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 165

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 165

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That the Globe division is bringing such excellent returns may be attrib- uted largely to the resourcefulness and energy of the superintendent, Verne L. Adams, who is a member of an old and honored family of the United States. While some of the colonial families have become extinct or have not kept up the intellectual standard set by their ancestors, such is not the case with the Adams family, which not only maintains the intellectuality of forebears, but singularly preserves and presents the rotund, ruddy, high-browed. full-eved, vigorous and virile organisms which characterized John and John Quincy Adams in the earlier chapters of American history. Unmistakably an Adams, with all the physical and mental attributes of that family, Mr. Adams gives little indication of Swiss ancestry, although his mother, who bore the maiden name of Sophia Lughinbuhl, was born in Switzerland and comes of an old family of that mountain republic. His father, Ira Adams, made his home in Ohio for some time and Verne L. was born at West Salem, that state, October 9, 1886. Not long afterward the family removed to Oregon and settled in Portland, where the father died about 1892, leaving Verne, a child of six years, besides two older children, Blanche and Jay. The mother thereupon took the children back to Lima, Ohio, where she went through the most arduous struggle in an effort to rear and educate them. The daughter mar- ried at seventeen and died a year later. The older son came to California and is now engaged in the furniture business in Sacramento, while the mother, also coming to the west, is now living with her son, Verne L., in the Midway field.

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Few have encountered greater hardships in their struggle to earn a live- lihood than has Verne L. Adams, who became self-supporting at an age when the majority of boys have ample leisure for play and recreation. At the age of twelve he became a newsboy. It was his custom to arise at four every morning and to carry papers throughout the town, stopping only when it was time to go to school. This work he kept up until he was fifteen, at which time he found employment in a grocery. His own efforts aided in the support of his mother and enabled him to pay his expenses for six months in the Lima (Ohio) Business College. At the age of seventeen he began to work in the Lima oil field. For several months he was employed as a pumper for Sam Ridenour, the well-known contractor at Lima, and from that work he was promoted to be a tool-dresser. During 1905 he came to California with his mother and settled at Sacramento, where he engaged in the Southern Pacific Railroad shops and in that position became an experienced machinist. January of 1909 found him in the Midway field, where he secured employment as a pumper on the Sibyl, later was made gang-pusher, next became production foreman and is now superintendent, his steady rise indicating efficiency, trustworthiness and sagacious judgment. At different times he has purchased real estate in Sacramento and Fresno, for with natural thrift and foresight he believes in investing in California lands. Since coming to Taft he has iden- tified himself with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. While his mother is a Christian Scientist, he is in sympathy with all denominations and with generous and broad-minded liberality he contributes to movements for the uplifting of humanity.

CHARLES WHITAKER .- Not a few men who have won success in California have benefited by valuable experience in the United States Army, where discipline and observation go hand in hand in the moulding of character and in the broadening of the view. Charles Whitaker, a former cavalryman, whose residence is on Baker street, East Bakersfield, is a native of Wise county, Va., and was born May 20, 1863. When he was six or seven years old he was taken by his parents to Pike county, Ky., where he was reared to a knowledge of farm work and educated in public schools and in a special· sub- scription school. He remained there until after he was eighteen. In 1882 he crossed over to Cincinnati, Ohio, and was enlisted for service in the United States Army. He was assigned to the Second United States cavalry, as a mem- her of Company M, and came out to Montana that same year. His service con- tinued during five years, during which time he was stationed successively at Fort Custer, Fort Assiniboine, Fort Klamath and Fort Bidwell. He looks back upon the experience of those years with much interest and a pardonable pride. He won special distinction in being made a trumpeter and was hon- orably discharged in 1887. After a visit to Kentucky and Virginia, he went to Denver, Colo., where for about a year he was employed at farming and at railroading. In November, 1888, he went to Washington and homesteaded land on the Toutle river, which he began to improve and on which he lived about three years and a half. After that he kept a hotel for a while at Castle Rock, Wash., and from there he moved to the Klamath river country, Oregon, and not long afterward he became a citizen of Portland. In 1893 he came to California and located at Bakersfield. He had not prospered so well but that he needed capital if he were to engage in business. In 1893-94 he worked for wages and in 1894 he formed a partnership with Henry Wood in the livery business at Kern. Within a year he bought his partner's interest and he has since managed the enterprise with satisfactory success. His barn covers a ground space of 90x130 feet, has a fine corral, and his stock and rigs are as good as are sent out from any stable in the vicinity. His business is the oldest of its class at East Bakersfield. Near Buttonwillow is a fine tract of

