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 160

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 160

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married Josephine Emerson and lives at Pattiway, a small postoffice south of Maricopa, where he is engaged in the stock business ; the second son, Howard, married Miss Sarah Martin and makes his home in Maricopa. The two youngest members of the family, Henry and Benjamin, still reside with their parents on the farm eleven miles south of Bakersfield. Attesting the popularity of Mr. Bush in Kern county are the election returns of 1912, when he received the largest vote of any of the supervisors elected.

JAMES A. RANEY .- Much of the west has been made familiar to Mr. Raney through travel and observation since he left the old Missouri home- stead where had been lived the uneventful but busy years of boyhood. The home farm was located in Wright county in the vicinity of Hartville, where he was born November 18, 1875, and where he had made himself very useful in such work as his strength rendered possible. Although a capable assist- ant on the homestead and skilled in many departments of agriculture, the occupation did not appeal to him as a means of livelihood and at the age of twenty-one he started out to earn his own way through other callings. Throughout the greater part of the time since he left the old home he has been employed in various oil fields in California, including those at Coalinga in Fresno county, Kern river and Midway in Kern county, also in Santa Clara and Inyo counties. In the last-named county he had considerable experience in wild-catting and as usual in such instances the results were not gratifying from a financial standpoint.

Upon his arrival in the Kern river oil fields in 1900 Mr. Raney was employed to move the rig for the first well on the Green and Whittier lease and his first steady job was as driver of a two-horse team. Since those days he has seen many changes in the district. Many of the early concerns have dropped out. Other men have become leaders in development work at this point. His own experiences have been as varied as the changes in the field itself, for he has worked in almost every capacity and with a number of different companies. Not only has he filled humble positions with conscien- tious industry, but in addition he has had a number of positions of great trust and responsibility. In every capacity he has proved an indefatigable worker. It has been his policy to devote his entire time to his work without mingling in politics except to cast a Democratic vote at general elections. While at Coalinga oil fields he became a member of the Eagles in Coalinga.

During 1912 Mr. Raney filled the very responsible position of field fore- man or manager for the Rambler and Expansion leases of the Traders Oil Company. February 14, 1913, he was transferred to the Midway division of the Traffic Oil Company, where he has since been engaged as driller. It should be explained that the Traders Oil Company and Traffic Oil Company are closely allied, and that the two companies are under practically one man- agement.

FELIX GEIGER .- Life has not meant ease and luxury to Mr. Geiger, but a stern battle that beginning at the age of twelve has continued through years of difficult struggle and hardships, until eventually he has seen the recompense of his privations and the reward of his self-sacrifices.

The parents of Mr. Geiger were natives of Switzerland and pioneers of Black Wolf township, Winnebago county, Wis. Both are now deceased Their family comprised six sons and three daughters, of whom Felix is the only one living in California. Born in Oshkosh, Wis., December 19, 1872, he spent his early childhood years upon a farm and at the age of twleve years started out to make his own way in the world, his first work being in a cheese factory. At sixteen he became a fireman in the plant of the Oshkosh Electric Light and Power Company at Oshkosh, Wis., where later he was made oiler of the machinery and eventually second engineer. Throughout all of this time

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he worked twelve hours each day in the plant and during this time took a course in electrical and steam engineering in a correspondence school. Next he secured a position as station baggage master for the Chicago & North- western Railroad Company at Oshkosh and in a short time was transferred to the machine shops of that road in Oshkosh, where he remained several years. During 1901 in Oshkosh he married Miss Elizabeth Pieper, a native of that city, and the wedding tour of the young couple brought them to Cali- fornia, where they have since made their home.

