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 2
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McCombs, Albert J 1101
Kingston, Thomas S.
1376
Kinton, Miss Ella B.
1459
Klipstein, Thomas E.
909
Knight, Harry S
958
Knoke, J. C ...
1425
Mccutchen, W. C.
1243
Lueschen, Alvin G., M.D 296
Lufkin, Harry R.
210
Lovejoy, George W
1525
Lowell, Alexis F.
619
Lowell, William H
660
Lock, J. R
1333
Long, E. R
1282
Long, Samuel C.
570
Lonstrom, Axel 1456
Lopez, Jose J.
880
Lorentzen, Paul
288
Johnston, George K. 837
Johnston, H. D.
1056
Lieb, Edwin P
Lierly, W. S 308
227
Jones, Paul R
1390
Jordan, Judson H
467
Jorgensen, George
1532
Joughin, William D 1133
Kratzmer, August
978
Kueffner, Rev. Louis 550
Kuehn, George W
1268
Mc Kamy, James
L
Lafont, Valentin 1339
922
Johnson, John
595
Lavers, Frederick
Johnson, Charles W
Lightner, Abia T
Lowell, Wilmot
Kelley, Jesse L.
King, George W.
Mccullough, Harvey N.
INDEX
McMahon, Edward T 656
Mc Manus, Terence B.
372
McMillen, John H
549
Moynier, Jean 901
McMurtry, H. A
1452
Mull, P. 1350
Mull, Robert J. 1366
Munzer, Francis G.
316
Murdock, Harry F. 624
Myers, Jasper
1422
N
Neff, J. R. 526
Neill, John 1381
Neill, Robert 502
Nelson, Christian 1352
1240
Marion, Albert W
555
Marley, John C.
706
Marsh, Fred J.
910
Marsh, Judson D. 1209
433
Martin, David E.
1029
Martin, Miles R., Jr
1206
Martin, Richard J.
781
Martin, S. H
1321
Martinto, Jean P
1350
Massa, Harry G.
1474
Mathews, Sarshel V.
1429
Matlack, William V
238
Mattly, Christian
335
Mattly, Peter
1365
Mattson, Frank S
574
Maurel, August 1112
May, Mrs. Amelia H.
1342
May, George S.
1264
Mayou, Pierre
1501
O'Hare, Peter 534
O'Meara, P. J. 1444
Ochs, Oscar R
1298
Odeman, Gus 1216
Off, Charles F 397
Ogden, James A. 441
Olson, Anthony B 293
Orcier, Romulus 374
Orr, Frank 1465
Osborn, Walter 240
Oswald, John S. 537
Overall, Joseph W 1511
Owen, Erwin W 1230
Owen, Josiah 1234
Owen, Ray
1464
Molidor, George
428
Mon, Vincent 1535
573
Montgomery, James
738
Montgomery, Richard D
1480
Moore, Raleigh A. 802
Mora, Frank J.
1401
Morgan, Alvin E
1258
Morgan, Rev. Edward.
1436
Morgan, James A.
1295
Morgan, Wallace M.
614
Morley, Joseph V.
1395
Morris, Clark D.
1205
Morris, John F.
1387
Morris, Myron W 1503
Morris, R. R. 1555
Morrison, Charles V. 1419
Mortenson, Capt. Paul 1408
Morton, A. S. 1101
Mosher, Herbert C. 329
Moss, A. L ... 1535
Moss, H. G. 849
McNamara, Thaddeus M., M.D
546
McNamara, Thaddeus M
221
McNew, Hugh L.
342
Maddux, David W.
1078
Maddux, William A.
1089
Maguire, James T.
1196
Mahon, Hon. Jack W
319
Maio, John F.
1479
Mannel, Frederick E.
1327
Mansfield, James H.
1380
Marek, Joseph F.
1345
Newell, Daniel B.
630
Newsom, Edward F 1443
Newton, Frank H.
