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 167

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 167

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CLARENCE C. CUMMINGS .- Cummings valley, which is situated in Kern county, derived its name from George Cummings, and his sons are now worthily upholding that name and the honored position held by their father in this community.

George Cummings was an Austrian by birth, and came from his native country in 1849, around the Horn, becoming one of the pioneer settlers of California, who after many hard experiences finally became the owner of extensive properties. He engaged in mining for some time. subsequently engaging in stock-raising and general farming, and became the owner of a ranch of five thousand acres. His wife, Sacramento Lopez, was born in Los Angeles county in 1860, and now makes her home on South Bonnie Brae street in that city.

Clarence C. Cummings was born in Los Angeles, August 18, 1882, and there received his schooling. His parents had removed to that city to give their children the best educational facilities possible. With his brothers he took charge of the father's ranch which they are now operating, besides which they have purchased other land and now have six sections, mostly grazing land, about five hundred acres, however, being under cultivation, and their success in the business of stock-raising has been most gratifying.

Mr. Cummings is a young man of ability. He is unmarried, and devotes most of his time and attention to his business interests. Capable, energetic and persevering, he has mastered the details of this line of work to such an extent that he is looked upon as an authority, and with his brothers holds a prominent place among the stock-raisers of the community.

EDWARD G. CUMMINGS .- Upon first coming to the United States.

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George Cummings made his way westward and settled in San Francisco, Cal. For about six years he engaged in mining, after which he took up farming, going to San Joaquin county, where for fifteen years he was a general farmer and stock-raiser. In 1870 he moved to Los Angeles and entered the butcher business, following this up to the time he came to the valley that now bears his name. By this time Mr. Cummings had learned that with proper water facilities the soil in this part of the country would yield good results, and accordingly he investigated the territory. Finding a mountain stream he decided to locate in the valley and took up a government homestead claim. He had about three hundred and twenty head of cattle and his stock-raising enterprise was on a profitable basis. He relinquished his business to his sons and lived retired until his death in 1903.

The family had returned to Los Angeles in 1878, George Cummings, however, holding his ranch in Kern county, where Edward Cummings, his son, was born. The latter received his education in the public and high schools of Los Angeles, attending until he had reached the age of eighteen years. He then went to work for his father, taking charge of the place and relieving him of many arduous duties. At present the family operate the old home and together own five sections of land, upon which they follow stock-raising on a large scale, and altogether have about five hundred head of cattle, three hun- dred head of hogs and a number of well bred horses on the property. They have five hundred acres under cultivation, sixty acres in alfalfa, and there are about eight acres of apple, pear, peach and apricot trees. The owners have made extensive improvements on the ranch in the way of developing water facilities and in other ways have added to the general value of the place. Interested with him in this ranch are his sister and five brothers.

E. W. RANDOLPH is superintendent of the Boston Pacific Oil Com- pany, which owns valuable property in the Midway and Sunset fields, having one hundred and sixty acres on section 32, 31-24 in the Midway field and forty acres on section 34, 12-24 in the Sunset with four producing wells, averaging twenty-five hundred barrels monthly. On the first-named lease there is now one flowing well with an output of one thousand barrels per day ; in addition another well is now being drilled.

Born in Allen county, Kan., December 3, 1880, and reared on a farm, he left the homestead in southeastern Kansas at the age of twenty years and afterward worked in many oil fields of his native commonwealth besides those of Oklahoma. His first experiences in drilling were gained at Wayside, Mont- gomery county, Kan., and in Oklahoma he was employed at Tulsa, Cleveland and other fields. Coming from Oklahoma to California in 1908 and stopping at Maricopa, Mr. Randolph secured a position as driller on the Muscatine in the Sunset field. Later, while drilling for the Standard, he brought in No. 1 on section 26, the first gas well in the Midway field. After a year with the Standard he became connected with other concerns and finally was employed as a driller with the Boston Pacific Oil Company. After the first month he was promoted to be superintendent and now, with his wife, formerly Miss Mabel Uptegrove, a native of Kansas, he makes his home on the company's lease in the Midway field. He is a master Mason.