An experience of eight months with the Frazer Borate Mining Company and of four months on the west side in the Kern county oil fields was followed by two years spent in drilling on the properties of the Los Angeles Traction Company located on Pine creek, Ventura county, after which Mr. Geiger settled permanently in Kern county and for four years served as foreman of the Monte Cristo Oil Company. During September of 1911 he became super- intendent of the West Shore Oil Company, whose properties lie on section 32, township 28, range 28, Kern river fields. This company has the same corps of officers as the Monte Cristo and employs seventeen men. Of their twenty- nine wells on the West Shore all but eight are producers and these eight are now being re-drilled. The monthly production averages nineteen the usand barrels. In the fall of 1912 Mr. Geiger was made assistant superintendent of the Monte Cristo. The Monte Cristo properties in the Kern river field now not only include the original Monte Cristo and the West Shore, but also the Oakland Water Company, all of which comes under Mr. Geiger's jurisdiction as general foreman. Mr. and Mrs. Geiger are at present residing in the original Monte Cristo. Fraternally Mr. Geiger holds membership in the Woodmen of the World.

FRED S. HOLMES .- The proprietor of the Oil City livery stable on the county road in the Kern river oil fields belongs to a pioneer family of California and is a native son of the state. From early years he has been interested in stock and particularly in horses. On the old home ranch he gained a thor- ough knowledge of equine flesh, studied the best methods of handling horses, accustomed himself to treating their various diseases with skill and efficiency and learned how to subdue the wild, unbroken colts that had roamed, un- molested, over the vast ranges. Having thus a liking for animals and an understanding of the horse, it was but natural that he should turn from the oil industry to the management and ownership of a livery business. In his work he has formed the acquaintance of practically every man in the oil field and among all he is popular, for he has given the best possible service to every customer and has regarded their comfort rather than his own conven- ience.

The identification of the Holmes family with California dates from 1852, when Albert O. Holmes, a native of Mansfield, Ohio, and a young man of twenty years, came via Panama to San Francisco and proceeded thence to Placerville, Eldorado county. As a gold-miner he had little or no success, so in 1853 he turned to the grocery business and conducted a store at Coon Hol- low near Eldorado. For a time he met with success, but eventually the gold- camp was abandoned, the miners left and this brought financial reverses to him. He too was forced to seek a new business and another location. Before leaving Ohio he had learned the trade of stationary engineer and this proved helpful to him in an emergency, for in 1863 he found employment as an engineer at the hoist of the Golden Curry near Virginia City, Nev. Being a skilled mechanic and an expert machinist, he filled the position to the satis- faction of all concerned. Meanwhile he had married and had lost his wife, while the two sons of that union, Edward C. and Albert O., also are deceased.

After going to Nevada Mr. Holmes formed the acquaintance of Miss

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

Susan Louisa Smith, of Boston, Mass., and they were married in 1866, one year after her arrival in Nevada. The family of which she was a member comprised three children, but she was the only one to attain maturity. Her parents, Edward and Louisa (Cooledge) Smith, were natives of Massachu- setts and lifelong residents of the Old Bay state, where the mother died when Mrs. Holmes was only four years of age. The father, a carpenter in early life and later a dry-goods merchant, descended from a colonial family of Massa- chusetts whose earliest representatives in the new world crossed the Atlantic long before the outbreak of the Revolutionary war. Educated in the schools of Boston, Mrs. Holmes came to San Francisco in 1865 when she was twenty years of age. In the same year she was induced by a lady friend to go to Nevada and visit relatives. There she met and married Mr. Holmes, with whom in 1871 she removed to Los Angeles and thence to a tract of unim- proved land near San Bernardino. Out of the land they devel ped a fine fruit farm. After sixteen years on the farm they removed to the San Gabriel forest reserve on Big Rock creek, Los Angeles county, where he established a large stock ranch and acquired a herd of nine hundred head of cattle and three hundred head of horses. In addition a specialty was made of growing apoles in the San Gabriel mountains. After a long and successful career as farmer, rancher and horticulturist, Mr. Holmes died in 1901. Later Mrs. Holmes removed to Los Angeles, where now she makes her home at No. 419 South Grand avenue.