1469
Nicolas, Maurice 1270
Nicoll, John 1524
Niederaur, Jacob 251
Nighbert, George T
1297
Nixon, Andrew
1369
Noel, Fritz C .. 1255
Noriega, Faustino M 1286
Norris, Edward G. 258
Norris, James N 296
Norris, Robert T 820
Northrop, Earl 1055
Nunez, Max 1093
O'Boyle, Thomas J. 337
O'Donnell, Mary
832
Means, Thomas A 371
Menzel, William 490
Mercy Hospital 895
Metcalf, Thomas A
437
Meudell, A. Y
533
Mier, Jose 1410
Mikesell, Mrs. W. M 698
Miles, J. A. C.
1323
Millard, Edward F.
1166
Millard, Stephen W. 1383
Miller, Daniel R 1478
Milliff, Frank A.
1405
Minor, Theodore H. 413
Owens, Thomas E 1546
Owens, Troy M 1484
P
Palmer, Robert 1198
Palmer, Walter 1038
Parish, George W 530
Parker, James H.
1242
Parsons, Horace G.
626
Pascoe, M. W., M.D
379
Payne, J. C ...
1406
Peacock, Harrison R
479
Peairs, Howard A
853
Pearl, M. J ..
1323
Pearson, Mordecai F.
1537
Peck, William B. 542
Pemberton, George N 815
Pensinger, James H 742
215
Pauly, Leo G. 701
Payne, Mahlon
Monroe, W. P.
Maze, Frederick S 697
1086
May, Charles A
Marshall, Joseph J.
Nelson, David W.
xiii
.
xiv
INDEX
Pensinger, William W. 1120
Perry, William C.
1348
Rodoni, A. 1340
Rogers, Jesse R 1144
Petersen, Niels P.
497
Rooks, William J. 1149
Ross, Harvey L 1126
Ross, Lyman C ..
1349
Rowlee, Charles W
928
Ruby, Mrs. Amanda
600
Petz, George J
1105
Ruedy, Christian
365
Peyton, L.
1391
Rufener, Jules
392
Pfost, Joseph F
925
Rupp, Alfred
350
Phelan, Harry B
1130
Philipp, Jean
1549
Philipp, Jean L
1378
Pickle, John A.
1226
Pierce, Charles C.
1209
Pinnell, Thomas W
1296
Pippitt, George H
1359
Plaugher, John P
1153
Polhemus, A. B.
1421
Posch, Gustav
468
Salis, Peter
1133
Sallee, George H.
1208
Samuelson, John P.
1098
Sanguinetti, Henry
1331
San Joaquin Hospital
832
San Joaquin Light & Power Corp ...
1402
Sanzberro, Agustin
1180
Sartiat, Pierre 651
Savoie, Adlore 1492
509
Schamblin, Gustavus
359
Schiefferle, Charles
529
Schneider, E. J 1422
Schneider, Karl 1004
Schultz, William J 613
1015
Scofield, Fred N
1298
Scott, Marion 599
Scott, M. P.
1277
Scott, Robert L
608
Scott & Goodman
1277
Seager, Carey L.
257
Sears, Charles H 1220
Randolph, E. W. 1274
1532
Raney, James A
1487
Rankin, LeRoy
1315
Rankin, Walker
1473
Ranous, R. E.
1498
Ratliff, William T
1008
Raymond, Jean B
1393
Raymond, John A
1303
Real, C. E ...
836
Shaffer, George W
1284
Rechnagel, Charles
977
Shannon, Phares H
1513
Redlick, Joseph
1067
Rees, R. B., M.D
525
Rench, Arthur
1129
Rhea, E. S.
1397
Richard, George J
1553
Richart, Joy J.
1493
Rinaldi, Otto F.
835
Ripley, John
458
Ripple, Jacob N. 1497
Ritzman, Conrad
957
Roberts, Col. E. M
201
Roberts, James C.