GEORGE JORGENSEN .- From the age of sixteen years Mr. Jorgensen has made California his home, coming thither from the province of Schleswig- Holstein. The Jorgensen family represented some of the very best Danish element of the northern part of the province, where Jacob and Annie (Schmidt) Jorgensen lived upon a farm at Kettingholz. Some time since the father passed away, but the mother still survives, at the age of seventy-three, and when her son, George, visited her in 1911 at her home in Arteberg, Germany, he found her well preserved and keenly interested in all the activities of life.

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There were six children in the family who attained years of maturity, namely : Peter, Christ, Jacob, George, Cecelia and Andrew. George was born on the home farm at Kettingholz April 6, 1881. The eldest, Peter, owns and operates a soda fountain at Oakdale, Cal. Christ is engaged in farming in Stanislaus county, this state. Jacob owns large tracts in Merced county. Cecelia remains in Germany, making her home at Hamburg, and Andrew is working on the Lake ranch as an employe of the Kern County Land Company.

After having fitted himself for life's responsibilities by acquiring a thorough knowledge of the German and Danish languages, George Jorgensen came to the United States at the age of sixteen years, starting from Bremen December 12, 1897, and landing in New York January 1, 1898. Coming directly across the continent to San Francisco he proceeded from that city to Merced county, where he found ranch work in the employ of Miller & Lux. During the several years of his continuance in the same position he studied the English language, which he now reads and writes and speaks as well. Upon leaving Merced county he worked on farms in Stanislaus county. Dur- ing 1910 he left California for the purpose of visiting friends in the old home land. May 26, 1911, he left Germany where he had formed the acquaintance of Miss Mary Hoeg, who had promised to share his fortunes in the new world. The young couple were married in Fresno in September of 1911 and began housekeeping on a ranch of sixty acres in the Weed Patch, where he has built a neat house and large barn and divided his land by cross fences. The ranch is owned by his brother, Jacob, who has leased the property to him with the privilege of buying and meanwhile he is making improvements of permanent value to the ranch. In his specialty of alfalfa-raising, he has made an encouraging start. In 1º13 Mr. Jorgensen helped to organize the Farmers Co-operative Creamery in Kern county. In the fall of 1912 he built a good barn 62x64 in dimensions, with a capacity of a hundred tons of hav, and there is room for forty-two cows and four horses. In the last two years Mr. Jorgen- sen has made improvements amounting to $4,500. With the energy charac- teristic of him he is collecting a herd of fine Jersey milch cows.

JAMES RUSSELL CRAWFORD .- The identification of Mr. Crawford with Bakersfield covers a period comparatively brief, yet of sufficient duration to give him an adequate comprehension of the possibilities of the city from a commercial standpoint, and since he opened a garage at No. 1812 M street he has built up a large repair business, also has kept in stock a complete line of automobile supplies and has held the agency for the Maxwell car. In con- nection with the repair shop he has established and maintained a blacksmith and machine shop, which gives him the necessary equipment for repair work of all kinds, besides enabling him to do satisfactory work in caring for and repairing automobiles.

Near the line of the Old Dominion, at Wardensville, Hardy county, W. Va., James Russell Crawford was born October 9th, 1882. The family of which he was a member originally comprised twelve children and eight of the number are still living. The parents, Capt. Levi and Mary Ann (Bowers) Crawford, were natives of West Virginia and the latter died in Iowa during the year 1912. The former, who was a lifelong farmer, gained his title through efficient service as the head of a company that remained at the front in the Union army throughout the entire period of the Civil war. When peace had been declared he received an honorable discharge and returned to West Vir- ginia to resume farm pursuits. Some time afterward he married Miss Bowers and established a home of his own, continuing in West Virginia until 1889, when he removed to Iowa and bought a farm near Montezuma. Now at the age of eighty-three years (1913) he is living retired in Iowa. When the family settled in the central west James Russell Crawford was a boy of seven years.