Seven children, all still living, comprise the family, namely: Annie L., who married Jefferson Caruthers, a farmer at El Monte; John A., a gold- miner, now engaged as superintendent of the Standard mine at Bodie, Mono county ; Martha F., wife of A. Maritall, a driller of oil wells at Maricopa ; Laura A., the widow of Frank Patterson and a resident of Los Angeles; Maude M., who is conducting the Davenport (Iowa) hotel; William R., em- ployed as a driller of oil wells and now located at Electra, Wichita county, Tex .; and Fred S., who was born in San Bernardino county, Cal., December 16, 1885, and at the age of five years accompanied his parents to the ranch in Los Angeles county. There he spent the years of boyhood in learning to handle cattle and horses. The regular public-school advantages were given to him. After he had graduated from the Los Angeles high school in 1902 he came to the Kern river oil field and secured work as a roustabout on the Peerless. From that he worked his way to gang-pusher, tool-dresser and well-driller successively. Besides being with the Peerless he worked with the Potomac, Coloma and Emerald Oil Companies and in the San Joaquin division of the Associated. For three years he engaged as a driller under James L. Bruce, formerly superintendent of the Kern division of the Associated. Sent out to the Lost Hills in 1910, he there drilled various wells, notable among which is the Associated No. 4, a well of three hundred barrels. After having drilled for a year in the Lost Hills as an employe of the Associated, he decided to invest his savings in a livery business and accordingly in 1912 availed himself of an opportunity to purchase his present stable on the county road, where he since has engaged in business. For some years he has been a member of the Woodmen of the World. A son, Gordon Arthur, the only survivor of two children, has been born of his union with Miss Ellinor Strong, daughter of Richard B. and Frances E. (Martin) Strong, of Belding, Ionia county, Mich., where she was born, reared and educated and where, prior to her marriage in 1908, she had made her home.

ROLAND R. FISHELL .- In his important position as production fore- man on section 26 division of the North American Oil Consolidated Company, R. R. Fishell has brought to his place of trust not only energy, but also efficiency in method, dispatch in results and tact in the handling of workmen.

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When he was appointed production foreman April 1, 1913, he succeeded to the care of one hundred and sixty acres comprising section 26, township 32, range 23. An average output is secured of thirty-two thousand barrels per month from thirty-two producing oil wells.

As evidence of the long identification of the family with the oil business, it may be stated that Mr. Fishell's father, Francis Marion Fishell, now an employe on the section 26 division, worked in the Pennsylvania oil fields in the very infancy of the industry, when methods of work were primitive, equipment scanty and wells drilled in the old-fashioned manner. In those days tools had to be taken to the blacksmith's shop in near-by towns when- ever they were to be sharpened or repaired. Although now only fifty-eight years of age, he has witnessed practically the entire development of the oil industry of the country and in his younger years he was considered one of the best drillers in Clarion county, Pa., also in the Bradford field in Mckean county, where he took contracts for drilling. By his marriage to Samantha Robinson, who was born in Pennsylvania about 1859, he has a daughter and son, the former, Zelma, being now the wife of Jacob N. Ripple, superintendent of the Mascot Oil Company.

Born in Clarion county, Pa., June 15, 1878, Roland R. Fishell passed the years of boyhood in the Bradford oil field in Mckean county, that state, and from boyhood earned his own way in the world by means of work at the wells. His own efforts enabled him to pay his way through the commercial department of the large university at Val- paraiso, Ind., where he completed a business course at the age of seventeen years. Meanwhile the family had left Pennsylvania for Indiana in 1892 and he had worked in the oil fields of Blackford county. When twenty years of age he became a driller and about the same time he was united in marriage with Miss Minnie K. Wampler, of Montpelier, Ind., the two keeping house in Indiana until 1904 and then establishing a home in Illinois ( il fields. From that year until 1909 Mr. Fishell was employed as a driller at Westfield, Clark

county. Upon leaving Illinois he came to California and settled in the Midway field in 1909, working for five months on the Mascot. Since then he has been connected with section 26 division of the North American, engaging first as a driller under Superintendent Kurtz and later receiving a merited promotion to be production foreman. With his wife and three children, Frances B., Beatrice E. and Clair N., he has a comfortable home in the com- pany's residence on section 26. Across the road from the house is the Hill school, which has been utilized by the people on 25 Hill not only for educa- tional purposes, but also for religious services, musicals and as a social center for the neighborhood. Realizing the value of the school as a community headquarters, he has taken a warm and unceasing interest in its supervision and has promoted every movement undertaken by those responsible for its beneficial work. Politically he votes with the Republican party.