310
Roberts, James E
1464
Roberts, John E
1187
Robinson, Alonzo B
741
Robinson, J.
583
Robinson, Percy L
1211
Smartt, Samuel G ............. 538
1
Ramsey, John C. 591
Sears, Charles N 284
Sedwell, George W. 1550
Seibert, Benjamin F. 1187
Seinturier, Hippolyte 373
Sellers, C. H 574
Seran, Joseph 1004
Seymour, W. S.
1514
Shackelford, Dick
1540
Shackelford, Rowzee F
1018
Shearer, George W.
1256
Sheedy, David 1397
Sheffler, H. Roy 1430
Sherman, Charles H. 684
Sherwood, Edgar E 1509
Sherwood, Fred C. 1455
Shields, Jeremiah 1086
Shively, Delbert A. 583
Shurban, Charles Il. 1461
Siemon, Alfred 1223
Silber, William G. 1396
Sill, B. H ... 898
Silver, Andrew C. 378
Simpson, R. N. 1439
Simpson, Hon. William E. 1229
Sloan, A. A 591
590
S
Sabichi, George C., MI.D. 1217
Saffell, J. M
1259
Said, Bellamy K 652
Pourroy, Jean
1496
Pourroy, Seraphim
486
Powell, Francis M
1319
Powell, H. G.
1392
Powers, Sidney 1077
Preble, Mrs. Margaret H.
1192
Premo, George W.
1154
Prendiville, Rev. J. J.
1165
Prouty, Herbert V., M.D
309
Q
Qualls, Oliver
1411
Quincy, Charles H
457
Quinn, Harry
327
Quinn, Margaret
832
R
Ragesdale, J. W. 838
Raine, Arthur E
982
Rambo, Harry C. 1108
Rupp. J. G ..
1191
Russell, J. Kelly 951
Russell, William P.
Petersen, Peter
1176
Petray, Mrs. Pauline D
656
Petroleum Club, The
1437
Pettis, Martin N
1358
Pesante, Mrs. Adeline. 1362
Rodgers, Warren 932
Schaffnit, Henry R
Schutz, Herman H
Randolph, E. W.
INDEX
Smetzer, Charles C.
687
Thoruber, James H. 710
Smith, Bedell
393
Thornburgh, George P. 1463
Smith, Charles D.
1450
Tibbet, Mrs. Rebecca 1076
Smith, Charles H
481
Tibbetts, Charles B. 1474
Smith, E. C.
1316
Tibbetts, Frank C.
917
Smith, Frederick
1025
Timmons, William B.
1228
Smith, Fred L
1366
Todd, George H. 349
Smith, Henry E
1263
Tough, Frederick B.
1294
Smith, Mel P
1022
Tracy, Mrs. Ellen M.
785
Smith, Hon. Sylvester C.
299
Smith, Thomas
620
517
Smith, Thomas S
939
Tracy, Mrs. William
518
Snider, George L
1033
Trne, Henry B.
987
Snow, Francis M
1375
Truesdell, Edward M.
914
Tryon, S. G.
1543
Sowash, Charles
846
Tschurr, Nicklas
1034
Spach, Thomas M
1503
Tuculet, Peter
1362
Tyler, William 786
Tyrer, John
1355
U
Underwood, Vernon L. 717
Underwood, William E. 641
Union Ice Company 472
Upton, John V.
1261
Stephenson, W. W.
510
Stevens, James M.
910
Stevenson, J. H.
289
Stier, Joseph P. 1341
V
Vaccaro, Joseph 1361
Vandaveer, Mrs. Emma L. 1161
Van Epps, Franklin L. 1470
Van Meter, William E.
1415
Stutsman, Grant
1414
Van Norman, Harvey A.
454
Suiter, Benjamin F. and Mayme B. 803
Van Orman, Mrs. Harriet
246
Sullivan, Timothy P. 471
Vaughn. Benjamin C.