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

hence his education was obtained largely in Iowa and his youth was passed on an Iowa farm. Agriculture, however, did not interest him as did work with machinery. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to the trade of blacksmith at Brooklyn, Iowa, where he remained until the completion of his time and later he worked at different places, first in Iowa, then in Washington. The year 1909 found him in California, where for a year he engaged as black- smith with the Monte Cristo Oil Company in the Kern river field. Since then he has been interested in business for himself at Bakersfield, where he has a comfortable home, presided over by Mrs. Crawford, whom he married in San Diego, and who was Miss Minnie Hartman, a native of Iowa. In national politics he votes with the Republican party. With his wife he has been identi- fied with the United Presbyterian Church.

WILLIAM LEWIS HENDERSON .- As one of the proprietors of the Bakersfield sheet metal works Mr. Henderson is identified with an important local industry and is given a business standing which reflects the highest credit upon his own energy and resclution of purpose. The attainment of success in life, while one of his earliest ambitions, did not seem possible of fruition, for he was orphaned by the death of his father when he himself was but a child and afterward poverty prevented him from securing a finished education, yet with firmness and industry he has persevered until now the fu- ture looks most promising and hopeful. Chicago is his native city and he was born February 7, 1875, but from the age of seven years he has lived in Cali- fornia. His parents, Charles H. and Mary (Burkhart) Henderson, were natives respectively of New York state and Pottsville, Pa., and the former was an electrician by occupation. When the father died in 1882 the mother brought her four small children, of whom William L. was the eldest, to Cali- fornia, establishing a home in San Francisco, where the then small lad worked of mornings and evenings in order to aid in securing the scanty livelihood of the family. After he had completed the grammar grade he left school and found employment in a factory where were manufactured articles of brass, steel and German silver. At the age of seventeen he was apprenticed to the trade of sheet-metal worker in the Union iron works of San Francisco, where he worked successively in the engine, hull and ventilation departments.

Coming to Bakersfield for the first time during 1897 Mr. Henderson found work as a journeyman with C. H. Quincy and when the latter sold out to the Western Burner and Fuel Company he continued for one year in charge of their sheet-metal department. The business was then sold to the Bakersfield Plumbing Company and he returned to San Francisco, where he continued to work at his trade. For a time he made a specialty of cornice work. After the fire of April, 1906, he embarked in business for himself, continuing until the fall of 1908, when he returned to Bakersfield. For a time he followed his trade with R. H. Ferguson, later being promoted to the management of the sheet-metal department, which in March of 1912 he purchased with James I. Waldon as a partner. The Bakersfield sheet-metal works (for by this name the business is now known) is located at No. 1807 L street and contains a complete equipment for the manufacture of everything in the sheet-metal line. The proprietors are men of energy and deserve the growing trade which is theirs. In addition to maintaining a close supervision of the business Mr. Henderson takes a warm interest in movements for the upbuilding of the city, in national politics supports Democratic policies and fraternally is a mem- ber of the Woodmen of the World. His first wife, who was Miss Lida H. Moon, a native of Bakersfield, died shortly after their marriage; later, at Oxnard, this state, he was united with Miss Julia M. Hancock, a native of Canada, and by this union there are four children, Selena, Bessie, George and

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Birdie. They are comfortably located on Arlington street where Mr. Hen- derson has built a residence on a tract of ten lots which he owns.

A. L. MOSS .- Several successive generations of the Moss family have been identified with the agricultural development of the new world and par- ticularly with the South. The family records show that the great-grand- mother, who was a native of Germany, became a resident of America prior to the Revolutionary war and there is authority for the accuracy of the state- ment that she lived to be one hundred and twelve years of age. From the Atlantic seaboard the family began to drift toward the west. Both William Moss and his son, A. L., were born in the state of Tennessee near Jackson and the former married Julia Ann Stephens, who was born in North Carolina, but passed the years of girlhood in Tennessee. One year after the birth of their son, A. L., which occurred March 30, 1857, the parents moved across the Mis-

sissippi river and settled in Missouri, a center of strife during the Civil war. Although the boy was only four years of age when the war opened he remem- bers some of the stirring incidents and recalls an unimportant but sanguinary contest that took place at Hartville, Mo., between the opposing generals. Warner and Marmaduke. The long civil strife impoverished the family and defeated his aspirations for obtaining a good education, but observation taught him much and enlarged his fund of useful information and from an early age he has been self-supporting. Throughout life he has made a specialty of farm- ing and gardening. While still living in Missouri he lost his first wife, who passed away July 10, 1899, leaving two sons, William and John, both now resi- dents of Georgia.

