removed with his family to California. Here he entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad as operator at Red Bluff until 1902 when he held the same position at Indio. Then he was assistant agent at Anaheim for one year, when he became agent and operator at Glamis. This was at the front during the time of the opening of the Palos Verdes valley and to accommodate the settler and miners he opened a restaurant and also a hay and feed business. After three years he was sent as agent to Mecca, where he remained four years. Next he was stationed at Cabazon until April, 1913, when he was transferred to McFarland as agent. With his son, Charles L., he is engaged in the coal and feed business in McFarland under the firm of G. W. Urie & Son.

Mr. Urie's marriage occurred in Appleton, Wis., when he was united with Miss Lulu A. Sackett, a native of that place, and to them have been born four children, as follows: Hazel G., John L., Chester L. and Donald W., all under the parental roof with the exception of John L., who is at Venice, Cal. Fraternally Mr. Urie is a member of the Fraternal Brotherhood. He is a devout Methodist and is an active member of the board of trustees of the McFarland Methodist Episcopal Church.

MISS ELLA B. KINTON .- Among the residents of Rosamond we find Miss Kinton, who was a pioneer homesteader and merchant, having located here as early as 1890. She has since given all her energy to the develop- ment of this section of Kern county. Born at Mans Choice, Bedford county, Pa., she is the daughter of Theodore and Maggie E. (Stuckey) Kinton, both descendants of old Pennsylvania families; the father is deceased, but the mother is still living at the old home in Bedford county.

The great-grandfather of Theodore Kinton was Thomas Kinton, who served as an officer under General Washington in the French and Indian war. He located on a farm at the foot of Willis mountain in Bedford county, the same place that Theodore Kinton afterwards owned and where Miss Kinton was reared. A high peak of Willis mountain was named Kinton Knob in his honor.

In July, 1890, Miss Kinton came to California and immediately (the same month) located at Rosamond. About a year later she located a home- stead of one hundred and sixty acres five miles west of Rosamond on the Willow Springs road, the present site of the Hamilton mill. She made the necessary improvements, sunk two wells and resided on it for five years, when she proved up on it. She then sold twenty acres for the Hamilton mill site, retaining. one hundred and forty acres. In 1896 she moved back to Rosamond where she built and started a store and ever since has continued in the mercantile business. Being appointed postmaster of Rosamond under the Cleveland administration she served from 1895 to 1909. Having a retentive memory she is well posted as to the history and growth of this vicinity and therefore is able to relate incidents that are intensely interesting. Reared in the Presbyterian Church, she holds to that faith, while in her political convic- tions she adheres to the principles of the Republican party.

J. W. HICKS .- Born in Randolph county, Mo., April 27, 1873, J. W. Hicks is a son of the late J. C. and Jeannette (Crawford) Hicks. The latter was born in Missouri and died in California. The former, who followed agri- cultural pursuits in Missouri, came across the plains to California during the summer of 1854 and tried his luck in the mines and on the unimproved farm lands of the then undeveloped west. It was not until 1869 that he returned to Missouri and resumed general farming in Randolph county, where he remained for a long period. Accompanied by his family in 1889 he came to California and settled in Kern county, but later resided in Tulare county. His last days were passed in Bakersfield. Of his seven children all but two

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are still living, the eldest being J. W., who was fifteen at the time of coming to Kern county for the first time. Here and in Tulare county he completed the trade of a carpenter. About 1900 he was one of the original locators of Twenty-five Hill in the oil fields, but relinquished his interest before the value of the lease was known.

Several years were spent by Mr. Hicks in carpentering through different localities of Northern California, Utah and Nevada, and during that period he formed the acquaintance of Miss Celia J. Henry, who was born in Utah and with whom he was united in marriage at Ogden, that state. On returning to Kern county he took up carpentering on the west side. After a year as a carpenter he was elected marshal of Maricopa and devoted much of his time to the duties of that position, resigning eventually in order to remove to Bakersfield, where since February of 1912 he and his wife, with their four children, Lynn, Marvin, Walter and Fred, have made their home. He is stanch in his sympathy with the socialist movement and well informed con- cerning its objects and principles. Upon his removal to Bakersfield he was elected president of the Carpenters' Local No. 743, and February 14, 1913, he was chosen business agent of the Kern County Building Trades Council, to which work he devotes his entire time.