559
Sumner, Hon. Joseph W. 237
Vaughn, Fred B.
1337-
Sweitzer, Samnel 1547
Verdier, Eugene
1304
Swett, John L. 1373
Vieux. Andre 1067
Villard, Ambroise 786
Villard, Pierre 1268
759
T
W
Talbot, William G. 871
Tam, Hon. Joseph H. 245
Taussig, Nathan W. 607
Waldon, Pinkney J. 1227
1272
Taylor, Charles C.
1382
Wallace, William
1148
Taylor, Charles L.
1207
Wallen, Frank W.
1196
Waller, George
668
Taylor, George E.
1424
Walser Brothers
906
Taylor, John T.
427
Walser, Daniel W.
940
Taylor, Orrin R.
838
Walter, Jacob
782
Taylor, Walter C.
1555
Walters, E. W.
1172
Taylor, William H. D.
1309
Walters, Raymond I.
1520
Teague, J. J.
1508
Wangenheim, Albert L
1351
Templeton, Charles, Jr.
824
Wanner, Rev. Joseph
592
Templeton & Co.
824
Warren, Amos E
408
Thomas, Burt 1452
Warren, Arthur R 1521
646
Thomas, William H.
1241
Watkins, Francis M.
1391
Thomas, W. O.
1468
Watson, Gordon W 423
Thompson, E. J. 1310
Weaber, Arthur
1238
Thompson, L. T.
734
Weaver, A. M. 1337
Thompson, Ralph H.
1275
Weaver. William H. 404
Thompson, W. N.
1030
Weedall, Albert
1358
Thomson, David E
1281
Weferling, Ilerman A. 1334
Thorand, Anton
610
Weichelt, Christian
823
Upton, William 713
Urie, George W.
1458
St. Lawrence Oil Co.
706
Stockton, Isaac D., M.D
1290
Stockton, Robert L.
287
Stone, James E. 233
Stroble, G. F.
1183
Star Soda Works
1339
Stark, Jesse
1295
Spencer, James A.
1544
Sproule, George C.
638
Sproule, William A.
1017
Stahl, John G.
943
Stapp, Mary E. M.
1433
Spears, H. H
1352
Smith, Mateo
966
Tomaier, Charles 1522
667
Tracy, Ferdinand A. Tracy, William
Sola, Jose 1221
Swofford, Alfred 1171
Sybrandt, Mrs. Emeretta C. 1247
Vrooman, Charles M.
Wagy, J. I. 827
Taylor, Albert M.
936
Walford, Herbert W.
Taylor, Charles S. 1457
Thomas, Marcus B.
1512
Wasson, John L.
xvi
INDEX
Weichelt, Gaudenz
1360
Williams, Percy A. 365
Weichelt, John
831
Williams, Samuel A.
552
Weit, Edward
1375
Williams, William A. 556
Weitzel, M. L.
1134
Willis, Frank T. 955
Wells, Hyman B.
1090
Willow, E. L. 387
Weringer, Joseph
913
Wilson, Mark 1394
West, Henry D.
947
Wilton, John
1514
West, Rev. James S.
714
Winney, E. E.
832
Whaley, J. H.
1038
Winser, Philip
1271
Whelan, Roger
939
Wirth, Christian A.
1490
Whitaker, Charles
1519
Wirth, Wilhelm A.
1384
Whitaker, E. H.
584
·Wiseman, Thomas B.
793
Whitaker, George E.
1267
Withington, Robert W.
1294
Whitaker, William F.
1055
Women's Improvement Club
688
White, C. LeRoy
1472
Woodson, Daniel B
15.36
White, James M.
1481
Woody, Elmer H.
485
White, Richard E.
1449
Woody, Stonewall A.
401
White, William G.
551
Worley, J. S.
1112
Whittier, Charles G.
599
Worthington, Frank M.
988
Whyte, J. M.
1507
Worthington, Lewis C.