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three hundred and twenty acres in which Mr. Whitaker is interested and on which a modern pumping plant is being installed for ranch service and irriga- tion of alfalfa land. His attractive residence on Baker street, East Bakersfield, was designed by him and erected under his supervision, and he also owns the Yorke, an apartment house on Baker street, thus giving him a frontage of two hundred and fifty-four feet.

Politically Mr. Whitaker is a Democrat. Socially he affiliates with the Fraternal Brotherhood and with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He filled for one term the office of trustee for the town of Kern and was a member of the board when Kern was consolidated with Bakersfield. The lady who became the wife of Mr. Whitaker was Miss Druzella Gier, a native of Bonham county, S. Dak. They have five children, Charles Elizabeth, Ellen, Mildred May and Beatrice Thelma.

RAYMOND I. WALTERS .- An identification with the industrial activ- ities of Bakersfield begun in 1908 and continued up to the present time, has given to Mr. Walters an intimate acquaintance with the business men of the city as well as broad information concerning resources and commercial pos- sibilities. As a plumber he is considered unusually skilled and capable and since establishing himself in the business he has been awarded many contracts of importance. In a building erected under his personal supervision and situated at No. 1900 Nineteenth street he started a plumbing shop, but afterward he sold the property and removed to his present location at No. 1009 H street. where with J. T. Smith as a partner and under the firm name of Walters & Smith, he does a general business in plumbing lines. Not only has he had contracts for putting in of water pipes and other departments of a plumber's work, but in addition he has taken contracts for heating and is con- sidered an expert authority both in heating and in plumbing.

The Walters family descends from old eastern ancestry. E. W. Walters, a native of Ohio, removed to Illinois in company with his parents and settled in Hancock county, where he engaged in farming. During the Civil war he served for more than three years as a volunteer in the One Hundred and Fifty-seventh Illinois Infantry and in one of the engagements he received a severe wound. Some years after the close of the war he married Miss Mary E. Scott, a native of Wheeling, W. Va., and from early life a resident of Illinois. Five children, all still living, were born of their union, the youngest being Raymond I., whose birth occurred July 30, 1884, on the home farm near the small village of Burnside in Hancock county. In 1886 the family removed to Creston, Iowa, and two years later they came to California. where the father entered a homestead in the San Emidio district. The develop- ment of the raw land into a productive farm occupied his closest attention for a considerable period, but eventually he sold the tract, removed to Bakers- field, purchased property in this city and is now living retired.

After he had finished the grammar grade and had entered the Kern county high school, Raymond I. Walters began to devote his entire vacation time to the plumber's trade. As early as 1898 he first became a workman in the trade and it was not long before he was competent for independent work. Upon graduating from the high school in 1903 he gave his entire time to the business, working in the employ of others. In 1904 he went to Santa Cruz and found employment at the trade. Later he worked as a journeyman in the Bay cities, but returned to Bakersfield in 1908, since which time he has engaged in business for himself. As a member of the Builders' Exchange and the Master Plumbers' Association, of which latter he acts as treasurer, he is identified with two of the leading trade organizations in the city, while in addition he has fraternal relations with Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M., in which he was made a Mason. The residence which he erected at No. 1920 Seventh street, Bakersfield, and which is a neat and attractive dwelling, is

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presided over with kindly hospitality by his wife, whom he married in San Jose and who was formerly Miss Grace M. Smith, their union having been blessed by a son, James W. To Mrs. Walters belongs the distinction of being a native daughter of the state, for she claims Watsonville as her native city, and her parents were pioneers of that part of the state.