MICHEL ANSOLABEHERE .- A native of France, M. Ansolabehere was born March 24, 1875, in Basses-Pyrenees. He attended public schools near his boyhood home for a short time and worked for his father until he came to the United States. He arrived in Kern county January 8, 1893, at the end of a direct journey over seas and across the United States. Very soon after he came here he engaged in herding sheep, a business which has commanded his attention to the present time. He planned and worked and prospered and saved his money until in January, 1910, he was able to buy a ranch of sixty acres, six miles from Bakersfield, which is all under cultivation, producing good crops of alfalfa, oats and barley. During recent years he has gradually reduced the number of his sheep until he now has comparatively few. As a stockman and farmer he has succeeded, due largely to his industry and integrity.

On September 3, 1908, Mr. Ansolabehere married Miss Frances Labouc- here, who was born in France February 18, 1887, and they have a daughter whom they have named Lucy.

FRANK HARROL BALDWIN .-. The proprietor of the Star livery stable in Bakersfield is a member of an old family of the east and has the dis- tinction of being descended in the collateral line from D. H. Baldwin, the inventor and original manufacturer of the celebrated Baldwin piano. For several generations the family has had representatives in or near Cincinnati. where occurred the birth of Caleb S. Baldwin and also of his wife, Margaret, daughter of Daniel Allen Campbell, one of the first retail milk dealers to engage in business in Cincinnati. At the opening of the Civil war Caleb S. Baldwin, then a youth of eighteen, enlisted in the Union army and was a drummer in an Ohio regiment. With his command he went to the front and took part in many engagements. In one of the battles with the Con- federate troops he was seriously wounded, but in time fully regained his health. At the close of the war he returned to Cincinnati and engaged in the retail oil business, which engrossed his attention throughout his remaining years. While yet in the midst of his useful activities he was removed by death, leaving an only child, Frank Harrol. The wife and mother is still living and makes her home in Cincinnati, where her son was born August 27, 1878, and where he received a public school education. In 1896 he went to Phoenix, Ariz., and learned the undertaking and embalming business under A. J. Bradley, with whom he continued to work for two years. In the spring of 1898 he came to California and in the autumn of the same year he settled

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in Bakersfield, where he secured employment in the Union stables. Upon leaving that place he entered the employ of Jacob Neiderauer as undertaker and embalmer, but in a short time he resigned the position to embark in the livery business on his own account.

For three years Mr. Baldwin operated a livery stable at Oil Center and the venture proved profitable in a gratifying degree. After disposing of that stable he returned to Bakersfield and started the Exchange stable on Eighteenth and I streets. Four years later he disposed of the business and thereupon started the Star stable on the corner of Chester avenue and Twenty- third street. During 1909 he erected a brick building, 75x120 feet in dimen- sions and two stories in height, with elevator running between the two floors. The stable stands at No. 232 Chester avenue and is said to be the most modern fireproof building for livery purposes in the entire city. White sandstone brick is utilized in the construction of the building and the effect is attractive as well as substantial. In addition to owning the building and the livery business Mr. Baldwin has a small fruit ranch in Kern county and real estate in Bakersfield. Politically he votes with the Republican party. At Los Angeles, September 1, 1906, he married Miss Margaret Voshell, who was born at Easton, Md., and descends from French-Huguenot ancestry identified with America during the colonial period. In a family of eight chil- dren she was fifth in order of birth. Her father, John W., a farmer of Mary- land, removed with his family to Kansas and settled in McPherson county, where he still makes his home. Some time before leaving the east he had married Miss Sarah Lewis, a native of Dover, Del., and a member of an old eastern family. Her death occurred in Kansas, in which state Mrs. Baldwin was reared, receiving excellent advantages in the Normal University at Salina.

CHARLES HENRY SHURBAN .- The youngest child and only son among three children, Charles Henry Shurban was born at Fryeburg, Oxford county, Me., March 25, 1863, and is a son of John and Mary (Downs) Shur- ban, natives respectively of Vermont and Maine. Early in life the father migrated from Vermont to Maine and there married Miss Downs, after which they began housekeeping upon a farm in Oxford county. During the Civil war he enlisted as a private in a Maine regiment of infantry and was sent to the front with his command. Twice he was wounded on the battle-field. Six months after he had received an honorable discharge at the close of the war he died from the effects of his wounds. The only son was then scarcely more than an infant and upon the mother was thrown the heavy responsi- bility of caring for the three children; nobly she labored for their support and welfare, nor did her labors cease until her death, which occurred in Maine. Meanwhile the son had been taken into the home of Theod re Pingree, a brother of Hon. Hazen Pingree, ex-governor of Michigan. For three years he did such work in the Pingree home as his years rendered possible and meanwhile he was allowed to attend school regularly, so that his education was not wholly neglected.

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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 155

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