1248
Wible, Simon W.
323
Wilhelm, W. S.
198
Wilhite, Richard T.
603
Wynn, Charles H.
1530
Wilkes, W. Perry
1354
Wilkins, George M.
1007
Y
Wilkinson, Nathaniel R
1502
Williams, E. S.
1492
Yancey, George A. 1179
Williams, Hibbard S.
1221
Yancey, Joseph E.
729
Williams, John R.
1287
Yarbrough, Ernest E. 824
Williams, Nicholas J.
935
Young. Thomas M.
493
Wright, Fred
445
Wright, Mrs. Walter
372
Wallace M. Morgan
HISTORICAL
INTRODUCTION
To read Kern County's history aright, to understand its motive forces, to get in harmony with the spirit of its people and to know why certain otherwise inexplicable events and conditions came to pass, it is necessary to keep in mind several things. First of all, there always has been some big thing doing in Kern County. It is a county of vast size, and its treasures of natural wealth are wonderful in their richness and tremendous in their variety, range and magnitude. Think of 200,000 acres of swamp land, worth from $50 to $100 per acre now and soon to be worth twice these amounts, selling within the memory of men now living for fifty cents to a dollar per acre and to be acquired from an easy-going state for even less than this. Think of the great expanse of desert lands almost as cheap and almost as valuable. Think of great oil wells flowing from ten thousand to twenty thousand barrels of oil per day and leagues on leagues of oil lands to be had for the going and taking. Think of such manifest richness as this and under- stand what dreams the pioneers indulged in, what cupidity and greed of gain were fostered, what clashes of strong, aggressive, resourceful men the scramble to possess these bounties of nature brought about.
Remember, then, that all these riches, lying about with such apparent abandon, were chained fast and locked tight with locks that golden keys alone could open. A penniless man could squat on a piece of government land, but it would cost several hundred or possibly several thousand dollars even to provide water for irrigating it and otherwise bring it to a point where the homesteader could make a living from it. A man with $30 or $40 could locate an oil claim, but it might cost from $10,000 to $50,000 to get enough oil to prove the land and secure a patent.
Add to these reflections an appreciation of the pioneer's character-the daring, the resource, the gift of prophecy that enables him to see in faith the things that may not be realized for generations to come, the lack of perspective that deceives him into reaching out his hand to grasp these things that are a century beyond his time; the genial hospitality, the never-failing sense of humor, and the buoyant optimism that covers every loss and every defeat with a hope and assurance of better success next time. Understand and remember all these things while I touch, first the high places, the epoch-making events, in the history of Kern county, and then recount the tale with greater circumstance.
The Story in Outline
Long before either the American or the Spanish occupation, the territory now comprised within the borders of Kern county was the home of many Indians of different tribes. They were not of a high order of intelligence, even for savages, and they left few traces save their rude weapons and utensils and their bones, lying in shallow graves or strewn whitening on the plain where some pestilence had descended upon a village and left none with strength or heart to bury the dead.
The early Spaniards established no missions in Kern county, but expe- ditions sent out by the padres in search of savage souls to save crossed the mountains and carried back with them numbers of the younger braves to the chapels, farms and workshops where they got some inkling of the forms of 1
18
HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY
religion, learned a little of how the white man works, came to know and practice some of the white man's vices, and found out that there were better things to eat than acorns and grass seed pounded in a mortar. So when the white man came, these young Indians, having returned to their tribes, knew how to work for him and how to steal from him and how to kill and eat his cattle.
When the inevitable clash between the whites and the red men came, Lieutenant Beale, placed in charge of Indian affairs in the state by the Washington authorities, gathered the tribes at El Tejon under a patriarchal form of government patterned in part after the methods of the mission fathers and in part after the customs and practices of the United States army.