Coming to California about the year 1900 Mr. Moss immediately settled in Kern county. During the first year he engaged in a fruit and grocery business. Later he followed other occupations for brief intervals, but here, as in Mis- souri, he has given his attention principally to market gardening and general farming. His second marriage took place in this county and united him with Mrs. Addie Thurlow, the wedding being solemnized in the year 1905, since which time they have resided at the home farm situated two and one-half miles southeast of Bakersfield and comprising forty acres of very valuable land. Fruit of the choicest varieties is raised in large quantities, including peaches, plums, apples, pears, blackberries and strawberries. He makes a specialty of raising "Irish" potatoes for the early markets, as well as sweet potatoes, while in the summer and autumn melons and cantaloupes are raised and sold by the wholesale. Industrious in disposition, energetic in temperament, fond of the work in which he specializes, he has shown ability in the management of the farm and is securing excellent returns from its cultivation. In this task he has the sensible, practical co-operation of his wife, whose long residence in the west has familiarized her with local conditions and given her an expe- rience most helpful to present activities. Born near Perry, N. Y., she was a daughter of the late James Rood, of York state, and during young womanhood became the wife of Charles Thurlow, a carpenter, whom she accompanied to California in 1888 and who passed away in March, 1899, leaving two daughters, Madge and Gladys. The older daughter is now the wife of Guy Rodgers, who is employed as a stationary engineer at San Francisco. Gladys married W. L. Formway, who is employed by the San Joaquin Light & Power Corporation. The family attend the Baptist Church in Bakersfield. He holds strictly to Democratic principles and never fails to support the candidates of that party in national elections. Mr. Moss bought thirty-five acres in the vicinity of Edison in April, 1913, with the intention of engaging in the market-gardening business on a larger scale, making a specialty of early table vegetables.

VINCENT MON .- The early home of Vincent Mon was in Basses Pyrenees, France, where he was born December 12, 1858, and where he spent

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the first seventeen years of his life. The family to which he belongs has been identified with Southern France from a remote period and his parents, Louis Henry and Jane ( Larratone) Mon, were lifelong residents of Basses Pyrenees, where the father died at the age of eighty-two and the mother a year later when past eighty. There were six children in the family and all are still liv- ing, the eldest, a half-brother, Gart, remaining in France, while an own brother, Jean, is living in Buenos Ayres, South America. Marie is a nun in a convent in France. Theresa, wife of Jean Crapuchets, remains on the old homestead in Basses Pyrenees. Mrs. Genevieve Mesplou, a widow still living in France, has two daughters, namely : Anna, wife of Ira Gerardet, a clerk in a store in East Bakersfield; and Jane, who resides with Mrs. Gerardet when she is in Bakersfield, but whose permanent home is San Francisco.

While attending the common schools in his native land Vincent Mon heard much concerning America and as soon as he completed the studies of the grammar schools he crossed the ocean, Los Angeles being his objective point. Shortly after he arrived in that city he chanced to meet Henry Zim- merman, who bought and fed sheep for the San Francisco markets. Securing employment with him as a drover he continued in the same place for three years and then engaged in a similar capacity with other sheepmen, making Bakersfield his headquarters. Carefully hoarding his wages, he was able to embark in business for himself in 1891 and began with four thousand head of sheep. It was necessary to carry a heavy debt on the flock and when the financial panic of 1894 came it found him unprepared for such an emergency, the result being a total loss. Forced to start anew, he began to dip sheep at Poso Bridge Station in 1895 and ever since he has given his attention largely to such work, but in addition he owns a herd of seventy-five cattle and a flock of one hundred of Angora goats. He operates his farm of forty acres at Poso, Kern county, and since 1912 has made his home on five acres of land, which he bought in that year, on Terrance Way, in the suburbs of Bakers- field.