ARTHUR R. WARREN .- The foreman of the Sumner warehouse of the Kern County Land Company at East Bakersfield is a member of an English family whose first representative in America, David Warren, came from the vicinity of Dover and settled in Wisconsin during young manhood. The state remained largely in the primeval condition of nature at the time of his arrival and the most strenuous exertion was necessary to clear and cultivate the land. Searching for a suitable location he traveled northwest from Madison and chose Juneau county as the place of his future activities. For many years and indeed until his death he devoted himself to agricultural pursuits in that section of the state and there he married Luella Wiseman, who like himself had been born in the vicinity of Dover, England, and she too spent her last days in Wisconsin. Nine children were born of their union. Five of these are still living and the third in order of birth, Arthur R., was born at the old homestead near Mauston, Juneau county, Wis., May 4, 1868, also was edu- cated in the schools of Juneau county, where he continued to live until he started out to make his own way in the world. Meanwhile his older brothers had gone to Minnesota and had settled near Granite Falls, Yellow Medicine county, where he joined them in 1885, securing work on farms in that section. After a time he returned to Wisconsin and began to work as a carpenter in the bridge and building department of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. The varying locations and demands of his occupative duties took him to the northern and northwestern states from Iowa to the Pacific coast.

A first trip to the extreme west of our country took Mr. Warren to Seattle in 1898 and convinced him of the greatness of this vast western empire. During 1900 he made his first trio to San Francisco. Business took him back to Nevada, where he was employed for two years, and then, in July of 1902, he came to Bakersfield, where ever since he has been connected with the Kern County Land Company. Two months were spent in the Bakersfield ware- house as a day laborer. In September of 1902 he was promoted to be foreman of that department, continuing as such until May of 1906 and then being transferred to his present position as foreman of the Sumner warehouse at East Bakersfield. The interests of the company have been promoted by his faithful and intelligent service and he stands high in the estimation of the officials, who have found him to be energetic, tactful, efficient and reliable. Meanwhile he has become deeply interested in the progress of Bakersfield and is loyal in every way to the local welfare. His political affiliations are with the Republican party.

JOSEPH P. COONEY .- The development of the oil fields not only de- mands the presence of operators and skilled workmen, but in addition invites the establishment of agencies for supplies absolutely essential to such work. Representative of the latter line of enterprise is the Taft branch of Woods & Huddart of San Francisco, Pacific coast agents for the South Chester casing and tubing and line pipe manufactured by the South Chester Tube Company, of Chester, Pa. As manager of the local branch, maintaining an office with the Western Pipe and Steel Company of this city, Mr. Cooney has developed a growing business among the oil superintendents of the various leases in the Sunset, Midway, Fellows and McKittrick fields.

From early recollections Mr. Cooney has been familiar with the oil industry. His father, W. P. Cooney, now living retired at Sistersville, V. Va .. for years was well known in eastern oil fields, took a leading part as operator

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and contractor during the period of the Bradford boom, and for a number of years engaged as a lease foreman in the Woodsfield district of Monroe county. Ohio. By his marriage to Isabel Flannigan (who is still living, but now an invalid) he had a family of five children: Joseph P., of Taft; Ralph P., of Santa Maria, now the district manager for the California National Supply Company ; Helena and Marcella, both living with their parents at Sistersville, where the latter is employed as a teacher in the schools ; and Cletus, a graduate of St. Vincent's College at Beatty, Westmoreland county, Pa. The oldest son, Joseph P., was born at Eldred, McKean county, Pa., January 9, 1885, and was ten years of age when the family left the Pennsylvania farm and removed to oil fields in Ohio, where the next five years were passed. At the age of fifteen he accompanied the family to West Virginia and settled at Alvy, Tyler county. At the age of twenty-three years, having saved up the sum neces- sary for such a step, he matriculated in Mountain State Business College at Parkersburg, W. Va., where he completed the commercial and telegraphic courses.