The first white men who sojourned in the county were hunters, trappers, small stockmen and farmers who lingered beside the old immigrant trail and raised a crop of corn on the rich Kern delta or sought out the fat mountain meadows for their herds. But the fame of what is now Kern county did not spread abroad until the eager, restless swarms of gold hunters had worked their way down the Sierras from the north and found the first shining, yellow lumps that the Kern river placers yielded up. This was in 1851. The great rush to Kern river was in 1853-4. In the latter year Richard Keys discovered the Keys mine, and Keysville became one of the foremost goals of the fortune hunters. In 1860 Lovely Rogers chipped a chunk of ore from the Big Blue ledge and started the stampede that developed the roaring mining camp of Whisky Flat where the pleasant town of Kernville now stands.
Havilah's wealth was uncovered in July, 1864, and within ten or a dozen years thereabout-before and after-Long Tom, Greenhorn, Sageland, Piute, Claraville, Tehachapi, White river, Woody and a score of lesser names became familiar in the lexicon of the gold miners, and every gulch and cañon from White river to Tejon had been searched out by burros and bearded men with picks and pans and packs of beans and bacon. Since those years mining in Kern county has seen its ups and downs, but always it has been going on, and always there has been the lure of possible sudden wealth down to the day when F. M. Mooers woke from a deep and heavy slumber in a desert gulch to see a myriad of tiny yellow eyes winking down at him, ( as he lay there drowsily on his back) from the ledge that afterward made him a millionaire and made millionaires, also, of his partners, Burchard and Sin- gleton of the world-famous Yellow Aster. Then came the tungsten mines, the silver mines of Amalie, the copper ledges barely touched, and all the other later mines of the mountains and the desert.
Even before 1857 far-sighted men had seen that the great, enduring wealth of Kern county lay in its magnificent agricultural and horticultural possibilities, and in that year the legislature passed an act providing for the reclamation of all the swamp and overflowed land within the county's present borders and extending north beyond Tulare lake, half a million acres, or so, all told. W. F. Montgomery, Joseph Montgomery, A. J. Downes and F. W. Sampson were given the franchise to reclaim all this land, but their rights were acquired by Col. Thomas Baker, founder of Bakersfield, and Harvey S. Brown. Baker was the active member of the partnership, and inaugurated the reclama- tion and irrigation enterprises that later engaged the efforts of some of the largest and most powerful corporations in the west and brought on a legal battle over water rights that focused the attention of the entire state.
Floods and droughts combined to help Colonel Baker in his tremendous task of reclamation, and he got patent to 89,120 acres of the choicest land
19
HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY
in the state. Later the patent was annulled by the district court, and new patents were issued to others who had bought lands from Baker and passed through the forms, at least, of reclaiming them. Livermore and Chester succeeded Colonel Baker as the dominant factor in the county's development. taking over his projects and enterprises as the fact developed that Baker had not the financial resources with which to carry out his plans. By the same inexorable law of the survival of the financially best fitted. Livermore & Chester gave way to Redington & Livermore, and Redington & Livermore retreated before the superior financial strength of Haggin & Carr.
Then came the battle royal between Haggin & Carr (really Haggin, Tevis & Carr) and Miller & Lux; a contest that involved a supreme court decision on the subject of riparian rights, called two great state conventions of irrigators and water appropriators, occasioned a special session of the legislature, and finally ended in an historic compromise that left the honors even between the two giants and paralyzed for unknown years the efforts to give the state laws that would fix and determine the ownership and control of irrigating waters for all time to come.
Running through the story of the contest over the disposition of the waters of Kern river is the story of the acquisition of the desert lands included in the county, and the acquisition by the same parties of many thousands of acres of railroad and other land, all of which were included in the present magnificent holdings of the Kern County Land Company. The water contests settled, there was launched the great plan of colonization of the Haggin lands, a project the path of which was strewn with wrecked hopes and general failure. not on account of the land, not on account of the water, not on account of the colonists or the colonizers, but because of a thousand incidental errors and difficulties, and most of all because all the necessary ingredients of success, abundantly present, got improperly mixed. With an expensive lesson to reflect on and with complaints and accusations sounding everywhere in their ears, Haggin and his associates retired from the colonization job as far as they could get, and made an immense grain, alfalfa and stock farm out of the principality that some day (together with the other principality that is held in similar fashion by Miller & Lux) will furnish homes for tens of thousands of people and make Kern county an agricultural empire, the superior of which has never flourished.