The marriage of Mr. Mon took place in 1887 and united him with Miss Catharine Cazaux, who came from the same province in France as himself and who is a woman of thrift, energy and untiring industry, a devoted wife and wise mother. Ten children were born of their union and nine are still living, namely : Julia, Henry, Eugene, Marie, Irene, Vincent, Jr., Emaline, George and Catharine. All are yet at home and the youngest of the number are pupils in the common schools. Charles Vincent, second child born in the family, died in infancy. The family hold membership with the Catholic Church and are devoted to its doctrines. Since he became a citizen of our country he has been a Republican.

DANIEL B. WOODSON .- To the class of self-educated, self-reliant citizens who form so vital a part of the population of Kern county belongs Daniel B. Woodson, owner of a well-improved ranch lying four and one-half miles south of Kern. His life has not been filled with the sunshine of case nor made glad by an inheritance of wealth ; on the other hand, the stern necessity of self-support deprived him of educational advantages and prevented him from enjoying the recreations that render pleasant the memories of youth.

From Missouri, where he was born in Boone county November 9, 1879, Daniel B. Woodson came to California and settled at Bakersfield at the age of eleven years. The poverty of the family prevented him from securing a thorough education and from the age of fifteen he has been self-supporting. For three years he drove a team for the Kern County Land Company. Nine months were passed as a helper in the Southern Pacific shops at Bakersfield and for eighteen months he was employed in the Bakersfield iron works. When he left the last-named plant he secured a position with the Standard Oil

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Company in Bakersfield. After he had been with the company about seven years he resigned from his position as foreman and stationary engineer, in which capacity he had been employed along the Point Richmond line, mean- while living at various places along the route of his work.

With his savings of years Mr. Woodson purchased fifty acres lying four and one-half miles south of Kern and here he has since remained. Besides operating the home place he rents an adjacent tract of fifteen acres and also manages fifteen acres belonging to his wife, so that altogether he farms eighty acres in one body. His whole attention is concentrated upon the care of the farm. Aside from voting the Democratic ticket at all elections he takes no part whatever in politics. Since he came to the farm, January 1, 1911, he has made a number of needed improvements and has endeavored successfully to increase the productiveness of the soil, thereby also increasing the returns from its cultivation. In all of his work he has enjoyed the helpful co-operation of Mrs. Woodson, whom he married in 1900 and who was Mrs. Mamie Keough, the widow of Daniel Keough and a daughter of Peter McCaffery, one of the pioneers of Kern county. They have one child, Florence.

MORDECAI FILLMORE PEARSON .- Born near Doylestown, Bucks county, Pa., on Christmas Day, 1855, M. F. Pearson is the son of Mordecai and Ruth A. (Linburg) Pearson, both natives of Bucks county, of old Penn- sylvania families and of English ancestry, descending from members of the Society of Friends that migrated from England during the early settlement of Philadelphia by William Penn. Mordecai Pearson was a farmer near Doyles- town and there both parents passed away, their family consisting of eleven children. Nine of these grew to maturity, of whom Mordecai Fillmore is the fourth. He attended public school near the home of his youth until he was eighteen and during the next three years worked for his father. Having attained his majority, he made his independent entry into the business world as a clerk in a store at Doylestown, but later turned his attention to farming the home place. In 1884 he came to California and was employed for two years in Los Angeles. From that city he went to Cortland, Sacramento county, where he successfully operated a dairy until 1890, at which time he purchased forty acres of land in the Rosedale district, Kern county, and began general farming and horticulture, setting out a vineyard and orchard. Later on he sold his property and took up a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres in the Weed Patch, where he sunk a well, built a house, and made other improvements, and proved un on it. This he still owns. He lived on this place until 1907, when he came to the original part of his present property. He bought twenty acres each year for five years until he had one hundred acres which he gradually improved, devoting it to general farming and dairying. It is all under irrigation from the Stine canal.

Meanwhile Mr. Pearson took an interest in gold mining, with special reference to operations in the northern part of the state, and he is one of the promoters of the business of the Gold Mountain Hydraulic and Dredging Company, operating on Willow creek, a tributary of the Feather river in Plumas county. He has during recent years been interested in the development of an apiary on his ranch.

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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 167

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