CHRISTIAN ADAM WIRTH .- From every life may be gleaned lessons of great value and the life of the late Christian Adam Wirth especially illus- trates what it is within the power of a man to accomplish, notwithstanding the handicap of poverty, lack of education and ignorance concerning the cus- toms of the country. For thirty-five years he enjoyed the co-operation and companionship of a devoted wife, whose presence was his greatest encour- agement in every enterprise and her counsel his chief guide in business trans- actions, and when finally in 1910 death separated them it formed the deepest sorrow of his long life.

Born in Wittenberg, Germany, September 15, 1847, Christian A. Wirth sailed for America at the age of twenty-three years and landed at Castle Garden in May of 1871. From New York City he traveled west as far as

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

Zanesville, Ohio, and thence to Cincinnati, where he remained for four years, meanwhile holding a position as shipping clerk for the wholesale commission house of S. S. Cooper. Although unfamiliar with the English language and American methods of work, he learned easily and soon commanded fair wages. It was during this period of his life that he met Miss Elizabeth Klein, of Cin- cinnati, whom he married in 1875 and who accompanied him in that year to California. From San Francisco he came to Kernville, Kern county. Shortly after his arrival in this county he bought two hundred and forty acres of raw land and began to raise stock and general farm products. To the original purchase he soon added an adjoining tract of two hundred and forty acres. Later he bought a ranch of one hundred and sixty acres. Eventually he sold the property at a large advance over the original cost. Meanwhile he had invested in other parts of the county, both city and coun- try property, and until his death he lived retired in Bakersfield, where he owned the corners of Eighteenth and L, Eighteenth and M, Fourteenth and G, and much other unimproved property. The increase in land valuation made him wealthy and removed from him all necessity for further work, aside from such as was involved in the care of his tracts and the oversight of his interests.

The family of Mr. Wirth comprised one daughter and three sons, all of whom are well established in life. The daughter, Louise, married J. C. House, M.D., and resides at Port Townsend, Jefferson county, Wash. The eldest son, Henry A., is one of the leading citizens of Onyx, this county, where he is postmaster and merchant, and in addition he owns large farming inter- ests in that locality. William A., who is represented elsewhere in this volume, is a business man at Kernville and Christ is a tool-dresser well known in the Sunset field. During his residence here Mr. Wirth witnessed many changes, not only in his own personal affairs, but also in the aspect of the country. Then there were few farmers and the land was almost wholly unimproved. The raising of stock helped him in getting a start and at times he had as many as fifty head of horses on his ranch. A skilled blacksmith, he had a shop on his ranch and did his own repair work on machinery, besides taking personal charge of the shoeing of his horses. Before he left the ranch he had seen much of the development of the country, whose tillable acres were drawing an increasing number of desirable settlers and whose fertile soil made an excellent return to those bestowing care and cultivation thereon. The death of Mr. Wirth occurred October 25. 1912.

L. T. BROWN .- The proprietor of an upholstering business and in the manufacture of awnings and tents, Mr. Brown's goods and services are much in demand.

Born in Little Rock, Ark., on February 11, 1885, Mr. Brown was the eldest of his parents' three children. His father and mother, who were respec- tively R. A. Brown and Cordelia (Pollock) Brown, came to Bakersfield in May, 1891, and were very well known here. In the public schools of Bakers- field, Mr. Brown received his educational training, and here his youth and early manhood were spent. Upon leaving school he entered the employ of Roy White, for whom he worked for seven years. He then worked for the Hayden Fur Company for a short time, later being in the employ of P. Niederaur in his present line of business. Subsequently he entered the business of his predecessor in his present business, W. H. Reeve, of Bakers- field, from whom he learned all the details of the business and its conduct and later bought out the establishment from him. This he is at present conducting on his own account with marked success, it being located at No. 2001 I street.

Mr. Brown's marriage occurred March 6, 1907, to Miss Lola Coughran. of Merced county, Cal., daughter of J. L. Coughran. One child has been

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born to them, Wyvverne. Fraternally he affiliates with the Loyal Order of the Moose, and held office in Bakersfield Lodge No. 460, and he is also a member of the Woodmen of the World.