Then came the development of the great Kern county oil fields. Pros- pected in a tentative, ineffectual manner since the days of the Civil war, the real exploration and exploitation of the oil fields did not begin until after the country at large had recovered from the financial panic of 1893 and had looked about with new courage and eagerness for new outlets for its returning energy and vigor. Development began in other fields of the state, but soon spread to the west side of Kern county, where the oldest drillings in the San Joaquin valley had been made. Then, in 1899 the Elwoods dug the little shaft that uncovered the great oil measures of the Kern river field, and started the first great oil excitement in the history of the west. The only rival of the rush to the Kern river field in 1899-1900 was the rush to the west side fields in 1910. The development of the Kern river field made Kern county the center of the oil industry of the Pacific coast : the development of the west side fields, spreading now over a territory seventy-five miles in length and containing some of the greatest gushers that the world ever saw, furnishes au ample guarantee that no other section ever will wrest the honor from her.
These are the high points. the landmarks in the history of Kern county.
20
HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY
Woven all through the story are the incidents of county and community life, the development of towns, of society and of homes, the building up of enterprises, the making of individual fortunes-the things that are common to all histories. But in the large the history of Kern county so far has been the story of the staking out of the land, the marking of nature's treasure houses for future exploration. In no sense and in no particular is the county developed. The rough plans have been drawn, prospect holes have been sunk, the oil measures have been tapped here and there, experiments of a thousand kinds have been made, but so far as development and use are con- cerned, as these terms are understood in older countries, Kern county is a virgin field. Perhaps there will be less romance in the county's history in the future, but there will be more profit and less labor and hardship for the men who take up the work at the present point and carry this fair empire forward to the glorious future that awaits it.
CHAPTER I
A Description of Kern County
One of the several differences between history and romance is that whereas romance may be the more entertaining by reason of a pleasurable suspense and anxiety concerning the final fate of the hero, history is best read with a full knowledge of the ultimate issue of the events recorded. Believing that all the pages that come hereafter will thereby be fuller of meaning and that all the incidents in the narrative they contain will range themselves in a truer perspective, I am giving in this initial chapter of the history of Kern county as clear and comprehensive a picture as I may of what the county is today and of what the people of the county are looking forward to in the development of the next few years.
A map of the county shows at a glance its general geographical form and character, an area of 5,184,000 acres, in form a rectangular parallelo- gram with the southwest corner hacked off by a jagged line which con- forms roughly to the crest of the Coast range mountains that separate Kern from its neighbor, San Luis Obispo, on the west. The north line of the county, one hundred and thirty-six miles in length, stretches due east and west nearly half the distance across the state and forms the southern boun- daries of Kings and Tulare counties and a little more than twenty miles of the southern boundary of Inyo county. This same line projected to the east constitutes the boundary between Inyo and San Bernardino counties, and to the west constitutes the boundary between San Luis Obispo and Mon- terey. It is practically identical with the sixth standard parallel line south, and moreover it forms the only straight line of political subdivision across the map of California. For the latter reason this line marks the place where the advocates of separate statehood for Southern California would draw the knife were they given permission to carve the Golden State in twain-an event of which the small prospects of realization are not likely to be increased by the sentiment of the present population of Kern county.
The south line of Kern county, lying sixty-six miles south of and parallel to the north line, is one hundred and two miles in length, and forms the northern boundaries of Ventura and Los Angeles counties. The county's east line cuts north and south through dry salt lakes, dead, forgotten ranges
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