Immediately after graduation from college Mr. Cooney came to Cali- fornia, arriving in the Santa Maria field March 9, 1908. The first work he secured was as a roustabout under Superintendent J. C. Knoke, of the Union Oil Company. A merited promotion transferred him to the supply department of the same company, under Stone Hastain. For a time he was employed as a clerk in the store-room of the Union Oil Company, after which he was trans- ferred to the pipe-line department under Superintendent H. G. Burrows, of the Union Oil Company, at Santa Maria. As an assistant to Mr. Burrows he aided in the building of the line from Cat Canon to Orcutt. Upon resigning the position with the large corporation at Santa Maria he came over to Taft in 1911, to act as bookkeeper for Stone Hastain, the then manager of the Taft branch of Woods & Huddart. Upon the resignation of the manager, November 1, 1912, for the purpose of removing to Los Angeles and engaging in business for himself, Mr. Cooney was promoted from bookkeeper to manager, since which time he has efficiently engaged as local representative and agent for the South Chester tubing and casing. Since becoming a resident of this city he has identified himself with the Petroleum Club. While making Santa Maria his headquarters he became a member of San Luis Obispo Camp No. 322. B. P. O. E., and the Knights of Columbus No. 1375, at Arroyo Grande.

CHARLES TOMAIER .- Not lacking occupative training in his native land of Bohemia, Charles Tomaier learned to be a practical and experienced butcher under his father, who taught him every detail of that business. Nor had he lacked an education in his native tongue, for he had been graduated from a gymnasium in 1886 and had been reared in habits of frugality and self- reliant industry. His father, Joseph, died in 1911 in Bohemia, where the mother, Barbara, still makes her home. All of the five children are still living, Charles being next to the youngest among the five, and he was born May 6, 1864, at the old family homestead in Klenec, Bohemia, where he passed the uneventful years of childhood and youth. Often as he assisted his father in the meat market he heard people tell stories about the new world and its opportunities and early in life he determined to cross the ocean as soon as he could start out for himself in the world. It was during 1886 that the hoped- for opportunity came to him and he was enabled to take passage on an ocean steamer which brought him to New York. Thence he went west as far as Chicago and secured work in a large packing house.

The years spent in Chicago were filled with the most arduous labor and constant hardships associated with the struggle to carn a livelihood, but it was not until 1900 that he gave up work with the large beef companies. At that time he came to California and settled in Mojave, where he has since

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remained, meanwhile erecting two cottages and the Mojave lodging house. During the first year in this place he engaged in mining. Next he was em- ployed in the freight and round-house of the Southern Pacific Company. Upon resigning that position he secured the agency for the Maier Brewing Company of Los Angeles, which he still holds, besides which, since November 1, 1912, he has been agent for the Wieland Brewing Company. In addition he has established and now conducts the Mojave soda works, where he is engaged in the manufacture of soda and mineral waters for sale in the town and surrounding country. Since coming to Mojave he has been a local worker for the Democratic party and has identified himself fraternally with the Bakersfield Lodge of Moose. While living in Chicago he was united in marriage with Miss Mary Stradel, a native of Bohemia. Four children comprise their family, namely: Louis, Mary, Charles and Blanche.

WILLIAM W. FRAZIER .- Born October 7, 1844, near Abbeville, S. C., one of the most historic places in the south, Mr. Frazier comes of old Maryland families, of Scottish ancestry. A thorough training in the public schools was supplemented by one year's study in the Columbia Military Academy, and then for two years he was at the Citadel Military Academy at Charleston, remaining there until the arrival of Sherman's army caused the academy to be discontinued. Then he was called out to assist in the war, and after seeing active service in Major White's battalion of cadets, he was paroled in Barnes- ville, Ga., at the close of the war. In 1866 he went to Louisville, Ky., and here he began his long career as a teacher, remaining one year in the Louisville reform schools as instructor, and in 1867 removed to Omaha, Neb., where he was employed in a lumber yard until 1868. He was later employed with the Union Pacific Railroad for a year on bridge construction from Cheyenne west, and he remained with them until after the golden spike was driven. In 1869 he came to California and opened his first school in Stockton, where he taught for about a year, then resuming services on the railroad on the Shasta route in 1873. Next he worked in San Francisco as instructor in the City Industrial School until 1875, on March 18th of that year coming to Kern county to teach school at South Fork for a term. In 1876 he opened the Buena Vista District school and the following year had charge of the San Emidio school. In 1878 he taught in Tehachapi. Two years later he instructed pupils in the school of Woody district and in 1882 in White River. The terms 1883-84 he taught in Cummings valley. After his marriage he discontinued teaching to engage in farming, his interests becoming so great that he was obliged to relinquish his school work and give his entire attention to his ranch.