ADLORE SAVOIE .- As vice-president of a wholesale house oper- ated under the title of the Fred Gunther Company, Mr. Savoie holds an official connection with a well-known Bakersfield enterprise and in addi- tion he maintains an important business relation with the concern through being the manager of the soda water department. It is said that he is an expert in this line of work, understanding fully all the intricate processes for the making of the highest grades and in his own shop manufacturing nineteen different flavors. The soda water factory of the company stands in the northern part of Bakersfield, in the old Buffalo brewing building, on the Southern Pacific tracks, near the plant of the Union Ice Company. Every modern equipment has been introduced to make the shop perfect of its kind and without doubt, from the standpoint of sanitation, it is unex- celled by any similar establishment in the entire state, which result may be attributed to the capable oversight of the manager.

The Savoie family is of French Canadian ancestry and possesses the thrift of the one race with the resolute spirit characteristic of the other nationality. Ezra and Minnie (Mercier) Savoie, natives of Canada, born in the vicinity of Quebec, crossed into the States and settled at St. Anne, Kankakee county, Ill., where they became influential residents. Among their six children the next to the youngest and the only one to settle in California was Adlore, whose birth occurred at St. Anne, Ill., June 15, 1873, and whose somewhat meager education was obtained in local schools. During 1887 he left home to make his own way in the world. Three years later he secured a clerkship in the grocery establishment of H. F. Westfall, on Archer avenue, Chicago, where he remained for six years. The wages, however, were small and hoping to better himself by a change he went into a wholesale paper house in the same city. After a year he resigned that position and came to California in 1879, settling in Bakersfield. For six years he was an employe of the C. O. D. soda works, first with Mr. Mercier and later with Mr. Condit, and during this period he acquired a thorough knowledge of the soda business. Next he became a member of the firm of Gunther & Savoie, bottlers and manufacturers of soda water, the same being now merged into the Fred Gunther Company, incorporated at $15,000, with B. H. Sill as president, Fred Gunther as secretary, treas- urer and manager, and Mr. Savoie as vice-president, also as superintendent of the soda plant with its large cutput and its regular corps of workmen. When coming to Bakersfield Mr. Savoie was unmarried and in this city in 1899 he was united with Miss Maud Hawley, of Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Savoie and their son, Floyd, reside at No. 2111 Nineteenth street. Fratern- ally Mr. Savoie holds membership with the Elks. Eagles and Independent Order of Odd Fellows and served as delegate to the national grand lodge.

E. S. WILLIAMS .- The multiplicity of the business interests repre- sented in Taft appears little less than remarkable when the brief life of the place is taken into consideration. Not the least conspicuous of these business enterprises may be mentioned the Midway bottling works of South Taft, an organization formed for the purpose of handling the Valley brew of El Dorado Brewing Company at Stockton. The concern, organized under the laws of the state of California, has been incorporated by its president, F. Bontadelli, of Tranquility, Fresno county. and its secretary-treasurer, E. S. Rose. manager for the Jameson tract in South Taft. Under the super- vision of E. S. Williams as manager a wholesale and retail business has been developed that extends through these oil fields and that gives every evidence of steady increase in quantity and importance.

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A resident of California since December, 1909, Mr. Williams is well posted concerning the west and has the firmest faith in its future progress. The family of which he is a member has been identified with Missouri for several generations and he himself is a native of Cross Timbers in Hickory county, that state, where he was reared and educated. Upon leaving school he learned the business of an undertaker. At the same time he acquired a thorough knowledge of the furniture business. These two occupations he followed at Cross Timbers for a number of years and during that period of business identification with his native town he married Miss Anna Spickert, by whom he has a daughter, Eunice. Accompanied by his family he came to California during the latter part of 1909 and after more than a year in Los Angeles removed to Taft in April of 1911, since which time he has had charge of the Midway bottling works and has built up a modest but suc- cessful business. Ever since attaining his majority he has voted the Demo- cratic ticket in all elections. During the period of his residence in Los Angeles he became connected with the Golden State Camp of Woodmen, while prior to his removal to the west he was an active worker in a Mis- souri lodge of Odd Fellows and is still remembered as one of the popular members of that organization at Preston in Hickory county.

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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 160

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