In partnership with Mr. Myers in the year 1878 Mr. Frazier had embarked in the enterprise of general farming and stock-raising, Mr. Myers having charge of the ranch until Mr. Frazier relinquished teaching. The land had been improved somewhat during this time and when they dissolved partnership they divided the land, Mr. Frazier's property covering about two hundred and forty acres. He has added to this until he now owns four hundred and eighty acres, situated nine miles southwest of Bakersfield and known as the "Golden Rod" ranch because of the profuse growth of those flowers on the place. The ranch is utilized for general farming and stock-raising. All of his land is under the Buena Vista canal and is suitable for alfalfa growing, which he raises to a great extent. His cattle are the short horn Durham variety, his horses are English shire, and he is raising Poland China hogs extensively.

On June 28, 1883, Mr. Frazier was married in Sacramento to Frances J. Gardner, a native of White River, Me., born March 6, 1838. She was inter- ested in educational work in Massachusetts and came to California in 1872. He has given service to his community in the holding of the office of clerk of Buena Vista School District for the past thirteen years, his experience in

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teaching having made him a valued member of the board. He is one of the original directors of the Security Trust Company of Bakersfield, and also director of the Peoples Mutual Building & Loan Association. Fraternally he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Bakersville Lodge No. 202. Mr. Frazier's life has covered many walks of life, in all of which he has borne a most useful part, in war, in educational life, in the agricultural and financial field of this vicinity and as a capable and prosperous ranchman. and not the least as an honorable and upright citizen, whose interest is ever for the benefit of his adopted state.

CYRILLE GIRAUD .- Since the year 1884 Cyrille Giraud has been identified more or less with the business activities in Kern county. He was born in 1865 in France, where his parents both passed away. At the age of sixteen he arrived in America, coming west to El Paso, Tex., whence after a short time he traveled to Los Angeles and then to Bakersfield, in 1884, and he remained in the latter place until 1892, during which time he engaged in mining and also farmed to some extent. Later for six years he was in San I uis Obispo, then securing a position with the Southern Pacific Rail- road at Tehachapi. For four years he was occupied in the shops of that company and at the end of that time purchased the hotel and saloon which he is now conducting.

On April 5, 1902, Mr. Giraud was married to Jennie Movnier, a native of San Francisco, Cal., and to them were born children as follows: Cyrille I., Eugene, Martha and Harry. Mr. Giraud is a Republican in politics, and in fraternal circles is an active member of the Woodmen of the World of Bakersfield.

MRS. MARGARET M. BROOM .- Widowed more than fifteen years ago, Mrs. Margaret M. Broom found it incumbent upon her to look after her own interests, and so well has she done this that she now finds herself com- fortably fixed and well able to manage her affairs. She is the only living child of her parents, James M. and Susanna (Chance) Rochelle, both of whom were born in Tennessee. The father followed farming in Kentucky for a while, and then removed to Montgomery county, Tenn., going from there into St. Clair, Ill., near Mascoutah, where he farmed for a short period. He then removed to Johnson county, Kans., where in 1881 his death occurred.

At the age of ten years Mrs. Broom removed with her father to Illinois, settling in St. Clair county, where she attended public school. She married in Illinois Commodore Perry Broom, a native of Illinois, who was engaged in farming. They also removed to Johnson county, Kans., and Mrs. Broom still owns a tract of eighty acres near Olathe. Kans. Mr. Broom had been to California in 1851 and had remained until 1854, when he returned to Illinois. However, he had a great desire to return to the west, and accordingly, in 1892, they arrived in California, and settled in Bakersfield, where "r. Broom's death occurred in 1895. Mrs. Broom then bought a one-acre tract at the corner of Second and Chester avenues, where she built a residence and be- came engaged in horticulture and the poultry business. This has proved to be a sensible undertaking, as she has since been able to build two residences close at hand which she rents. Six children survived the death of Mr. Broom. Susie E., Mrs. Howe, is a resident of East Bakersfield ; Frances, Mrs. Neidig, is also a resident of East Bakersfield: Edward E., and Charles E. are resi- den's of Bakersfield ; Alice E. resides in San Francisco; and Jesse C. in Seattle.

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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 165

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